Longmont in the news

[scanlist]

In today's Longmont Daily Times-Call.

http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?ID=5120

The newspaper print version shows a map with their current 5 voter receiver locations through out the city. No mention of their public works LTR VHF system in this article either.

About $27,000,000 to go DTRS! That's out there.

Additional voter sites sounds like their best solution.

Phil.

[mpg0515]

Originally Posted by scanlist

In today's Longmont Daily Times-Call.

http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?ID=5120

The newspaper print version shows a map with their current 5 voter receiver locations through out the city. No mention of their public works LTR VHF system in this article either.

About $27,000,000 to go DTRS! That's out there.

Additional voter sites sounds like their best solution.

Phil.

Longmont is not that big!!, I don't see how they can have that many dead spots? If they have five voting receivers they should have no problems!

BTW, Where is their main transmitter? I can hear them full quieting up here with an HT.
Assuming that they only have one transmitter.

[scanlist]

From the graphic in the paper they are lacking with receivers in the Eastern areas they have expanded to in recent years. Longmont is down in a bowl of sorts. Nothing like Boulder but nevertheless the Eastern part of the city is higher in elevation thus the line of site issue with talking into the VHF system.

I belive channel 1 is on the new KRCN-AM (was KLMO) broadcast tower North of the FAA Center on Hover. Solid signals up to I-25 and couple of miles East based on my daily commute monitoring.

Phil.

[mpg0515]

Originally Posted by scanlist

From the graphic in the paper they are lacking with receivers in the Eastern areas they have expanded to in recent years. Longmont is down in a bowl of sorts. Nothing like Boulder but nevertheless the Eastern part of the city is higher in elevation thus the line of site issue with talking into the VHF system.

I belive channel 1 is on the new KRCN-AM (was KLMO) broadcast tower North of the FAA Center on Hover. Solid signals up to I-25 and couple of miles East based on my daily commute monitoring.

Phil.

Sounds to me like they are having some problems with their "voters not voting." Something is obviously wrong! You can practically overlook Longmont from the Eastern side.

[k0pwo]

As I recall ( and maybe i misread some of the article) the officers were primarily stating that the reception of dispatch in these areas was scratchy and such. The voting receivers have no effect on this. They can add all they wish and will not help the field. The need additional transmitters. As far as I can find out about Longmont's system, they are still only a single transmitter system. Maybe if they would add a transmitter site or two and tie them into their voting system, then they would improve their system. Simulcast is not the way to do it in longmont since it is such a samll area. Just tie in the transmitter steering to the comparator for the voting receivers and instant improvment in field reception and I don't think they would even really make a dent in that 21 million bid they were proposing.

Just my thoughts.

Dave

[scanlist]

Twin Peaks mall makes everything RF drop like a rock. Something about steel and concrete when they built it years ago. Not exactly VHF friendly with all the electronic devices (Computers, cash registers, security tag systems) in the stores either.

Channel 1's signal is solid as a rock throughout the city including the East side and up to I-25. Talking in on portables is the unfortunate issue.

I would hate to see them go DTRS as they are in constant communications with Boulder County S.O. and Mountain View Fire district on a daily basis. $27 Million is a lot of money.

Of course M/A-Com could show up and try to convince them that EDACS, Provoice or Open-Sky is the way to solve everything.

Phil.

[chris_a_rodgers]

I was told not to long ago that the communications director for Boulder County Communications was considering getting Vertex's Digital radios when they become available. I believe that in the future the county will be going to a VHF Digital system but still won't be too Interoperable with the states 800. I'm not sure if Longmont will follow to the digital system with the county.

[RF-Intel]

Originally Posted by chris_a_rodgers

I was told not to long ago that the communications director for Boulder County Communications was considering getting Vertex's Digital radios when they become available. I believe that in the future the county will be going to a VHF Digital system but still won't be too Interoperable with the states 800. I'm not sure if Longmont will follow to the digital system with the county.

I can certainly see this in the near future. There has been recent testing of VHF conventional P25 by Boulder County techs.

If the county and the State/CCNC agreed on it, they could add a VHF frequency table to the DTRS system allowing direct interoperability with 800 DTRS units. However, I do suspect that they are planning a conventional system if anything.

Also, the upcoming Vertex P25 radios look to be fairly robust and more affordable... If they work that is!

-Mark

[scanlist]

The impression I got from the Boulder County article is "It works now so don't fix it" and they are staying put with VHF analog since everything works fine as it is and $400 was more practicel vs $1K - $4K per radio.

Boulder just got their VHF additions fully operational this year with Kenwood analog radios so I cannot see the county going digital VHF anytime soon.

[chris_a_rodgers]

All the Boulder SO's just got new VX-800's this year, but if they want to switch over to digital I really don't see them having a hard time buying new equipment to be compatible with it. It's organizations like LEU, BES, Hygiene Fire, and all those other small community organizations that are going to have the most problems with a switch. LEU just got VX-800's this year as well. Those were hard enough for us to get those, they have been using MT-1000's since they were new.