[jrw14493]

It's funny you should mention a different type of system. The County Fire districts had an overpriced analyst come in and analyze the county and it's topography for the best type of radio system to install for the fire districts in the upper valley. All options (700, 800, uhf, trunking etc...) were considered and the ended up forking over a shit-ton of money to Moneyrola for a VHF narrowband simulcast system with 3 different sites. It's been up for a few years now and the damn thing still doesn't work properly.

There are occasional breaks in the microwave between the sites and the voter equipment at dispatch receives that as a key up on the system and opens the mic. Of course nobody is there so it just sounds like somebody is sitting there pushing the PTT button repeatedly and releasing it. Annoying as hell is what it is, especially when there is a Multi-Alarm fire going on. The county techs are "working on it" but can't seem to find the problem. The other day I heard, "Attention all Districts, County Main will be going down. If you have any emergencies, please landline dispatch or attempt contact on City Main." That's how to get a hold of dispatch but for dispatching in a county that's all volunteer? Shit would have hit the fan if something went on while "County Main was off the air."

And of course all the fire districts took the old repeater pair out of their radios because we went to the narrowband system. So the back-up repeater is there and on the air, but pagers and radios all dont have the frequencies for it anymore. So, basically we have no back-up. I have a feeling that eventually the bubble gum and band-aids will fall off both the simulcast system and the old County Main repeater. It's only a matter of time before we have to start talking on 146.660.

What a world, or county in my case, that we live in...