Dunwoody PD

[RobertsRadio]

A friend of mine works for Dunwoody PD and I understand they started having in building coverage problems three or four weeks ago. Sounds like there is a problem with the DeKalb County 800 MHz Astro Digital System or Motorola may have change something like antenna alignment, system output power, etc. or possibily a loaded a firmware version upgrade that changed something. Have any of you who live and or work in DeKalb County or drive through DeKalb County on a regular basis noticed any difference in coverage with your hand held scanners? Just curious.

[MTS2000des]

Originally Posted by RobertsRadio

A friend of mine works for Dunwoody PD and I understand they started having in building coverage problems three or four weeks ago. Sounds like there is a problem with the DeKalb County 800 MHz Astro Digital System or Motorola may have change something like antenna alignment, system output power, etc. or possibily a loaded a firmware version upgrade that changed something. Have any of you who live and or work in DeKalb County or drive through DeKalb County on a regular basis noticed any difference in coverage with your hand held scanners? Just curious.

No problems monitoring them from Smyrna, Marietta, Sandy Springs or Roswell.

Is it just the Dunwoody units? IIRC they are running EFJ 51SL portables, same radios the city of Marietta has. These radios actually have a superior front end, and this was confirmed by Marietta when they put out their 2008 RFP and did field tests. the 51SL can deal with a higher BER than the XTS5000 in some situations, not to mention with it's AMBE+2 vocoder and DSP it sounds much better (even on an Astro25 network) than my XTS5000's (and I'm running latest HOST/DSP version 17).

I think their ugly, and the displays are small and cramped, but they work and are solidly built, and less $$$$ than a 5K.

Maybe your friend should have RadioOne do a PM on his/her portable.
I haven't heard any problems.

[RobertsRadio]

Originally Posted by MTS2000des

Maybe your friend should have RadioOne do a PM on his/her portable.
I haven't heard any problems.

I think Dunwoody had a technician and or engineer with E.F. Johnson come in to take a look at some of the equipment and maybe test signal strength of the DeKalb County 800 MHz Astro Digital System a week or so ago, but I do not know what the results of the test were. I don't think having Radio One look into this at this point is an option. Besides, how would one explain loss of in building and even outdoor coverage in some areas on most, if not all, portable radios in locations where they had very good coverage from the time they originally put the E.F. Johnson radios on the DeKalb System up until four to six weeks ago when this problem started. It's hard to believe the majority, if not all, of their radios would begin failing at the same time, but then.....

[MTS2000des]

Originally Posted by RobertsRadio

I think Dunwoody had a technician and or engineer with E.F. Johnson come in to take a look at some of the equipment and maybe test signal strength of the DeKalb County 800 MHz Astro Digital System a week or so ago, but I do not know what the results of the test were. I don't think having Radio One look into this at this point is an option. Besides, how would one explain loss of in building and even outdoor coverage in some areas on most, if not all, portable radios in locations where they had very good coverage from the time they originally put the E.F. Johnson radios on the DeKalb System up until four to six weeks ago when this problem started. It's hard to believe the majority, if not all, of their radios would begin failing at the same time, but then.....

RadioOne is their contracted vendor, they should be reaching out to them if DeKalb is saying there isn't a problem with the system. If you want some help to do a side-by-side comparison with an XTS5000 in the same place, PM me.

What does DK say? I haven't talked to my POC there in years, last I saw him at an exercise at Six Flags last year he works for Avondale Estates now and is semi-retired.

I'm not aware of any changes to the system, I'm an MTUG member and haven't seen anything get posted in the group lately about DK's sites having problems, that's why I would suggest Dunwoody reach out to Radio One and ask them to get involved.

After all, that's who they wrote the checks to.