Wichita Falls will replace EDACS with P25

From the 2015-2016 preliminary budget
http://www.wichitafallstx.gov/documentcenter/view/25056
http://www.wichitafallstx.gov/documentcenter/view/25057

Public Safety Radio System:
The current Public Safety Radio System was installed in 2005 with the use of 4B Sales
Tax Funds. This system was one of the projects specifically identified on the election
ballot when the citizens voted to create a 4B Sales Tax Corporation in 1997. The life
expectancy of the equipment is 10 years and the service life on the equipment is
approximately 15 years. Additionally, after the system was installed, the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) announced that in the near future, all public safety
radio systems must comply with Program 25, which essentially requires radio systems
to be on a standard digital platform that allows for inter-operability among responding
emergency agencies. As a result, we have begun replacing both mobile and portable
radios with Program 25 compliant radios in the last few years, and the system will need
a complete upgrade in the next few years. We have been setting aside money for this
upgrade over the last several years in the Information Technology Fund. But, without a
major influx of funds from General Fund reserves, only a portion of the $4.2 million
estimated cost will be available for this project. Therefore the prior budget included
$900,000 of General Fund reserves for this project and the 2015-16 Preliminary Budget
includes an additional $1 million of General Fund reserves to fully fund this project.
This project is expected to begin in October 2015 and be finished over a period of 18
months.

Abilene will be making the same announcement before too long.

fasteddy64 said:

Abilene will be making the same announcement before too long.

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I hope you're right

I am.
I will be very involved in the change over.

Sure, let's let the taxpayers spend millions of dollars that is not needed. Their uhf conv. System worked just fine.

That system needs to go to bid. Don't just fall for Harris radio stuff!!

RadioBoy69 said:

Their uhf conv. System worked just fine.

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It sucked. They only had 2 repeater sites on water towers. I don't think they had voting sites. They didn't have good portable coverage on the edges of town. Then when the FD went to UHF there was an intermod/interference problem between one of the FD and one of the PD repeaters.

The EDACS system has 4 transmit sites and 7 or 8 receive sites. I haven't heard of any major problems or dead spots with it.

Talk to the users of system. It dosent work. For a city that size, conventional will work just fine. Don't get stuck up in Harris radios crap!!

We love our EDACS system and would be happy just keeping it, but that is not going to be an option so we will upgrade.

We also love our Harris radios, we have zero complaints about the system or the radios. I have nothing against any other manufacturers as I think they all make good stuff. We are just going to continue with the relationship we have now with Harris.

I see what they did there. By upgrading existing radios to P25 compliance, they made an economic case for sticking with Harris and making a Motorola bid non-competitive due to format differences between the two brands, even though they're both p25 "compliant".

The correct way to do this, which Harris won't go for, is for you to NOT do systematic replacement of older radios with Harris P25 compliant equipment, and instead just use what you have until it's time for complete system replacement.

Neither Harris nor Motorola likes to play that kind of straight and honest game. They both want you to
pursue an upgrade path that all but guarantees that they get a lock on the radio system replacement.

P25 was a good idea, in principle, but the implementation of it completely defies the alleged intent of creating a common communications standard. The P25 spec should demand FULL interoperability between different radio brands in all recognized modes of operation. And "proprietary features" should be explicitly banned.

Hey fasteddy64. Do you know if Abilene has any plans to go encrypted? Also will it be 25 phase 1 or 2? If you can't answer I understand! I just kinda' figured that, after years using Provoice, the PD may be accustomed to "private" conversations.

We are still in the early planning stages, encryption is being discussed but not sure how much will actually be used. I believe we will go Phase II but not 100% sure yet, my recommendation is that we do but it is not up to me.

Thanks mate! I was just curious...

The past two days I have seen two new RIDs in a range that hasn't been used before and two new talkgroups show up on the Wichita Falls EDACS system. It sounds like they are working on the controller, T1 lines and dispatch consoles and moving repeaters to different cabinets. They also made a few clear analog radio checks on the normally encrypted PD dispatch talkgroup.

This may have something to do with preparing for the trunked system P25 replacement or maybe they are just fixing something that broke. I don't know.

There are still no new FCC applications or anything else I can find about the new system in the city council agendas or minutes.

Its a trend in Public Safety these days. Everyone is dumping other systems for P25 - Interoperability I guess. Hopefully they lay off the encryption keys some ...

As of this date, 8:45pm I am hearing Wichita Falls PD using the backup system with frequency 851.0125 pl tone of 156.7...dispatch and all units are completly in the clear, no encryption....will advise if anything else is noticed.

They are going to have PD Primary on 8CALL90 and Records on 8TAC91.
They have been working on something for several days. I'm not sure what's going on. I don't see anything abnormal with the EDACS system on Unitrunker except for a few new talkgroups. That may have been from the cops trying to switch their radios to the interop repeaters.

nd5y said:

I don't see anything abnormal with the EDACS system on Unitrunker

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Now I do. There are control channels on LCN1 and LCN2 but LCN1 is coming and going.

I have heard for a few years that most of the lines for the EDACS system is underground, and when we have a lot of rain, some of those lines get flooded and causes the radios not to transmit and receive properly in parts of town, or even not at all in parts. With all the rain we have had lately i wonder if that is the issue now.

The techs were talking about the simulcast site controller at the Puckett Rd. site acting up making the 2nd control channel and causing dropped calls.
They are going to keep the PD on the interop repeaters until they fix it. They didn't mention a time frame.
I wonder if they have to order used EDACS parts on ebay.
I guess none of this has anything to do with switching to P25.