Middlesex County NJ Migration from EDACS to Project 25 Phase 2

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CM1

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Funny thing is that WQOJ224 and WQOJ235 (which has quite a number of 700 Mhz frequencies) are now in TP (Termination Pending) status noted with "...in termination pending status for failure to meet the buildout requirement" attached to the license.

I'm thinking this may be an oversight of someone forgetting to get another extension on the buildout, since someone (on here) recently posted pics of the fire academy tower getting new antennas. In addition as I drove through Milltown the other day I spotted a crane and climbers doing work there too (on the tower behind the municipal building) not sure what exactly they were doing though.

Be interesting to see how this all unfolds.
 

johnls7424

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Your absolutely right. Should be interesting to see as well. That is odd how they wouldn't buildout the system. I do know though that tactical public safety's contract with the county ends in 2018. Maybe the county is secretly looking to find a new outfit?!?
 

johnls7424

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No new news yet... Still in EDACS mode though I can only confirm in analog cause without doing a discriminator tap or purchasing a Provoice radio and programming it to the talkgroup I cannot confirm.
 

GM

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These are the ones that were going to be assigned to the OpenSky trunked system. The emission codes don't match up to P25 mode on all of them. From what someone told me in the past, there is a good possibility that the frequencies will have to be changed to ones that have a narrow band width (xxx.00625, etc) due to the narrow emissions that are mandated with 700 MHz. I would venture a guess that it will be at least two years before a switch over is made to allow for frequency coordination, equipment swap-out, testing on the new system, re-programming of the existing radios in the fleet, installation of new radios to replace the ones that are not compatible with P25, and other misc. tasks that have to be performed.
 

johnls7424

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Most of the radios are deployed by Tactical Public Safety LLC. They provide Harris Radios. Some of them are the XG-25P series radios which are a simple software switch along with frequency(s) changes. Frequency coordination and tower equipment swaps yes will take some time. We shall see if other departments will join the talkgroup. That's a time will tell basis.
 

Analogrules

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They think their EDACS system is bad, just wait until they realize how terrible Open Sky aka Open Scam is
 

johnls7424

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They think their EDACS system is bad, just wait until they realize how terrible Open Sky aka Open Scam is

Yeah NY State and PA were both smart and got rid of Opensky system. Middlesex County must have decided to do the same. Thankfully. I have heard more negative responses about it then good. Most radio systems seem to migrate to P25 anyway due to the fact the government may help funding/upgrades. Other systems they will not
 

Septa3371CSX1

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The Commonwealth of PA still uses the Open Scam (ahem "Open Sky") system as does Cumberland County outside Harrisburg. Lancaster County was going to put in an Open Scam system but scrapped it after the cost became prohibitive. PA will eventually be moving to a VHF/700/800 P25 system to replace the Open Scam system but that is still years down the road.
 

johnls7424

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The Commonwealth of PA still uses the Open Scam (ahem "Open Sky") system as does Cumberland County outside Harrisburg. Lancaster County was going to put in an Open Scam system but scrapped it after the cost became prohibitive. PA will eventually be moving to a VHF/700/800 P25 system to replace the Open Scam system but that is still years down the road.

Opensky!! Good ol' Harris; M/A COM's idea!!
 

W2SJW

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johnls7424

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kd2pm

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What makes this make more sense is that the EDACS hardware can easily be converted to P25. So Harris was a more economical move than going with batwings. Then again with batwings (motorola solutions) perhaps being up on the auction block...is that the right move anyway? County mobiles are already P25 capable so they dont need anything done to them. Going Opensky would have been more costly in the long run having to replace practically everything.

Since I pick up the South Brunswick tower really well, it will interesting to start hearing P25 for what its worth, for the TG's they dont encrypt (yes thats another county going mainly encrypted)
 

johnls7424

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What makes this make more sense is that the EDACS hardware can easily be converted to P25. So Harris was a more economical move than going with batwings. Then again with batwings (motorola solutions) perhaps being up on the auction block...is that the right move anyway? County mobiles are already P25 capable so they dont need anything done to them. Going Opensky would have been more costly in the long run having to replace practically everything.

Since I pick up the South Brunswick tower really well, it will interesting to start hearing P25 for what its worth, for the TG's they dont encrypt (yes thats another county going mainly encrypted)

Rather hear encrypted traffic ( traffic analysis) than NoVoice ProVoice anyday!!
 

GM

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I hear ProVoice everyday on my portable radio and on my tapped analog scanner using Digital Speech Decoder. I also use Unitrunker, a free program downloaded from www.unitrunker.com to perform traffic analysis using both DSD and my portable radio to analyze traffic/find new talkgroups, radio ID's, etc., while hearing the audio. Also, I have not heard anything official whether any of the talkgroups on the new P25 Trunked Radio System will be encrypted or not. As I hear anything confirmed from my direct sources high up on the food chain, I'll pass it along to everyone. ;)
 
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