rapidcharger
Member
Can you think of any police agencies that went digital and then went back to analog?
Either trunked or conventional.
I'm just curious.
Either trunked or conventional.
I'm just curious.
Have any police agencies gone back to analog?
- Thread starter rapidcharger
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Project25_MASTR
Millennial Graying OBT Guy
I can think of a few that have kept analog for some stuff but still tie it into the trunk system.
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rapidcharger
Member
Right but I'm talking about moving to digital and then moving back to analog.
Not staying with analog all along. Obviously there's examples of those who never migrated in the first place.
Not staying with analog all along. Obviously there's examples of those who never migrated in the first place.
Project25_MASTR
Millennial Graying OBT Guy
Not that I'm aware of. Most got into digital on federal funding…which required them to be P25. I don't see many going back.
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Spitfire8520
I might be completely clueless! =)
It depends on whether you mean P25 or just digital voice in general.
I could be wrong, but I can't think of any agency that returned to analog from P25 in Colorado. Some use analog systems to supplement their digital systems, but almost everything goes through the P25 system.
As for other modes of digital, the City of Aurora tried the ProVoice route with their EDACS system in 2004. They returned many of their primary operations back to analog in 2005 and I think toyed with digital once or twice after that. Most of them have been analog for many years now as far as I know, which would be apparent for the many people who may have listened in 2012. A number of their more specialized talkgroups are still in full ProVoice.
In ancient history, there was another agency out here that tried out AEGIS on EDACS. They ended up dumping that for analog and are now on a P25 system many years later.
As for other states, I've seen posts on these forums talking about agencies being unhappy and returning to analog. These can be found using a forum search.
I could be wrong, but I can't think of any agency that returned to analog from P25 in Colorado. Some use analog systems to supplement their digital systems, but almost everything goes through the P25 system.
As for other modes of digital, the City of Aurora tried the ProVoice route with their EDACS system in 2004. They returned many of their primary operations back to analog in 2005 and I think toyed with digital once or twice after that. Most of them have been analog for many years now as far as I know, which would be apparent for the many people who may have listened in 2012. A number of their more specialized talkgroups are still in full ProVoice.
In ancient history, there was another agency out here that tried out AEGIS on EDACS. They ended up dumping that for analog and are now on a P25 system many years later.
As for other states, I've seen posts on these forums talking about agencies being unhappy and returning to analog. These can be found using a forum search.
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I think the federal grant rules require that if grant monies are spent on digital it shall be P25, there is no requirement that grant money be spent on digital. Grants can be had for analog or P25 but not other forms of digital.
Project25_MASTR
Millennial Graying OBT Guy
I was under the impression that the grant offerings for that had expired…so now it's a case of if they didn't already budget for P25 we may see more agencies going to DMR. Seen a lot of second party LE go to DMR (jails, DMR, etc.) over the last few years.
KB1VLA
Member
Yes. Exeter PD in NH tried P25 at one point on their VHF repeater, but fell back to analog mode. They are now the only department in Rockingham County that is not P25.
Over the years federal grant money has dwindled down. Back when the narrow banding deadline was approaching, many communities got what federal grants they could to upgrade their radio systems.
Larger areas (population-wise) it seems, tended to look at P25 trunked systems and smaller areas just upgraded what they had to narrowband. In some of the latter instances they opted for things like NXDN or MotoTrbo.
I noticed a post in the Kentucky forum where Ohio County was talking about reverting from NXDN back to analog as the coverage wasn't as good as they hoped.
Larger areas (population-wise) it seems, tended to look at P25 trunked systems and smaller areas just upgraded what they had to narrowband. In some of the latter instances they opted for things like NXDN or MotoTrbo.
I noticed a post in the Kentucky forum where Ohio County was talking about reverting from NXDN back to analog as the coverage wasn't as good as they hoped.
Not exactly the same, but Pittsburgh went from UHF to 800 trunked then back to UHF conventional (all analog). Same with one of the suburbs - going to UHF analog from 800 analog. It's still rejecting newer technologies in favor of something that they found works better.
Exactly, but it was vague enough in wording that the salesmen convinced them that P25 was mandated (which of course made for larger commissions - not that it had any impact on what was being sold).
Septa3371CSX1
Member
Atlantic Highlands in Monmouth County, NJ was using a conventional VSELP frequency for their police department up until a few years ago. When they went to narrow band they reverted back to analog. I'm not sure if they were indeed VSELP or not but whatever it was it was not a normal format.
It is possible that they needed to replace some or all of the radios due to the narrowbanding situation or just plain age and decided to go back to analog for price purposes. Analog radios are much cheaper than digital and most digital infrastructure that is narrowband capable will be able to be programmed for analog.
mmckenna
I ♥ Ø
Sort of, but not really.
Our PD was on a VHF system for many years. Along came 800MHz trunked system. They hopped on that for a few years. They still had a VHF in the cars for talking with neighboring agencies, but they only carried 800 hand packs.
A few years after that, they rolled back to VHF as primary dispatch. All officers only carried VHF radios. Vehicles have both VHF and 800 (now digital) in them.
I know, not digital, but an example of analog/conventional VHF to 800MHz trunked and back to analog conventional because it made more sense.
No plans to take the PD to digital for the foreseeable future. Everyone in our county on the public safety side is VHF analog.
Our PD was on a VHF system for many years. Along came 800MHz trunked system. They hopped on that for a few years. They still had a VHF in the cars for talking with neighboring agencies, but they only carried 800 hand packs.
A few years after that, they rolled back to VHF as primary dispatch. All officers only carried VHF radios. Vehicles have both VHF and 800 (now digital) in them.
I know, not digital, but an example of analog/conventional VHF to 800MHz trunked and back to analog conventional because it made more sense.
No plans to take the PD to digital for the foreseeable future. Everyone in our county on the public safety side is VHF analog.
I hear med calls in digital and analog here locally and the sound quality is so much better on analog. I know several people who use the digital radios for work and they are frustrated as there are so many "Repeat! I didn't get that last transmission!" instances it's ridiculous. Analog is vastly superior in so many ways.
Boatanchor
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I agree. Our local PD is in the process of migrating from Analogue to P25 phase 1.
Many of the neighboring vote groups have gone digital but my local channels, all linked to the digital groups, are all still analog.
I can monitor both analog and digital and the analog is just so easy to listen to. The digital channels are really tiresome to listen to for any length of time.
Likewise the PD units on the digital channels are either constantly repeating themselves to dispatch or dispatch is repeating itself due to the horrible 'marble mouth' effect of digital.
So much for progress!! They may as well go back to using AM as it would sound better than all the digital systems I've heard.
JRayfield
Member
So, no one ever says "Repeat that last transmission", or "10-9", on analog systems?
Instead of just making a general statement, why don't you list all of the ways in which analog is "vastly superior".
You might also specify which format of digital that you're talking about, as there are some differences between the different formats of "digital".
John Rayfield, Jr.
W0PM
Instead of just making a general statement, why don't you list all of the ways in which analog is "vastly superior".
You might also specify which format of digital that you're talking about, as there are some differences between the different formats of "digital".
John Rayfield, Jr.
W0PM
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