Waterbury, CT EFJohnson Awarded $4-Million Contract

[Thunderbolt]

IRVING, Texas , Sept. 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- EF Johnson Technologies, Inc., one of the nation's leading solution providers for mission-critical communications technology for emergency responders, announced today that it has been awarded a $4-million contract by the City of Waterbury, Connecticut , to deploy the next generation of the city's radio communications system.
PR Newswire

(EFJOHNSON Awarded $4-Million Contract To Deploy Waterbury, Connecticut Radio Communications System -- IRVING, Texas, Sept. 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --)

[firerick100]

Has anyone heard anything on this new system-i been watching the newspaper but not a word on it and it is supposed to be don this year,i guess we will see.

[cg]

No P25 data channel when I was through there a few weeks ago. I would throw all their freqs (including the fireground channels) into a bank and check it on a regular basis.
I had heard that they were looking to start this month. Look for both systems to be active and a gradual transition with freqs being dropped from Multinet and moved to P25 as more agencies transition over.

chris

[firerick100]

i sure hope its this month and if not then within the next few months,i hope its easy to monitor with talkgroups so we can listen to just fire dept

[firerick100]

3-12-13-- from what i heard from a reliable source they will be upgrading software since the multi net is no longer supported by johnson, he thinks they will go to a smartzone as the radios they have now will do smartzone and or LTD and if they go digital it would be the cheapest way to go.nothing in the works as of yet but hopefully soon

[jercov]

Please correct me if I am wrong, but it sounds like really nothing has been done yet to make the conversion? What exactly is Smartzone and how does that relate to the earlier talks of going digital? What type of scanner is needed to monitor Smartzone? I've listened to Waterbury for over 25 years but am still sort of new to all this "developing technology."

[cg]

Smartzone is a type of Motorola system. I doubt that Waterbury is going to change from going to a P25 system. P25 systems are made by numerous companies including the one they signed the contract with to build it.
If the "reliable source" firerick100 referred to is not in the radio shop, I would suspect they are using the wrong names to describe the multi site P25 system that is being built.
For those who are close enough to monitor, i would keep searching for new signals in 851-861MHz for a new P25 signal. If you use Control Channel only in the search, the Uniden digital scanners will show the system ID.

chris

[hotbob62]

I was just wondering if anyone has any updates concerning Waterbury's new system?
Bob
hotbob62

[jercov]

I think the upgrade is moving forward, but is a little behind schedule. Let's hope whatever they are doing they finish fast because as of yesterday the fire dispatch has very low volume and is very scratchy. The police dispatch is better but not by much.

[milf]

Has the FCC even issued a License for this new system yet? The only P25 License I find is the State's.

[cg]

The price tags on any Motorola system in CT would be smaller if they used CT's 800/700 system switch. That would save a huge amount of money. Maybe thats what they did. Or just that the EFJ stuff they bought during rebanding can be flashed with P25.

chris

[PJH]

Even though a contract gets signed, it still takes some time to do the engineering, construction, site selection, equipment manufacturing, template building and all that fun stuff...even for a small system before they start throwing towers live or in the testing phase.

Although some equipment can be pulled out of the box and placed on a rack there is a bunch of work that goes in before applying the power. Be patient.