Madison & Fremont Counties get $1 M for Communications upgrade

[thewenk]

April 12 - Fremont and Madison County Emergency Responders have been given one million dollars to upgrade their communication equipment. The money will allow the counties to switch to the 700 MHz System.

The counties must each raise $50,000 in matching funds. The upgrade is expected to be completed within 12 months.

[w7vss]

That's interesting. From all appearances, they previously elected to go their own route with a 450MHz LTR system, not IIMARS. I wonder which it's going to be?

http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=5759

[thewenk]

Yes, it is interesting. So far Madison is only multicasting conventionally on one frequency from each of the five sites in the LTR License, but no indication of going to the LTR system. They have been doing this since December. This license has been around for several years and has never been used until Dec. Originally it was to be a multicounty system, but that was before the 700 system was even envisioned. The LTR license does apparently allow digital modulation to be used. This multicasting started about the same time as the Idaho Statewide Interoperability Executive Council (SIEC) approved the Madison County 700 plan and funding request.

Since Bonneville and Jefferson Counties are well on their way to switching to 700 and have two transmitter sites operating in test mode, I am pretty sure Madison and Fremont will be going to 700 since the news release I saw specifically mentioned 700 MHz.

They may be multicasting to evaluate coverage from the five LTR sites in order to determine which sites to use for the switchover to 700. One of the Madison LTR sites is in Fremont County and could be used for coverage in Fremont County.

I am monitoring these frequencies pretty much daily so I should know reasonably quickly if things change much, but essentially nothing has changeed on the Madison freqs in the last four months.

Dave

[PMJ2kx]

Are there any updates on the progress of this new system? I used to live in Madison County, and may be going back there for a few weeks near the end of this year.

[thewenk]

Originally Posted by PMJ2kx

Are there any updates on the progress of this new system? I used to live in Madison County, and may be going back there for a few weeks near the end of this year.

No obvious progress that I've seen or heard. I haven't seen any FCC license applications yet. Probably evaluating bids on radio equipment. They have stopped multicasting on the LTR sites and are back to the original frequency for the SO/PD.

Dave