Status Meeting Agenda WyoLink Contact Number: 307 777 WLNK (9565) Date: August 25, 2014 Time: 10:00 A.M. To 10:35 A.M. Location: WYDOT, 5300 Bishop Blvd, Cheyenne, Planning Building, Geology Conference Room, first floor (south end) Conference Phone: 877 278 8686 PIN: 085726 Attendees Bill Walter, PSCC Bob Symons, PSCC Captain Troy McLees, WHP by phone Dave Reigert, Motorola Heidi Vosler, Collins Communications by phone Jenifer Shassetz, Sheridan PD by phone Jose Crespo, Motorola by phone Marty McCoy, WyoLink Neil Clatworthy, Motorola by phone Paul Newman, Motorola by phone Rick Clark, WYDOT USFS Liaison by phone Steve Langworthy, Motorola by phone 1. Tip of the Month WyoLink Notifications: August 25, 2014. WyoLink and the Public Safety Communications Commission (PSCC) have created two notification methods for announcements and WyoLink outages. The WyoLink and PSCC have an email list serve which is used to notify interested parties about scheduled meetings and general information, including the Tip of the Month. In an effort to keep the WyoLink users informed about any WyoLink outages or service problems, the users may sign up for email and text notifications through Gov Delivery. WyoLink sends out notifications every time there is a service disruption or planned maintenance activities. When signing up for the Gov Delivery, the user needs to select the type of notification (email or text or both) and the area which the notifications are issued (by county or statewide). Users or interested parties may sign up for the notifications by accessing the WyoLink Web Page for email notifications at http://wyolink.state.wy.us/mailinglist/index.aspx Both of the notification sign ups are listed on this page. 2. WyoLink Update August 25, 2014 WyoLink has completed the update of our software from version 7.11 to 7.14. Updates of dispatch center consoles have started and will proceed through September and October. If you have any questions regarding when your console will be upgraded, please contact your console service provider. Training for the WyoLink Support Office has been scheduled. 3. Core Site Status Page 1 of 6 WyoLink Status Meeting Agenda Monday, August 25, 2014 42
a. Black Mountain (BTNF): August 25, 2014: The site sharing agreement for Black Mountain has been signed by both WYDOT and Teton Communications. Teton Communications has begun construction of their site and the WyoLink equipment has been ordered. WYDOT Telecommunications is still working on moving existing frequencies to this site. There is adequate funding to construct Black Mountain in the FY 2014 budget at this time. b. Hoback Area (BTNF): August 25, 2014: No Change. This section has been renamed to Hoback Area to more accurately reflect the location of the sites that will be used to provide coverage in this area. Due to the extreme cost of constructing at site at Pow Wow (~$5.5M) and the extreme cost of maintaining a site in a roadless area (by helicopter), the PSCC has directed Marty to look at alternative sites. One of these is Black Mountain and the other may be Monument Ridge. c. Monument Ridge (BTNF): August 25, 2014: No Change. Marty has prepared a description of WyoLink s proposed site at Monument Ridge and forwarded it to the District Ranger for Big Piney and Michael Schrotz. Marty will ask the Forest Service to issue appropriate notices to entities who may want to share our sites when the time is appropriate so these sites can be permitted with these possible users in mind. Marty met with Big Piney District Ranger Rob Hoelscher in Pinedale June 26 th to discuss Monument Ridge. Marty anticipates it is unlikely construction will be approved at Monument Ridge before 2016. At this time, funds are not available to construct a site at Monument Ridge. d. Salt Pass (BTNF): August 25, 2014: This site is operational. The reclamation of the old site is expected to be complete in 2015. Marty and Michael Schrotz have discussed the reclamation of the old Salt Pass site, and Michael will let Marty know what the BTNF would like to see. Rick Clark has discussed the existing sites and their reclamation with the Forest Service. He will let Marty know what comes of these discussions. e. Signal Mountain (GTNP): August 25, 2014: Marty is working with Union Wireless on finalizing the site sharing agreement and lease. We are very close to finalizing this. Marty is working on rates for leasing connectivity from Signal Mountain to the WyoLink system. The equipment (with the exception of the combiner) is on order. There is adequate funding to construct Signal Mountain in the FY2014 budget at this time. 4. Portable Coverage Enhancement Site Status a. Pinedale: August 25, 2014: Sheriff Lankford has received approval for the site modifications at White Pine from the Forest Service. All equipment for this site including the combiner is on order. Larry Sheridan has moved the PCE frequencies that were licensed in the town of Pinedale to the White Pine site. The tower has been constructed and Sublette County has begun construction of their building. 5. Local Site Status: a. Alcova Reservoir: August 19, 2014: No Change. Natrona County is constructing an 800 MHz site at Alcova Reservoir. The equipment has been delivered. Page 2 of 6 WyoLink Status Meeting Agenda Monday, August 25, 2014 42
