Provincial Integrated Communications System (PICS)
From The RadioReference Wiki
NOTE: This system has been marked as deprecated in the RRDB.
| System Name | Provincial Integrated Communications System |
| System Type | Motorola Type I and Analog |
| System ID | ? |
| Connect Tone | ? |
| Wide Area Communications Network | ? |
| Network Access Code | ? |
| TRBO Color Code | ? |
| NXDN RAN | |
| Band | 800 |
| Ownership | Prince Edward Island |
| City | Charlottetown |
| County | Provincewide |
| Province | Prince Edward Island |
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| Provincial Integrated Communications System System DB Entry | |
| Canadian Discussion Forum | |
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| MediaWiki | |
| QuickRef | |
| PDF Card | |
Wiki Home → Collaboration Gateway → Canada → Prince Edward Island → Provincewide County → Provincial Integrated Communications System TRS
Welcome to the Provincial Integrated Communications System collaboration article, a Trunked Radio System located in Provincewide County, Prince Edward Island.
This is where you, the user, may index any articles you develop for scanning related topics for this Trunked Radio System.
System Description
PICS is a Motorola SmartNet Type I, 800 MHz trunking system that covers all of Prince Edward Island and is a joint project of Bell Aliant and PEI Emergency Measures Organization. The system was planned and implemented in 1986 to promote interoperability among all public safety agencies.
PICS is shared by public service users and by commercial users. Every emergency agency in PEI has at least one PICS radio but not all agencies use PICS as their primary system. The RCMP utilizes its own 400 MHZ repeater system, however dispatch does have access to PICS and patching may be possible. Two of the three municipal police forces in the province (Summerside and Kensington) have full access to PICS but on an everyday basis use their own conventional 800 MHz repeaters. These conventional channels are integrated into PICS radios. Charlottetown Police use their own motoTRBO radio system. Several fire departments use the PICS system as their primary means of communications but most use VHF radios.
PICS is made up of 6 sites, using four groups of frequencies. It is thought that each site regardless of location and traffic volume has 15 frequencies. These have been described as 1 dedicated control channel, 9 simulcast and 6 local voice channels.
There is a fail soft system whereby if trunking fails the system reverts to conventional repeaters and a recurring beep to indicate the failure. Users then revert to preassigned frequencies, as in a community repeater system. I am speculating that the local frequencies mentioned above are the conventional repeaters, but I could be wrong! It does seem odd that the system reverts to conventional repeaters rather than to site trunking. There are also simplex frequencies in the system, identified on radios by numbers only. It is not known if there are only common-use simplex frequencies, or also individual agency frequencies.
Repeater sites are connected by microwave. Sites are often co-located with other Aliant facilities or perhaps other owners' facilities, but generally they have their own tower. One exception is at Caledonia where the repeater is on the Aliant Cell tower.
Related Links
Return to Wiki page: Prince Edward Island (CA)