[Dispatch] FW: **URGENT NOTICE** GATRRS Radio System Critical Maintenance, Tonight

[Brooks, William]

Pushed send to soon the first time.

This outage starting tonight at midnight and running into the early morning will have a negative effect on fire communications on the east side of town and the county. Read the information below carefully.

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Captain William B. Brooks
Austin Fire Department - 911/Communications

From: Brotherton, Charles
Sent: Wednesday, July 17, 2013 7:43 AM
To: Brotherton, Charles
Cc: Wilks, Gary; Allen, Gary; Pena, Mike; Farries, David; Schmidt, Dustin; Langley, Joe; Jim.Sullivan at motorolasolutions.com; 'Vitone Joe-EJV001'; 'ELDRED BARBARA-CGNG20 (B.Eldred at motorolasolutions.com)'; 'Beckerson, Carl'; 'Cleveland, Matt'; Boyds, Mark; Cassard, Clay
Subject: **URGENT NOTICE** GATRRS Radio System Critical Maintenance, Tonight
Importance: High

URGENT NOTICE OF SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE, GREATER AUSTIN-TRAVIS COUNTY REGIONAL RADIO SYSTEM (GATRRS).

THURSDAY, JULY 18TH , 2013, 12:01 A.M. TO 4:00 A.M. (Tonight - Wednesday night - into Thursday morning).

MUX TROUBLESHOOTING, DECKER PRIME SITE (AUSTIN-TRAVIS COUNTY).

THIS MAINTENANCE WILL TAKE THE DECKER TOWER OFF-LINE AND PUT EAST-SIDE AUSTIN-TRAVIS TOWERS INTO SITE TRUNKING. AUSTIN FIRE EAST ALERT REPEATER WILL BE OFF-LINE FOR THE DURATION.

WHAT'S HAPPENING THIS COMING WEDNESDAY (TOMORROW) NIGHT INTO THURSDAY MORNING:

1.       Critical maintenance must be performed as soon as possible at the Decker prime site in Austin-Travis County. A MUX timing-and-control problem was discovered yesterday. While it has not risen to the level of "emergency," the criticality of the problem requires we take the first, least-disruptive opportunity to perform this work.

2.       Troubleshooting at the Decker prime site will take that tower off-line (site will go dark) and create site-trunking events on Collier, Lost Pines, and Holman tower sites.

3.       Austin Fire's East Alert base station will be off-line during this maintenance. Station alerting to east-side Travis County ESD's will be down.

4.       The back up link to Bastrop will be down during this maintenance. (Bastrop's primary link will remain up.)

5.       Austin Energy's Backup Center (AE BUC) will remain active on redundant links.

HOW WILL YOUR RADIO / CONSOLE / CONSOLETTE / CONTROL STATION BE AFFECTED?

1.       Outage at Decker will reduce GATRRS coverage in eastern Travis County for ALL GATRRS customers in Austin/Travis.

2.       Site trunking at the Collier tower (located at TCSO East Command) may isolate radios on that tower, causing them to lose touch with dispatch during the maintenance.

3.       Site trunking at Lost Pines and Holman (in Bastrop and Fayette Counties, primarily serving Austin Energy) may isolate radios on those towers, causing them to lose touch with dispatch.

4.       AFD East Alert repeater will be down; station alerting to ESD's from the East Alert repeater will not function.

5.       The backup link for the Bastrop County radio system into the GATRRS master site will be down. The primary link will remain up. The Bastrop system should continue operating normally.

ALL GATRRS DISPATCH CENTERS IN THE CAPCOG REGION SHOULD BE PREPARED TO USE BACKUP RADIOS DURING THIS MAINTENANCE PERIOD.

WHO IS AFFECTED?

1.       All GATRRS customers in the CAPCOG region, particularly those in eastern Travis County, may be affected by the site-trunking and site-off events.

2.       GATRRS aircraft, especially STAR Flight, may be affected by the site-trunking events.

3.       Austin Fire's East Alert repeater will be off-line during this maintenance. AFD station alerting from the East Alert repeater will be down.

WHAT IS REQUIRED OF YOU?

1.       AFD must use alternate means to contact East Alert stations during this maintenance.

2.       All customers should be prepared to use mobile date computers, cell phones, and pagers to stay in touch with dispatch and units in the field.

3.       Radios that become isolated (stuck) on a tower in site-trunking may be power-cycled to force them to seek the wide-area radio network.

PRIOR TO THE START OF THIS MAINTENANCE:
Austin/Travis, Bastrop, Caldwell-Lockhart, and Williamson County dispatch operators (if available) will be contacted to determine if there is a reason to postpone or suspend the scheduled maintenance. EXAMPLES of justification for calling off scheduled maintenance include: Major serious weather moving into the affected area; a multi-alarm fire in progress; a law enforcement agency vehicle pursuit in progress. If the scheduled maintenance procedure is called off, all affected dispatch centers (if available) will be notified of the cancellation.

CONTACTS:

*         City of Austin Wireless Communication Services Division Master Site Engineer: Mike Pena, cell (512) 698-6575, desk (512) 974-0976, e-mail mike.pena at austintexas.gov<mailto:mike.pena at austintexas.gov>.

*         City of Austin Wireless Main # (512) 927-3200, answered 24/7/365.

If you have questions about the planned maintenance or problems during the maintenance, please use either of the contacts listed above. If you need further assistance, please contact Gary Wilks or Chuck Brotherton at the telephone numbers below, or by email.


*         Gary Wilks, desk (512) 927-3229, cell (512) 848-4421, pager (512) 802-9330, email gary.wilks at austintexas.gov<mailto:gary.wilks at austintexas.gov>.

*         Chuck Brotherton, desk (512) 927-3209, cell (512) 636-6825, pager (512) 802-9328, email charles.brotherton at austintexas.gov<mailto:charles.brotherton at austintexas.gov>.

Thank you.

Chuck Brotherton
Manager, Wireless Communication Services Division
Communications and Technology Management
City of Austin
1006 Smith Road
Austin, TX 78721
phone: (512) 927-3209
cell: (512) 636-6825
pager: (512) 802-9328
charles.brotherton at austintexas.gov<mailto:charles.brotherton at austintexas.gov>

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