Marion County Getting Upgrade?

[delallen]

Ran across this a few minutes ago from Fox 59.

Indianapolis public safety officials want much-needed radio system upgrade - fox59.com

[goham]

What a joke they got sold junk it will always be junk and now they need texting on the radio because they dont work and cant hear one another now as it is and this was not included in the millions they spent on it not that long ago now they are woried about hackers geting into the software wow I quess they did not get all the facts when they spent our tax money for junk Just what we need more texting and driveing as if the laptops they put in there cars wernt bad enogh now texting by radio.

[SCANMUNCIE]

After researching it appears the software upgrade is from Motorola Version R7.5 (currently used) to Motorola Version R7.7

Found that in the proposal under section 2 at: http://www.indy.gov/eGov/Council/Pro...PROP12-350.pdf

Now what the difference is and how that effects anything (scanner wise) , I haven't been able to find anything on what the difference is between Motorola version r7.5 and r7.7 system is...

Additionally from what I have found 7.7 seems to have been around for awhile, as I found articles where many other agency have upgraded there Astro 25 systems from 7.8 to 7.11.

[DiGiTaLD]

Originally Posted by goham

What a joke they got sold junk it will always be junk and now they need texting on the radio because they dont work and cant hear one another now as it is and this was not included in the millions they spent on it not that long ago now they are woried about hackers geting into the software wow I quess they did not get all the facts when they spent our tax money for junk Just what we need more texting and driveing as if the laptops they put in there cars wernt bad enogh now texting by radio.

In my humble opinion sir, you are so off-base it isn't even funny. Evidently you haven't a clue what it is like to be on the job in the law enforcement, fire, or EMS fields. I couldn't begin to describe to you how critical and how helpful the mobile computers are. It allows so much more flexibility, and helps field personnel and control operators alike. It is an important tool, and an indispensable one at that.

As for what you call the "junk" radio system, I use the "junk" system every day for my job, and I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that the system works well. It works very well, in fact. It does exactly what it was designed to do, and it provides portable coverage in places that amazes even me. Rest assured, our tax money was not spent on "junk" as you so aptly put it.

For the record, it works. We can hear one another, and if they added texting on the radio, its just another tool in the tool box. It could be integrated with the CAD, and may eventually allow us to shed a piece of archaic equipment.

What many do not understand is that the system does not allow "talk-over", which means if one subscriber unit is already keyed up on a talkgroup, another cannot key up on the same talkgroup until the first unit unkeys. Most current trunked systems are like this. When you hear people saying they "can't get out" on the radio, this is what they're talking about. Its not that the system isn't working or the coverage is bad, its that the system is doing exactly what its programmed to do, which is prevent doubling. If somebody REALLY needs to get in, they can always press their emergency button, which will give their radio the highest priority on the system.

This is all just my unofficial opinion, but I do speak from experience.