Hey Ensnared,
these channels going digital does not mean that they will migrate to a truncked system does it? dont you think that these will simply go digital and not go to a truncked system like so many towns surrounding us?
It would not mean they
have to switch to a trunked system. While that's always an option, if there was enough radio traffic justify it, it's certainly not always the case. There's been quite a few cases where one or more agencies in a county have switched from conventional/analog to conventional/digital, without going trunked as part of the process. Take a look at Grayson County in the
database. Besides the Sheriff's Dept., both Sherman, Denison, and a couple of the smaller cities are using conventional channels in digital mode. This is also becoming more prevalent out toward the Abilene area as well, with several counties now using mixed mode (some digital, some analog transmissions, on the same frequencies). Texas DPS is also digital, on conventional frequencies, statewide, also their units usually can & often do access the systems of the area where they are assigned, including trunked systems.
A lot of these are doing it because of the upcoming narrowbanding requirement in
January of next year. Despite some mis-information out there, spread in part by radio salesmen, it does not require everyone to move to digital by that date. It will require radios to use less frequency spectrum for transmissions. Whether an agency decides to adjust their existing equipment for narrowband (if it's capable of that), or upgrade to digital is up to them.