More county fire services going digital...

Have been poking around a little bit and came across this: Request For Proposal - Simulcast Digital Two-Way Communication System

Request For Proposal - Simulcast Digital Two-Way Communication System
Posted in the Bids & Tenders page on 04/01/2014 11:15:06 on Tuesday, April 01, 2014.
The Oxford County Rural Fire Services, namely:
Township of Blandford-Blenheim
Township of East Zorra-Tavistock
Township of Norwich
Township of South-West Oxford
Township of Zorra

If you Google around a bit there are several other documents from council meetings later in the year approving the contract to Spectrum Communications from London.

I've also heard thru my sources that Spectrum has been awarded the contract for the Lambton County digital simulcast radio system RFP as well. Seeing as Spectrum recently went live with the Elgin County simulcast DMR system, one can only suspect that both of these systems will be DMR as well.

Looks like their looking to follow the Woodstock Police Service.
This in policing also reverted some of the police service back to the OPP from the former regional police service out of Woodstock.
Surprised they are not also looking at Stratford Fire for dispatching services as they now cover most if not all Perth & Huron counties.
Yes this is analog but would be a cost savings and I don't see the advantage of digital in this application.

Well of course the hot topic these days is narrow banding and spectrum efficiency... By going to DMR you double your channel capacity right off the hop. That's a pretty attractive pitch so sell... I know the sales people have been sniffing around my department as well, pushing the move to digital.

Forts you know you are stirring a hornets nest don't you, lol. Are the digital frequencies encrypted?

No idea yet.... But so far, all the other fire agencies running TRBO (Elgin, South Huron, Sarnia etc) are all in the clear.

I saw this item show up at Radioworld this week and gives me hope for listening to things like Dstar, NXDN, Yaesu's Fusion, DMR, TRBO, etc... all in one receiver.

AOR AR-DV1 | AR-DV1 Multi-mode Digital Voice Receiver|AR-DV1 [AOR-ARDV1] : @ Radioworld Toronto

Hope cheaper models come out soon. Glad to see one manufacturer moving ahead with digital receivers.

tilt404 said:

I saw this item show up at Radioworld this week and gives me hope for listening to things like Dstar, NXDN, Yaesu's Fusion, DMR, TRBO, etc... all in one receiver.

AOR AR-DV1 | AR-DV1 Multi-mode Digital Voice Receiver|AR-DV1 [AOR-ARDV1] : @ Radioworld Toronto

Hope cheaper models come out soon. Glad to see one manufacturer moving ahead with digital receivers.

Click to expand...

Universal Radio has it for $1199 USD ($1438 CDN) Ouch!

Reviews on here of it have been poor, but its a start. First product out there, even does SSB on HF bands. Kind of a swiss army knife of receivers but has its issues. If it can do DMR and TRBO, NXDN all in one, I hope Uniden or Whistler will soon.

tilt404 said:

I saw this item show up at Radioworld this week and gives me hope for listening to things like Dstar, NXDN, Yaesu's Fusion, DMR, TRBO, etc... all in one receiver.

AOR AR-DV1 | AR-DV1 Multi-mode Digital Voice Receiver|AR-DV1 [AOR-ARDV1] : @ Radioworld Toronto

Hope cheaper models come out soon. Glad to see one manufacturer moving ahead with digital receivers.

Click to expand...

And now that it's available, look what's starting to show up on OnQue:

RAN=1 VCall Group TG=1047 RID=10146 Scramble
RAN=1 VCall Group TG=1047 RID=10146 Scramble
RAN=1 VCall Group TG=1047 RID=10146 Scramble
RAN=1 VCall Group TG=1047 RID=10196 Scramble
RAN=1 VCall Group TG=1047 RID=10196 Scramble
RAN=1 VCall Group TG=1047 RID=10200 Scramble