A recent MVA in a remote area of Pisgah National Forest exposed an interop issue. The USFS ranger was needing to talk to a SHP unit. The USFS unit was in a area that had no cellphone coverage and no VIPER coverage(I don't know if USFS has VIPER anyway). They ended up using the county fire dispatch channel which was busy at the time. I got to thinking that would have been a perfect use for the 154.680 repeater on Clingman's Peak but the state decided to dismantle their high-band system with the coming of VIPER. So the way it is now Federal and SHP units have no way to communicate if they are out of simplex range without using a 3rd agency's repeater unless there's something that I don't know about. As far as I know BRP or USFS doesn't have VIPER at least they don't have any talkgroups. I think the 154.680 system would have made a good car-to-car interop system for non-VIPER agencies.
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