The application to connect this site to WyoLink was approved by the PSCC during their meeting March 20 th. Bill Walter, chairman of the PSCC Spectrum Committee indicates the letters of concurrence have been completed. The application for the frequencies has been submitted to the FCC. Construction will begin soon, perhaps mid to late September. b. Glenrock: August 25, 2014: Converse County is considering building a Portable Coverage Enhancement site in Glenrock. They have completed the application to connect to WyoLink, and this will be considered at the September PSCC meeting. They are finalizing the location of this site and the microwave link to connect to WyoLink. MW to connect at MoHi. 6. Low Speed Data: August 25, 2014: No Change. WyoLink continues to work with WHP and other agencies interested in utilizing Low Speed P25 Data to address their concerns and ensure that their operations do not adversely affect WyoLink. WyoLink is ready and willing to participate in further tests and troubleshooting as necessary as WHP works with Net Motion. WYDOT Maintenance is looking at an application that will aid in quick reporting of road conditions, with an expected operational date of winter 2014. With the Genesis update and WyoLink update, detailed data reporting should be possible. 7. Console Connectivity: August 25, 2014: No Change. Marty and Mike Kurz (WYDOT Telephone section) have decided that the leased T1 circuits to the consoles in Lander and Riverton would be the next candidates for replacement with lower cost ME links. Mike and Marty are working on converting the leased T1 circuits to Sheridan to Metro Ethernet.. Lincoln County s talkgroup plan has been completed. Lincoln County will now read their radios in preparation for programming. Codeplugs will come in phases to stagger codeplug requests. Fremont County is exploring options to replace the leased circuits to their consoles with a lower cost alternative. 8. Adjacent State Connectivity: August 25, 2014: Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota and Utah are all in varying stages of system update and compatibility and are contemplating connectivity with Wyoming among other states. CSSI compliance and conformance testing is in the works at TIA, according to Bob. South Dakota is considering adding WyoLink talkgroups to their radios. Idaho is moving their development towards the border, and is happy to hear we may be sharing a site at Black Mountain as this would help Idaho Wyoming communications. Montana is still looking for more funding to complete their 7.13 system, and their Legislature has reportedly agreed to assist with this. Adams and Weld Counties have broken away from Colorado s statewide system, and they will have ISSI in their new master site. Colorado will use ISSI to connect their radio system to FRCC (Weld and Adams Counties) and Denver s Harris system. Bob Symons will attend interoperability meetings in Salt Lake City the week of August 25 th. After these meetings, he will have more updates on the status of adjacent states. 9. Risk Management: These are WyoLink issues posing significant risk to the system and a description of the risk. a. Hoback Area Communications: Medium Risk. August 25, 2014. Given the extreme high cost for constructing and maintaining a site at Pow Wow, Page 3 of 6 WyoLink Status Meeting Agenda Monday, August 25, 2014 42
The PSCC recommended that Marty move forward with a more detailed proposal for using Black Mountain, ID, Monument Ridge, WY and one other site to provide approximately the same coverage. A site sharing agreement for Teton Communications new site at Black Mountain has been signed and this site is moving forward. Funding to construct a site at Black Mountain is in the FY2014 budget at this time. Funding to construct a second site (Monument Ridge) providing coverage in the Hoback area is lacking at this time. b. Local Activity Affecting WyoLink Performance: Medium Risk. August 25, 2014. Bob and Marty will have discussions with local agencies to see what can be done to reduce the impact to WyoLink from their local operations. The WyoLink Office