EF Johnson drops LTR support

[cg]

EF Johnson has made several announcements recently regarding older equipment.

http://www.efjohnson.com/FieldBulletins.asp

All LTR (as of 6/07) and some Multinet equipment (as of 1/08) will no longer be repaired and no replacement parts will be available after supplies are exhausted.

chris

[windigofer]

Originally Posted by cg

EF Johnson has made several announcements recently regarding older equipment.

http://www.efjohnson.com/FieldBulletins.asp

All LTR (as of 6/07) and some Multinet equipment (as of 1/08) will no longer be repaired and no replacement parts will be available after supplies are exhausted.

chris

Interesting--if their present product inventory is to be believed, it looks like EF Johnson is now going exclusively into manufacturing P25 systems.

Of course, this is going to bite a lot of the local businesses hard--most businesses in Louisville on a trunking system use LTR, and if LTR goes bye-bye I know of at least six different systems (including at least one public schools system) who will have to re-band or at least get new radios...at least two users of LTR here can go to the SAFE-T system, but others don't have that option, being strictly business systems...

[fwradio]

Originally Posted by windigofer

Interesting--if their present product inventory is to be believed, it looks like EF Johnson is now going exclusively into manufacturing P25 systems.

Of course, this is going to bite a lot of the local businesses hard--most businesses in Louisville on a trunking system use LTR, and if LTR goes bye-bye I know of at least six different systems (including at least one public schools system) who will have to re-band or at least get new radios...at least two users of LTR here can go to the SAFE-T system, but others don't have that option, being strictly business systems...

EF Johnson is dropping their support for older radios. They have not made commercial radios for several years now. They are focusing on the Public Safety and Government market.

Almost every other manufacturer is building LTR radios. No one will have to "re-band". If someone tells customers that--they must be a Motorola dealer.

[windigofer]

Originally Posted by fwradio

EF Johnson is dropping their support for older radios. They have not made commercial radios for several years now. They are focusing on the Public Safety and Government market.

Almost every other manufacturer is building LTR radios. No one will have to "re-band". If someone tells customers that--they must be a Motorola dealer.

Ah, thanks for the update then. :3

As an aside, this *may* potentially render some of the licensing issues for LTR Multinet et al (that have so far prevented scanners from carrying these modes) moot--if the primary makers of LTR kit are no longer EF Johnson, and EF Johnson is showing no interest in support for LTR, then (depending on how exactly they are licensing technology to other makers) it may be legal for scanner makers to finally incorporate LTR Multinet and Passport in scanners.

[ctrabs74]

Originally Posted by windigofer

As an aside, this *may* potentially render some of the licensing issues for LTR Multinet et al (that have so far prevented scanners from carrying these modes) moot--if the primary makers of LTR kit are no longer EF Johnson, and EF Johnson is showing no interest in support for LTR, then (depending on how exactly they are licensing technology to other makers) it may be legal for scanner makers to finally incorporate LTR Multinet and Passport in scanners.

From the bulletin itself:

http://www.efjohnson.com/PDF/FSB/FSB...nce_063007.pdf

Multi-Net® remains a vital part of the EFJohnson product portfolio, and we continue to offer the Ascend™ series of mobile and portable products, and to support the Avenger portable, 9883 mobiles & Summit high power mobiles.

In other words, don't hold your breath. Of course, it stinks when the main public safety system uses Multi-Net...

[slicerwizard]

Originally Posted by windigofer

if the primary makers of LTR kit are no longer EF Johnson, and EF Johnson is showing no interest in support for LTR, then (depending on how exactly they are licensing technology to other makers) it may be legal for scanner makers to finally incorporate LTR Multinet and Passport in scanners.

EF Johnson have nothing to do with PassPort.

[cg]

The rebanding will hit the public safety 800 Multi-Net systems. If a system wants to also have the NPSAC interoperability channels then subscriber units will have to be replaced. That plus replacing older repeaters/ controllers will give some public safety systems a better chance for new systems.

chris