Rochester & Olmsted County New Radio System
Interesting article on Rochester and Olmsted County moving to the Minnesota ARMER Radio System.
Some of the traffic on the system will be encrypted. Presently in use.
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City, county public safety agencies to get new radio system
Rochester Post Bulletin
Wed, Dec 28, 2005
By John Weiss
The Post-Bulletin
Everybody will soon be on the same wavelength.
Rochester and Olmsted County public safety departments are changing to a new radio system that will make it easier for different departments to talk with each other in emergencies.
The switch to the 800-megahertz system has already started and will be finished in about a month, said Capt. Rick Krueger of Rochester's Police Services Division. When it replaces the old VHF system, police, fire and ambulance personnel will be able to communicate with each other, or state and federal agencies, he said. With today's system, the number of channels is very limited.
The 800-megahertz system will be a "much more robust communications system," Krueger said. "What this system basically allows (us) is to talk to the world."
Other departments, such as road crews, will continue to use the older system, he said. People with police scanners at home will need to buy new ones by the end of January if they want to hear police, fire or ambulance reports, he said.
As Rochester and Olmsted County public safety communications change, those with the older system can still talk to those with the newer one through a special patch in the system, he said.
The change will cost the city and the county a total of about $2 million to $2.5 million, he said, but most of that money is coming from state and federal grants.
The Twin Cities was the first area to get the new system, Krueger said. Rochester and St. Cloud areas were next and will be followed by smaller departments over the next several years, he said.
The change came after 9/11, he said. New York firefighters found they couldn't easily communicate with police. But with so many more channels on the 800-megahertz system, the radio will find an open channel for several people to talk with each other at one time, he said.
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GlacierClipper
Last edited by GlacierClipper; 12-31-2005 at 01:54 AM..
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