radionamnj1 said:
Public Safety on 452?????
Don't you love how these radio dealers put public safety agencies on business allocated frequencies...and then sell them business/industrial grade equipment instead of public safety type accepted...and then charge them an arm and a leg for the equipment. Goes on up here everyday. Look at all the snowplows, towtrucks, landscapers, oil delivery companies, etc. that were sharing NYCOMCO's EDACS system with public safety agencies. And they wondered why they got busy signals upon PTT during a snow storm.
RadiomanNJ1...it's been going on up here for years. Chief of department or a member is buddies with the salesman. I remember when a certain company was meeting with my old Chief selling their wonderful EDACS system. Chiefs know everything about radios right ? Do you think that any of the dispatchers who use the system everyday and have knowledge of radio communications were invited to the meeting?
Anyway, the salesman was telling the Chief how he and the other administrators could have their own "Admin" talkgroup and the patrol cars couldn't hear them so they could talk freely. Then he starting telling the Chief the Base could call a unit on "individual" (private call) and no one could hear them...not even the public. I happened to overhear them talking and walked out to my car, grabbed my trusty uniden scanner and walked back in the station. Then I started trunk tracking their system and turned the volume up real loud in dispatch. When the sales rep made a private call to the other radio and started saying "test, 1, 2, 3..." the echo was so loud and I starting laughing. I peeked my head out and said, "I can hear everything you are saying...want to sell some more b/s." The salesman was bright red...I think more of being pissed than embarassed. My Chief just looked at me.
A week later we switched to that system. WTF you ask....Chief said he wants to be able to hear the other departments around us. Ok, $45-65 per month per radio lease times how many radios vs. buying a scanner for the car. Hmmmm....
They didn't even bother doing portable radio testing to see if the coverage was sufficient. There are many dead areas all over town..and not just on portable...mobile too. Years later I helped design and implement a VHF repeater system for the volunteer EMS agency that covers that town. You can key up the repeater anywhere in their district with one watt and a wet noodle. Same could have been doing with the PD, but "this is the new best digital thing...all the other departments are going to it..."
Hey, but Wappingers Falls is such a busy two square mile Village PD that needs all this fancy equipment so they can't talk to anybody.
Just my $0.02. That and $3.50 will get you a tall mocha soy skim vanilla whatchamacallit at Starbucks...
