[TCARES 0722] Update for Those With Scanners

[Nathan Tilley]

Fellow area hams,

I wanted to pass along an update regarding public safety communications in Tippecanoe County for those who might be interested. For a few weeks, Motorola has been testing a new, P25 Phase 1 system for deployment in Tippecanoe County. This system has been long discussed and rumored, but I am here to tell you that it is happening!

Starting today, various agencies will be switching over on a timeline that you can see below. By this time next week, all public safety agencies will be using the new system. Nearly all of the current traffic on the trunked system will move over as well, except for a few of the Purdue public works talk groups. A few groups (all school buses, Lafayette Street Department, Purdue Parking) have already switched and are using the new system full time.

If you have a scanner, you will need to update your programming to hear the new system. There is currently limited information on Radio Reference, and Pat (W3AXL) and myself are working diligently to identify new talk groups as they are being used and update RR. We will be updating on a daily basis as we get new information. 

If you monitor the systems using the online Broadcastify streams provided by Stephen (WR9A) and myself, know that there may be some lapses in coverage during the transition. Currently, Stephen’s streams (Tippecanoe County Law Enforcement & Tippecanoe County Fire, EMS and Emergency Management) will continue to broadcast the old system but will be going down this weekend. My stream (Tippecanoe County Public Safety) is now broadcasting the new system full time, and over the weekend while Stephen’s streams are down, will be scanning both the new and the old systems.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me and I will give you as much assistance as I can. 

Here is a time line for the switch, provided by official sources at Purdue and at the county level:
12/1: Purdue Public Safety switches over
12/2: West Lafayette Public Safety switches over
First half of week of 12/4: Lafayette Public Safety and Tippecanoe County agencies switch over


73,
Nathan Tilley
N9NWT