CoMIRS - Western Mass

[npdexplorer911]

I understand that the CoMIRS system will be a phase 2 system but are they currently operating as a Phase 1 system in Western Mass. Someone said they are still a phase 1 on the CoMIRS radios, is there a way to confirm what phase on my scanners (sds100 & 536)?

Thank you
Greg

Also does anyone here hold this license, First or Second Class Radiotelephone Operator's License? Any recommendations on a school or business that can help me obtain this license?

[garys]

If the system is operating in Phase 2, you will see P25 in the displays and then either P0 or P1 for which slot is being used. You won't see any slot information on a Phase 1 system. P25 will be displayed where ever you have "Digital Status" located, and the slot number will be displayed wherever you have "TDMA Slot" located. In my scanners those are both right under Date and Time in the upper right hand corner, but there are several locations where those might be as it's user programmable.

If you don't have "Digital Status" and/or "TDMA Slot" set up to display you won't see the information that they contain.

Western MA is likely to be the last part of the state to be upgraded to Phase 2 as the rest of the state is still on the old analog system which is no longer supported by Motorola and is becoming a bit harder to keep operational.

[npdexplorer911]

Thank you!

[garys]

You're welcome.

Thank you!

[n1zyy]

I understand that the CoMIRS system will be a phase 2 system but are they currently operating as a Phase 1 system in Western Mass. Someone said they are still a phase 1 on the CoMIRS radios, is there a way to confirm what phase on my scanners (sds100 & 536)?

I can't hope to be as detailed as Gary, but one thing I'd add: a "Phase 2" system can carry a mix of Phase 1 and Phase 2 talkgroups. The Worcester system is an example of this: https://www.snewiki.com/wiki/index.php/ ... r_Regional

So it's entirely possible that you'll start to see the occasional TDMA/Phase II talkgroup pop up while other talkgroups aren't.

[garys]

I've seen that on the 700 Mhz Overlay system in greater Boston.

I don't know if the P25 system used in western MA is at all capable of Phase 2 currently. It's not all that old, but I don't know if it's capable of being upgraded or will require all new hardware.

I can't hope to be as detailed as Gary, but one thing I'd add: a "Phase 2" system can carry a mix of Phase 1 and Phase 2 talkgroups. The Worcester system is an example of this: https://www.snewiki.com/wiki/index.php/ ... r_Regional

So it's entirely possible that you'll start to see the occasional TDMA/Phase II talkgroup pop up while other talkgroups aren't.

[ScanBoston]

Western MA is currently FDMA only just Phase 1. The 700 Overlay, Massport, Cambridge and Worcester are new enough that they adjust by the radios affiliated. If a talkgroup is all Phase 2 type radios the talkgroup will go Phase 2. If a Phase 1 radio joins it will revert back to phase 1. However as mentioned before this is not an upgrade that is coming. It is a complete replacement. Everything we know now is going away and being completely replaced by a new system with a new system ID etc. Only the frequencies and most of the sites will be reused in some fashion but that is it. It's all being replaced by new stuff. So like the City of Boston system it can be told to ignore phase 1 affiliations.

[npdexplorer911]

Thanks again for all the great info. I dont travel too much into Worcester or Boston and I like I said I have the sds100 and 536 scanners. Would it be foolish to purchase a xts series radio for receiving just MSP traffic? I want to learn more about radios and programming them eventually too.

[ScanBoston]

XTS's are too old to do phase 2

[npdexplorer911]

But they would work until they upgrade troop Bs radio?

[Lynskey 85]

Western MA is currently FDMA only just Phase 1. The 700 Overlay, Massport, Cambridge and Worcester are new enough that they adjust by the radios affiliated. If a talkgroup is all Phase 2 type radios the talkgroup will go Phase 2. If a Phase 1 radio joins it will revert back to phase 1. However as mentioned before this is not an upgrade that is coming. It is a complete replacement. Everything we know now is going away and being completely replaced by a new system with a new system ID etc. Only the frequencies and most of the sites will be reused in some fashion but that is it. It's all being replaced by new stuff. So like the City of Boston system it can be told to ignore phase 1 affiliations.

I believe however there are talkgroups (on Worcester) that are Phase 2 only. Particularly those that are encrypted.

[npdexplorer911]

I rarely listen to Worcester and even when I drive past on the pike to NH/ME I hardly ever turn those talkgroups on. Although I have not tried to see if I can pick them up this far out west.

[n1zyy]

Thanks again for all the great info. I dont travel too much into Worcester or Boston and I like I said I have the sds100 and 536 scanners. Would it be foolish to purchase a xts series radio for receiving just MSP traffic? I want to learn more about radios and programming them eventually too.

The XTS series are great radios, but they make very bad trunking scanners.

I have some programmed receive-only for conventional frequencies and they're terrific. But the problem is that a Motorola trunking radio (and most other brands are the same way) is fundamentally different, and will transmit on the system by design. They're designed to affiliate with the system at power-on or when you change talkgroups, and there's simply not a way to disable this behavior. (Even stuff like using the "Transmit Inhibit" behavior has been shown to not stop affiliation.) Plus, the XTS2500/XTS5000 are limited to 10 talkgroups in a scan list.

There exists a clunky workaround to avoid affiliation (more detailed discussion of which is most certainly forbidden here), but it is, as I said, a clunky workaround, and if not done precisely right, the radio will transmit on public safety frequencies without your knowledge. It's really not worth the effort, much less the risk to public safety. I'm kind of a Motorola snob and this is one of the only things I have a scanner for.

That said, for non-trunking stuff, they are superb radios, and with agencies moving to the APX series, XTSs are coming down into the $100 price range. I have some in VHF and UHF and love them.

[W1KNE]

This has been a great discussion so far. Just a word of warning, there will be no further discussion on how radios that can transmit are programmed to listen to this. N1ZYY's post is about the extent that I want to see in this thread, so if we could just veer back to the previous discussion it would be much appreciated.
Thanks.

[Citywide 173]

Thanks again for all the great info. I dont travel too much into Worcester or Boston and I like I said I have the sds100 and 536 scanners. Would it be foolish to purchase a xts series radio for receiving just MSP traffic? I want to learn more about radios and programming them eventually too.

Although a little more expensive, if you're looking for a dedicated unit for CoMIRS, I'd recommend the Unication G4. Much smaller, professional grade and superb receive on the system. The XTS series radios that are currently available are pretty much end of life and won't give you long term return on investment where trunked systems are concerned.

[Scott]

Another viable option for a dedicated setup, although a little more involved is the P25RX II from this website:

https://bluetailtechnologies.com/

And yet another, if you want to dedicate a PC to it, is OP25 software, which is absolutely superb, but definitely has a learning curve in both setup and operation. There are two flavors of OP25, Boatbod and Osmocom. I've posted some Osmocom photos here in other threads. It is my understanding that Boatbod has far more active development but it is not as "pretty" as Osomcom is. There was rumor that someone was considering writing a prettier front end for Boatbod.

[W1KNE]

I've heard a lot of good things about the BTT stuff. The biggest comment I've heard is the near subscriber quality audio. It is on my list to try at some point.