Arkansas Wireless Information Network

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	All AWIN subscribers (radio users) can request technical assistance or report difficulties around the clock. Technicians will be on call in the event of any emergency. Call (501) 682-HELP or toll-free (800) 435-7989 or e-mail awin.support@arkansas.gov

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Alert Archive

	05/15/2007	Gaither site recovered The Gaither site is back in operation. Motorola reports that the site was struck by lightning, tripping circuit breakers and burning the power supply. Technicians replaced the power supply and are checking the site for further damage. Gaither site down AWIN System Support has identified a problem with the site at Gaither. The site is currently in “Failsoft” mode, meaning transmissions may be sent or received only in the immediate area of the site. A support technician is en route to the site to determine the problem and identify a solution. Users in the area are asked to prepare an alternative means of communication. The counties affected by the site issues are Boone, Carroll, and Newton Counties.

	05/08/2007	Areas G, H, L and I cutovers Towers and dispatch centers in Areas G, H, L and I are scheduled to be transferred to the new North Controller Tuesday, May 8th. The site transfers should last about 20 minutes per site. Users should use backup radios during the cutover period, and be aware that these areas will be isolated from surrounding areas until they have been moved to the North Controller as well. An AWIN representative will contact the dispatch centers before sites are transferred. If you have an emergency situation and need to stop the cutover process, please call 501.683.5878. Please watch your email for additional information about cutovers in your area. Counties affected include Hempsted, Sebastian, Miller, Little River, Columbia, Nevada, Scott, Logan Crawford, Franklin, Washington, Boone, Madison, Benton, Newton, Marion, Baxter, Searcy Fulton, Izard, Stone, Carroll, Howard, Sevier and Lafayette. Areas A, J, and K cutovers Towers and dispatch centers in Areas A, J, and K are scheduled to be transferred to the new North Controller beginning at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, May 8th. The site transfers should last about 20 minutes per site. Users should use backup radios during the cutover period, and be aware that these areas will be isolated from surrounding areas until they have been moved to the North Controller as well. An AWIN representative will contact the dispatch centers before sites are transferred. If you have an emergency situation and need to stop the cutover process, please call 501.683.5878. Please watch your email for additional information about cutovers in your area. Counties affected include Johnson, Garland, Pulaski, Lonoke, Faulkner, Perry, Pope, Van Buren, Yell, Grant, Saline, Polk, Clark, Montgomery, Hot Spring, and Pike Counties.

	05/07/2007	System expansion The transfer of sites to allow for an upgrade of SmartZone Controllers will begin at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, May 7th. All tower sites across the state will move from the initial controller to the new North Controller with the site transfers taking approximately 20 minutes per site. Technicians will move sites according to ASP Troop designation. Agencies within successfully transferred areas may be isolated from surrounding areas for a period of time, and users will need to use backup radios during the cutover period for their area. Additional alerts will be sent prior to cutovers, and an AWIN representative will contact dispatch centers before sites are transferred. Please watch your email for additional information about cutovers in your area.

	04/13/2007	Site Down - Batesville, Area B, C, and D AWIN System Support has identified a problem with the Site at Batesville. The site went into “Not Wide Trunking” – no transmissions could be sent or received outside of the immediate area of the site. Further analysis shows that there are no transmissions at the site at all. Shortly after this message was received, our monitoring tools lost connectivity with the site. The cause is unknown at this time. A technician has been dispatched to the site to determine and repair the problem.

	03/19/2007	Planned outage in Troop A Technicians will take down the Roosevelt site in Troop A for a power reconnection around 8:00 p.m. Monday night. The downtime should be no longer than 30 minutes.

	03/09/2007	Daylight savings time The AWIN System Management team will be on hand closely monitoring the system Sunday morning as the change in daylight savings time takes affect. Further, Motorola technicians will be on stand-by in the event that there are any disruptions to service. While we do not anticipate any problems, if you should notice any changes or problems with your system please contact the Call Center immediately at (501) 682-HELP or toll-free (800) 435-7989.

	03/07/2007	Problems with Installed Consoles UPDATE Technicians are working on the system to resolve console problems that have been encountered this week. At 11:00 today they need to take a portion of the system off-line that communicates with the consoles. They expect the communications with consoles to be off-line for approximately 1 hour. Console operators will need to go to their back-up communications during this time. Problems with Installed Consoles We are currently experiencing some issues with consoles that have been installed as part of the system upgrade. Tuesday night consoles failed and did not recover. Technicians were called in, and at this time technicians have restored all but one console in Jefferson County. Technicians are working to diagnose the problem, and AWIN Program Management is working with Motorola to contact users and gather additional information. We will continue to provide users with updates on the situation.

