Des Moines, IA: Iowa State Patrol turns to eBay to avoid hefty fine

newsphotog · Feb 10, 2015

DES MOINES, Iowa —The Iowa State Patrol is shopping around for good deals in order to afford new technology the FCC is requiring the department to have.

Iowa State Patrol turns to eBay to avoid hefty fine | Local News - KCCI Home

jhal94 · Feb 10, 2015

I have a nice VHF MCS2000 laying around.

Narrowbandable of course.

maybe ill call them and sell it

SCPD · Feb 10, 2015

I know a few agencies small ones though whom do this and buy from reputable sellers or re flash it to needs. I can see a pitchy sales guy coming in and taking advantage of this situation and answering a politicians monetary upfront expectation With a fancy new system. but I noticed allot places troopers not having mobile extender portables. It be nice though if there was 2 in a car anyway. Hopefully they'll get what they need. Kind of sad a ham has more equipment then one trooper would. I known troopers here where I am to buy there own radio equipment More common then thought.

burner50 · Feb 10, 2015

No sympathy here.

They had more than a decade to get ready.

R8000 · Feb 10, 2015

I agree. They had more than enough time to plan ahead.

Drop the sales people blame game. Someone at ISP dropped the ball on planning ahead. You can't sugar coat that fact.

mmckenna · Feb 11, 2015

WTH?
Did this whole narrow banding thing sneak up on them while they were not paying attention? How long has this been on the books?

jhal94 · Feb 11, 2015

mmckenna said:
WTH?
Did this whole narrow banding thing sneak up on them while they were not paying attention? How long has this been on the books?

It's Iowa, the calendar is based off corn growth: Very slow.

They probably forgot.

SCPD · Feb 11, 2015

I'm sure politics (money) had allot to do with it and bad management. Sales game blame? No and I'm for it actually.

WQIR683 · Feb 11, 2015

I'm not sure if its the conversion to narrowband as much as keeping their VHF equipment operating until the planned 700MHz system is built, assuming the legislature finds the money for it.

Stealthguy05 · Feb 11, 2015

I love how they showed Wouxuns on the report.

SCPD · Feb 11, 2015

Reprogramming

The officer in the video had a EX600. Not sure if they think that's a non-compliant radio, but we know it's just fine. It's gotta be at least 10, if not 15 years, since I've bought radios that cannot be programmed narrow.

Getting 15 years out of a daily use handheld is quite a feat. I can't shag the feeling that maybe the radios they have now are just fine, but nobody realizes they can be reprogrammed to be compliant. And, as most of us would agree, the vendor is not likely to mention this. More money selling new radios.

PACNWDude · Feb 11, 2015

I am sitting next to a Yaesu FTH-2070 and an Astro Saber radio, both replaced due to narrow band requirements being expected to be enforced. These radios were replaced in 2005 with Motorola PR1500's. At the time, I thought the entity I was working for was not thinking far enough ahead. There was plenty of time to be compliant.

Iowa also pushed for i3 NENA 911 standards, yet in this case they had no clue. Not only was the ball dropped, it was thrown to the ground.

Of these two radios, the Saber has aged the best. Virtually no blemished, very light wear on the buttons and control knobs. The Yaesu had to have the internal ribbon cable glued in place, the batteries are dying fast and the bottom of them had to be glued back on. But both work now as ham radios.

nhfirefighter · Feb 11, 2015

What the report failed to mention is the equipment they are trying to replace is the vehicle repeaters. They currently have Motorola VRS-EP units which are crystal controlled, non narrow band repeaters. They are trying to acquire the newer VRS-750 computer programmed, narrow band compliant repeaters that plug and play with their mobile radios. Unfortunately Motorola doesn't make these units anymore which would mean they would need to switch to either a very expense futurecom unit or a pyramid unit neither of which have the seamless integration or mode steering (changing the mobile radio channel from the portable radio) which is probably very important to them.

ResQguy · Feb 11, 2015

What makes you think the futurecom can't do mode steering?

k1agh · Feb 11, 2015

I hate to mention politics but have to in this case. I had a online Masters CJ class with a Iowa trooper who talked about this. He said the republicans in charge always down played or vetoed the bill for the upgrades. He also said the Tea Party type politicians always asked if it was really needed or they just wanted new and better toys to play with. I believe him because he was on the committee to draft the proposal for purchasing the equipment needed.

R8000 · Feb 12, 2015

nhfirefighter said:
What the report failed to mention is the equipment they are trying to replace is the vehicle repeaters. .

The video shows the VRS connected to a Spectra. Spectras are not narrowband compliant either.

The Futurecom will do channel steering.

ff026 · Feb 12, 2015

Pyramid also makes a channel steerbg board.

RCS 200 Remote Channel Selector - Pyramid Communications

IowaGuy1603 · Feb 12, 2015

WQIR683 said:
I'm not sure if its the conversion to narrowband as much as keeping their VHF equipment operating until the planned 700MHz system is built, assuming the legislature finds the money for it.

Yes it is narrow banding and yes it is streching the VHF equipment until they build the 700 MHz system

Car radios and HT's are new...............the mobile extenders in the vehicle trunks are the problem & they didn't buy new stuff

The funding for the 700 system isn't coming in like was planned (thank you legislature)

right now they are pulling radios out of the Administrators cars and giving them to the working troopers

SCPD · Feb 12, 2015

Thanks

nhfirefighter said:
What the report failed to mention is the equipment they are trying to replace is the vehicle repeaters. They currently have Motorola VRS-EP units which are crystal controlled, non narrow band repeaters. They are trying to acquire the newer VRS-750 computer programmed, narrow band compliant repeaters that plug and play with their mobile radios. Unfortunately Motorola doesn't make these units anymore which would mean they would need to switch to either a very expense futurecom unit or a pyramid unit neither of which have the seamless integration or mode steering (changing the mobile radio channel from the portable radio) which is probably very important to them.

Thanks for the clarification.
Makes more sense.

Kitn1mcc · Feb 12, 2015

I would really like to see the FCC Fine and try to recover funds from a state like this. the Teat party folks should stand up to the feds and see what happends

Des Moines, IA: Iowa State Patrol turns to eBay to avoid hefty fine

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