Waterbury, CT - Waterbury police say new radio system unreliable

[Thunderbolt]

WATERBURY, Conn. (AP) — Waterbury's police union says officers are being put in danger by problems with a new radio system that recently underwent a $4 million upgrade.

WTNH - Waterbury police say new radio system unreliable | WTNH.com Connecticut

 

[fdscan]

What system did they go with?

 

[Thunderbolt]

What system did they go with?

They are using an EFJohnson Atlas25 TRS. It's fully Project 25 compliant.


73's

Ron

 

[123easy]

That's what happens when you go with the low bidder and poor engineering.

 

[cg]

They had a EF Johnson Multinet system that was upgraded for rebanding with new subscriber units and infrastructure. They then upgraded the system to P25 with firmware flash on the subscriber units and new infrastructure. To replace the entire system would have cost millions more.
It would have been best to use the new system for non mission critical traffic first (DPW, schools, parks, etc) to work the bugs out. After the system was working properly, then move PD & FD over. Since the system was using the same frequencies as the old system, it would have been difficult to have both systems fully available. (the Multinet ability is still in the radios I believe).
Supposedly some of the issue is with the updated radios not working as well as new ones. I have not heard of any further updates since this first was reported several weeks ago.

chris

 

[APX7500X2]

To replace the entire system would have cost millions more.
chris

They spent 4 Million!!!!!!!

New Brittan- 3 Site 800 Simulcast TDMA all new mobiles, portables and infrastructure (Complete new system) ONLY 3.5 Million

What did they spend 4 Million on if they already had the infrastructure, portables & mobiles and all they did was upgrade them to P25 and get a new console????????

 

[firerick100]

It sounds like they got ripped off.

 

[cg]

I would be very surprised if those numbers are accurate, do you have links to the bids or contracts?

chris

 

[dcr_inc]

I would like to see the letter and complaints..For some unknown reason Change comes hard to Public Safety folks... Most complaints come from the lack of dynamic range in the audio on P25 systems..

 

[Firebuff66]

He is correct Chris it was under 4 million for New Brittan's entire system including a new console.

They are running all APX radios and the system sounds great. Simulcast infrastructure has changed a lot recently and the newer equipment is less expensive , makes it much more affordable for an entire system.

I don't know what Waterbury got for the 4 million or what it includes but it sounds weird.