OpenSky Radio woes in Cumberland Co Pennsylvania

[olddirtret]

Police in one part of Cumberland County are having problems with their radios - problems they say are potentially putting officers in harm’s way.

This is an on going problem with both police and fire radios

http://www.cumberlink.com/articles/2...6811936896.txt

[Wyandotte]

Originally Posted by olddirtret

Police in one part of Cumberland County are having problems with their radios — problems they say are potentially putting officers in harm’s way.

This is an on going problem with both police and fire radios

http://www.cumberlink.com/articles/2...6811936896.txt

I'm curious, what is the average terrain in Cumberland County? Flatland, mountains?
And what’s the freqs involved here? VHF? 800 meg? I'm still of the notion that it's not a smart move to try to use 700/800 meg for voice in hilly and mountainous areas, regardless if it's analog, APCO, OpenSky or whatever. At these frequencies, anything can absorb, reflect and refract the signal. It’s not as bad for a MDT or what not, cuz it will just keep sending the data until the other end acknowledges that the data packet was received correctly.

[olddirtret]

Cumberland County has a mix of Flatland and Mountain areas.. It is located just south of Harrisburg along Interstate 81... County Control is located in Carlisle Pa... The units in Shippensburg, ( Both Police and Fire) have the biggest issues with the radio system.. Shippensburg is split between Cumberland and Franklin counties.. So the Fire units must have three radio systems in their vehicles...One for Cumberland County at 800 mhz, one for Franklin County at 450 mhz, and one for low band to talk with others he don't have the new system... Not sure if the Shbg PD require three radios or just two..
PSP Carlisle is on the new 800 mhz system, but PSP Chambersburg is still on UHF....

The newspaper article talks about Middlesex Twp police who operate within a 5-10 radius of County Control and they have radio problems.

[chrismol1]

When will the "new" stuff ever replace the old reliable? AND WORK CORRECTLY?!!

[olddirtret]

Our dept had a two channel low band GE radio system in our cars in 1973.. It worked and we did our job..
But on days when the skip was bad, we were receiving other states as well as ours...

[KS4VT]

Originally Posted by chrismoll

When will the "new" stuff ever replace the old reliable? AND WORK CORRECTLY?!!

Not to toot my own horn, but we did it in 2001 with Motorola 3.0 SmartZone and the users are very happy and it's been very reliable.

[brey1234]

Some police in Cumberland County say they are not happy with radios used to communicate with each other. Now, township leaders are speaking out saying this new technology is putting officers’ lives at risk.

In 2005 more than a dozen police departments in Cumberland County switched to a new radio system designed to provide police and emergency personnel better coverage in the county. But now, two and a half years later official in Middlesex Township say they are fed up with problems they've been having with the system, including an issue where the radios just shut down without warning.
http://www.whptv.com/news/local/stor...0-0583791cc08b

[zz0468]

Originally Posted by chrismoll

When will the "new" stuff ever replace the old reliable? AND WORK CORRECTLY?!!

When the customers expectations don't exceed the final product's ability to deliver.

It's frequently not so much that new systems are unreliable, it's the fact that they're so expensive, and the customer was sold total coverage and 100% reliability. No system can provide that.

When the "old system" has dead spots, and occasional failures, the perception is that it's always been that way. Throw $100 million at a new system that has dead spots and occasional failures, and people are gonna be pissed.

[jrm5265]

Newton County Ga. our Open Sky "partially turned on" yesterday it was like the third turn on date its on now, sounds horrible, all kinds of glitches big disappointment. We want our old stuff back
Millions of dollars spent and it doesnt work right

[olddirtret]

http://www.ccpa.net/FAQ.asp?TID=69

[DickH]

Originally Posted by KS4VT

Not to toot my own horn, but we did it in 2001 with Motorola 3.0 SmartZone and the users are very happy and it's been very reliable.

And how many hills and valleys do you have? - Duh.

[olddirtret]

Cumberland County sits in the Cumberland valley and is bordered by two mountain ranges that parallel the valley..The antennas for the radio systems on located on both mountain ranges

I posted the link to Cumberland County for all to read.. Reading through the link information, it appears that the purchase was about cost more then anything else..It just seems that a proprietary radio system does not allow much room for expansion and neighboring counties aren't looking to go to OpenSky.