	02/27/2007	AWIN system upgrade Technicians will perform an upgrade on the AWIN system, beginning Tuesday February 27th at 9:00 a.m. The work will last until 1:00 p.m. The greatest portion of the upgrade will impact ASP Troops and Operator Position 2 along with the recording functionality in Grant County. The audio on other Elite consoles (CSEPP and Tri-Counties) may be down for a short period of time during reprogramming. Please insure back-up dispatching plans are in place and usable prior to tomorrow's scheduled upgrade. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the help desk. These upgrades are part of the system expansion efforts, for more information on the system expansion check the January 2007 AWIN Newsletter on the web at www.awin.arkansas.gov/publicity.htm.

	02/22/2007	AWIN system upgrade Technicians will be performing an upgrade on the AWIN system, beginning today February 22nd at 9:00 a.m. The work will last until noon (12:00 p.m.). The upgrade will impact the audio on the Elite consoles. Audio will not be available during the upgrade timeframe. Please insure back-up dispatching plans are in place. If any issues arise please contact the help desk.

	02/06-07/2007	System work Technicians will perform work on the AWIN system, beginning Tuesday February 6th at 9:00 a.m. The work will last throughout the day Tuesday and into Wednesday. We do not expect any service interruptions. If you experience any problems with the system, please contact the help desk.

	01/04-05/2007	Iron Mountain site We are currently experiencing problems with the generator at the Iron Mountain site. Due to weather conditions, technicians are not able to reach the site at this time. If winter weather causes a loss of electrical power to the site, the generator will not start and power will be lost. First Responders in the area should be prepared to switch to an alternate means of communication in the event of a power outage.

	12/23-24/2007 AWIN system work	Technicians will be working on the AWIN System Tuesday January 23rd and Wednesday January 24th. Some portions of this work could potentially affect users on Wednesday morning between Midnight and 4:00 a.m. No downtime is planned, but tower sites and consoles could be affected. If there is anything underway in your area during this time (emergency, chase, crisis, etc.), please call Randy Presley at 501-413-8189, and work will be postponed until the event is over. AWIN tower site restored 01.23.2007 The site at Dewitt (E05) is now operational. The generator experienced some problems late Monday afternoon, but the problems seem to be resolved. Technicians will keep a watchful eye on the site. AWIN tower site down 01.23.2007 The site at Dewitt (E05) is currently experiencing a power failure. The site is down, and technicians are en route to diagnose the problem. Further information will be released as soon as it is available.

	12/7/2006 AWIN system upgrade	On Wednesday, December 6th, technicians began a software upgrade on the AWIN system. The work will continue through December 15th. During the upgrade, users may experience short periods of downtime. If there are periods of interruption, the system will be down no longer than 10 minutes at a time. Towers in Areas H and I are scheduled for the upgrade Monday, December 11th through Tuesday, December 12th

	12/5/2006 AWIN system upgrade	Beginning Wednesday, December 6th, technicians will begin a software upgrade on the AWIN system. During the upgrade, users may experience short periods of downtime. If there are periods of interruption, the system will be down no longer than 10 minutes at a time. Towers in Areas E, F, and G are scheduled for the upgrade Wednesday, December 6th through Friday December 8th.

	12/5/2006 System testing	Technicians will perform system acceptance testing in the Miller County area on Wednesday, December 6th through Friday, December 8th. Users may experience some intermittent service interruptions during the testing. Please inform the AWIN Program Management team if the testing presents problems with daily operations.

	12/5/2006 Site restored	On Monday December 4, 2006 the Area K site at Jack Mountain (K06) experienced problems with “brown-outs”. During this time technicians also determined that the generator was in need of repair. The brown-out situation has stabilized and technicians will be at the site today to complete generator repairs.

	12/4/2006 Site down	The Area K site at Jack Mountain (K06) is currently down. The cause of the service interruption is not yet known. Technicians are en route to the site. When additional information is available, another alert will be distributed

	11/7/2006 System testing	Towers serving users in the southwest portion of the state may be down intermittently over the course of the week to allow system technicians to check the antenna system. Periods of downtime should be brief. Testing is expected to be complete by 11/10/06.

