NWINS in the News

[IsThisOneTaken]

A few recent articles in the OWH that are rather interesting:

Nebraska state troopers say radio problems too risky - Omaha.com

Legislators vow to fix troubled emergency radio system - Omaha.com

Troopers union drops formal radio complaint - Omaha.com

[wb0qqk]

"During the Alliance incident, mobile radios carried by troopers and SWAT team members didn't work, putting troopers in the line of fire as they ran messages back and forth to a command post."

As I understand, the troopers selected a talkgroup for the Alliance operation that relayed their traffic through the system repeater located some twenty miles southwest of of the city. Their radios are programmed with simplex frequencies that could have been used for solid portable-to-portable or portable-to-command post coverage without going through the repeater. Not knowing about the simplex channels resulted in the opinion that the NWIN network failed in time of this particular emergency, when it actually boils down to user error or lack of training.

[Kingmobileaudio]

I'd agree about the more training.


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[jeatock]

Nebraska state troopers say radio problems too risky - Omaha.com

Ask any downstate Illinois SP officer off the record what they think about Starcom. Or the non-metro counties and municipalities who have bailed and gone back to stupid old analog, citing high costs and spotty coverage.

Or NY State.

Or PA state.

Or... Or... Or...

Then look at radio vendor political contributions.

A PHD in Rocket Science is not required.

Our local folks have just regained direct interoperability with ISP after many years of ISP Starcom-only ops. The fix? ISP put a $400 VHF analog radio back in downstate cars. Duh.

[IsThisOneTaken]

How about entire towns being "Out of Range" on NWINS? I wonder if that is a training issue?

[wb0qqk]

Originally Posted by IsThisOneTaken

How about entire towns being "Out of Range" on NWINS? I wonder if that is a training issue?

No, I wouldn't say that was an NSP training issue. Perhaps a Motorola programming issue resulting in the attempt to affiliate with a tower farther away than the closest one?

[PJH]

NY doesn't have a statewide trunked system.
PA is/was using unproven technology at the time - also started going live before a proper buildout was done

NWIN right now is not a true portable coverage system as of yet.

Really with things mentioned, we are not comparing apples to apples for these systems.

You properly fund the system as it should be designed, no issue.

As for as IL - the folks I know on the job and two guys who actually help maintain the system haven't reported any major coverage issues. Just like your cell carriers - your not going to put millions of dollars into a site that sees very little traffic as its not cost/benefit effective and you weigh the risk.

I am not going to comment on the benefits/risk assment in this thread but the powers that be that make those assesments are the ones that need to answer. State goverments do not have the resources or grant money they we once had to just pour money like you use to do.

Then again, look at the users in MA, CT, NJ, OH, IL, NC (where built), AK, WY, UT (where built), NV, etc etc and have excellent coverage for mobile and portable where needed and you find very few complaints.

Its all in the funding.

Originally Posted by jeatock

Nebraska state troopers say radio problems too risky - Omaha.com

Ask any downstate Illinois SP officer off the record what they think about Starcom. Or the non-metro counties and municipalities who have bailed and gone back to stupid old analog, citing high costs and spotty coverage.

Or NY State.

Or PA state.

Or... Or... Or...

Then look at radio vendor political contributions.

A PHD in Rocket Science is not required.

Our local folks have just regained direct interoperability with ISP after many years of ISP Starcom-only ops. The fix? ISP put a $400 VHF analog radio back in downstate cars. Duh.