Install Date For Ingham County!

[scannerman5000]

The correct date for beginning the installation of Ingham Co. Radios is....... APRIL 17th. End Date shall be at or before June 16th. This is a set in stone date. The crew will begin at Meridian Twp. at 7:00 am. Unknown if actual on-air tests will be conducted.

All dispatch consoles are allready installed at the 911 center.

[1002]

Don't get too excited Scannerman.There is a small issue coming up with a meeting scheduled for Mon. 4-10 at Webberville FD. Somewhere out of the blue is a annual user fee (per mic). This has not been addressed and many were unaware of it. Somebody somewhere was aware of it, but failed to pass on the info down the ranks to the Ing Co. fire chiefs. I am certain this is not a ploy by MA/COM or they wouldn't be selling many radio systems. Somebody at the county level must have known. Now each Dept. will have to budget in money to the system. The annual cost for Stockbridge Fire, Stockbridge Ambulance and Stockbridge PD is approx. $18,000.00. (not confirmed, but reliable). I am following this closely. (MPSCS may have been wiser-system is in place, just add radios!!)

[rdale]

MPSCS would have required many more towers to cover the county, plus the mic fee, so I'm not sure it would have been cheaper. Plus pagers would have been eliminated, so that would have caused problems...

[1002]

I dont' knoow if all is true...Ingham Co spent a ton off money to hire a consulting firm prior to going with MA/COM. Some officials felt that money spent on consulting should have been spent possibly updating the current system. As far as the user fee it looks like that is going to be a cost anyway, MA/COM or MPSCS. I have been told of issues with MPSCS such as dead spots on the fireground, but that is hearsay to me as I have no hands-on experience with the system. I'm sure there will be dead spots in the new system as no radio system is 100%. Adjustments will continue to be made to address the issue of dead spots and I'm sure the same is true for MPSCS. My only point was the MPSCS is active and time spent on purchasing radios, getting on the air, would be miminal. As for paging..utilize alpha-pagers or as Livingston Co. does, Keep the old system for paging/simulcast.

[jdc50]

I know that Lansing Fire has had problems with the MPSCS system. They cannot hear in some cases and/or they say it goes digital and they can't understand the transmission. 800 systems have been known to have a lot of problems in other cities through out the country.

[rdale]

Dead spots on the fireground are more than hearsay to me! And MPSCS was made to guarantee MOBILE coverage only, they never did (and never would) guarantee full coverage for portables. And that's one of the biggest reasons higher-ups decided to leave it.

[scannerman5000]

Rob. im just wondering what models of Mobile and Portable Radios they will be using (that is if you know). I want to look on the MaCom website to see what they are.

[rdale]

I do have copies of the user manuals but I can't seem to locate them right now, I'll see what I can dig up again.

[1002]

Scannerman--I believe the models are P7100. That's what we used when I attended the Train the Trainer module in March.

[jdc50]

With the system starting up April 17th I am assuming the following:

1. Monday we should set the bank to narrow band

2. To find individual talk groups do and ID search

Is this correct?

[scannerman5000]

no the INSTALLATION is starting on the 17th. The switch-over is in mid June. I forget the date. NEEDS to be done by June 16th.

[scannerman5000]

thank you 1002 for the equipment model. Do you know the HT model?

[1002]

HT is the 1750 (I think, don't have my manual handy)

[scannerman5000]

Well come to find out the install has been pushed back a week, and it will begin on April 24th.