tracks usage on the system (including busies) to keep aware of possible issues on WyoLink both now and in the future, and is observing heavy loading on one site in south east Wyoming 85 South. WYDOT has secured funding for the addition of two channels to 85 South. The contract for the expansion of 85 South is at the Attorney General s Office for approval as to form. 10. Coverage: August 25, 2014: Testing results are being uploaded to WYDOT s GIS program and the coverage map is showing these results as they are uploaded. To date, about 65% of the coverage testing results have been uploaded to WYDOT s GIS program. This map displays coverage testing results from a mobile radio standpoint. WyoLink will make a concentrated effort to have all testing results uploaded to the map by the end of the year. 11. Busies on WyoLink: August 25, 2014: There are still a high number of busy indications on 85 South. WYDOT has secured funding for the addition of two channels to this site. The license has arrived for the two pair that will be used for this expansion. The contract for the expansion of 85 South is at the Attorney General s Office for approval as to form. The Operations Workgroup will tackle the issue of setting an acceptable busy rate standard for WyoLink. 12. Dragging Traffic: August 25, 2014: No Change. The WyoLink Support Office is not aggressively tracking instances of dragging traffic unless it results in busy indications, but does research occurrences when time permits and they are noticed. WyoLink users are encouraged to move off their normal dispatch talkgroup when traveling outside their home area to avoid dragging their dispatch traffic to a remote portion of the state unnecessarily. This can cause unnecessary loading on towers removed from their local area and create busy indications both in these remote areas and in their home area. There have been no notable instances of dragging dispatch traffic in the last month. 13. Codeplug Schedule: August 28, 2014: The WyoLink Office has completed 2636 codeplugs to date in 2014, with an average wait time of 9 days. The predicted wait for codeplugs that are newly submitted is two weeks. The WYDOT Cheyenne Radio Shop specifically Scott Prettyman lent the WyoLink Support office a great deal of assistance in processing the WHP codeplug update. We have been working to get codeplugs completed for all agencies so they are not adversely affected by the large number of codeplugs on the schedule. We are working diligently to process codeplugs and return them to each agency so they may insert them and begin to use their radios. If any agency has questions about their codeplugs, please call the WyoLink Support Office and we will be happy to help. Page 4 of 6 WyoLink Status Meeting Agenda Monday, August 25, 2014 42
14. WyoLink Usage: August 19, 2014: Currently there are 17,667 radios able to use WyoLink. There are 297 agencies approved to use WyoLink with 112 State and Federal agencies and agencies in 19 Counties having moved their operations to WyoLink. WyoLink usage through August 31st in 2014 is 14,053,847 calls, with a busy rate (by time) of 0.014%. In 2014 WyoLink has been available over 99.9% of the time. The chart and data usually showing the top 20 talkgroups on WyoLink by air time is not attached, as it is incomplete for and August due to the WyoLink update. 15. PSCC Meeting: August 25, 2014: The next PSCC meeting will be September 9 th at 1:00 P.M.at the Laramie Police Department in Laramie. If you know of anyone who would like to receive notices for PSCC meetings, please contact Bob Symons (307 777 5065 or bob.symons@wyo.gov ) or Marty McCoy (307 777 4756 or martin.mccoy@wyo.gov ) and we will add you to the distribution list for these notices. 16. WyoLink User Training: August 25, 2014: No Change. The new training program is an agency specific program and is more user oriented, concentrating on what is in the user s radio. It is a Train the Trainer program. There are two customized handouts. One is the user s talkgroup plan and the second is a picture of the user s radio with descriptions regarding the function of the buttons and knobs on the radio. Bob Symons conducted classes for local agencies across Wyoming, and is considering additional training on the use of CAT and MAT talkgroups. If anyone would like to have additional training, please contact Bob Symons. Bob is considering developing a dispatch training program. 17. Next Meeting: Monday, September 29th, 2014 at 10:00 at WYDOT, 5300 Bishop Blvd, Cheyenne, Planning Building, Geology Conference Room, first floor (south end). Page 5 of 6 WyoLink Status Meeting Agenda Monday, August 25, 2014 42
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