DMN reports COR may have to update the radio system soon. I can confirm from scanner audio that dispatchers and patrol officers are struggling with dropouts and static issues. The audio of the system is also quite low, but that's probably not a directly related matter.
Makes me wonder what the options are in the$8-10mil range. Currently COR is running an analog EDACS trunked system in the rebanded 800mHz range.
Couldn't go fully APCO25 (digital, for our purposes) for that amount of $$$ I wouldn't think, if Plano is getting 30mil quotes for their (admittedly larger) system. And not in a year and a half timeframe.
Maybe some kind of federal grant money for (wink) interoperability purposes to build a digital infrastructure + a bridge to the existing analog radios, then replace the radios as more $$$ comes along? Maybe move PD/FD to digital first? Or maybe just buy some some new EDACS gear to replace the dying stuff? That might buy us a few more years before going APCO but the numbers above seem high for a scotch tape kind of deal.
Hmmm, maybe it involves running more towers in problem areas? I bet that would be get us in the right money ballpark.
Dunno. Hopefully someone who knows how this stuff works can chime in. I'm just guessing. I suspect the commentary in local scanning groups will be informative and someone will set me straight.
Thanks to Nathan for bringing this to my attention.
4 comments:
Richardson's radio system is run by their IT department. Quite a few of them are ham radio guys. If you're a ham, sometimes you can catch them on the RWK repeater after hours. I've met a couple of them, seriously sharp tech guys. Seemed like straight shooters too. You might try asking them about their plans, they'll probably tell you exactly what they're looking at.
Thanks, I should have guessed that ham and radio shop guys would overlap.
After reading more info elsewhere it looks like this was discussed in either the work session or council session; I'll go back and listen to the audio before I run my mouth again. :-)
Funny that the 'Telecom Corridor' city has issues like this. Or disturbing.
Ok, I'm embarrassed to say that pretty much all the questions I was spitballing appear to have been covered in the council meeting.
If you don't want to wade through the video, the basics start on page 27 of this document:
http://www.cor.net/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=11470
Looks like COR thinks they can go digital for that 8-10mil number. Maybe so. That's more likely than getting it done in the specified timeframe.
In the meantime I expect they'll petition FCC for a power adjustment on the xmitters in order to increase coverage in problem areas.
Nitpick: I would point out that trunking channels are not the same thing as "repeaters".
Post a Comment