	11/3/2006 Area B site	The Iron Mountain (B15) tower site is now fully operational. Technicians replaced damaged equipment Friday morning, and tests conducted through the afternoon show that the equipment is functioning properly. Users were able to successfully communicate on the AWIN system beginning at 10:30 this morning. If users experience any further technical problems with the system, they should contact the help desk.

	11/2/2006 Area B site down	The initial analysis of the Iron Mountain (B15) tower site indicates that the amplifier on the receiver antenna is damaged. Technicians will test and service new equipment immediately, and the equipment will be installed Friday morning. The B15 site began experiencing problems Thursday morning. The equipment at the site appeared to be functioning normally, but users in the area were not able to access AWIN from the tower. We will release an additional alert when the tower is operational.

	11/2/2006 Area B site down	The Iron Mountain (B15) tower site is currently experiencing problems. Equipment at the site appears to be functioning normally, but users in the area are not able to access AWIN from the tower. A technician has been dispatched to the site and is working the case. We will release more information as soon as it is available.

	9/26/2006 System testing	System testing will occur across the state throughout the week. Individual sites may be down intermittently for periods of no more than five minutes. Testing is expected to be complete by Friday September 29th.

	9/26/2006 System testing	Towers at NE Cabot (A11) and Winchester (F14) may be down intermittently over the course of the week for system testing. Periods of downtime should not be more than five minutes. Testing is expected to be complete by 9-29-06.

	9/18/2006 Craighead County coverage testing	In order to perform coverage testing throughout Craighead County, Motorola technicians will place a single channel in testing mode at the following sites this week. C09 – CH 7 C18 – CH 3 and CH 7 C01 – CH 4 C15 – CH 5 C10 – CH 5 B18 – CH 5 B04 – CH 5 Testing is expected to be complete by 9-22-06. If you experience any issues communicating on the AWIN system this week, or see that coverage testing will interfere with daily operations, please contact the help desk at 1-800-435-7989, option # 3.

	9/12/2006 Lonoke County coverage testing	In order to perform coverage testing throughout Lonoke County, Motorola technicians will disable a single channel at following sites this week. A01 Roosevelt Road A10 Lonoke A11 NE Cabot B21 Floyd D17 Devalls Bluff E11 Jefferson Pine Bluff E12 Jefferson NW If you experience any issues communicating on the AWIN system this week, or see that coverage testing will interfere with daily operations, please contact the help desk at 1-800-435-7989, option # 3.

	9/7/2006 Lonoke County tower	The tower located in northeast Lonoke County will be down for additional work Thursday, September 7, 2006 just after 9:30. The service interruption should not last for more than 30 minutes. If you experience any issues communicating on the AWIN system after the downtime, please contact the help desk at 1-800-435-7989, option # 3.

	9/6/2006 Lonoke County tower	The tower located in northeast Lonoke County will briefly be off-line Thursday, September 7, 2006 between 8:30 and 9:30 a.m. Any service interruption should not last for more than 15 minutes. Local traffic to the tower will not be affected, but the tower will not broadcast traffic to the AWIN system during that short period. If you experience any issues communicating on the AWIN system after the downtime, please contact the help desk at 1-800-435-7989, option # 3.

	8/31/2006 Craighead County tower	The new Craighead County tower site is now operating on the AWIN system. The Lake City tower is the first dual band 700/800 MHz site on AWIN. Motorola technicians finalized the work on the site, and the tower is operational as of Tuesday, August 29th. The tower will enhance coverage in Craighead County and surrounding areas. If you experience anything out of the ordinary while operating your AWIN radio in the Craighead County area, please contact the help desk at 1-800-435-7989, option # 3. This will allow us to address any unusual occurrences on the system

	7/14/2006	The Poteau Mountain (H15) AWIN tower site in Area H is now operational. The damage from the recent lightning strike has been repaired.

	7/13/2006	The Poteau Mountain (H15) AWIN tower site in Area H is currently down due to a lightning strike. Motorola technicians are on site and working to determine the exact amount of damage. Further notifications will be disseminated when a repair time frame has been established or the tower is operational.

	7/11/2006	An upgrade of AWIN system software is scheduled for Wednesday July 12, 2006. There is no downtime expected as a result of the work. If users experience any issues during the system upgrade, please contact the DIS Help Desk at 501-682-HELP (4357) or 1-800-435-7989.