Hudson County 700

I was going through ULS and came upon these:
WQVJ764 and WQVJ765, each with a few sites and frequencies, and P25 phase I and II emissions.

Any activity on them?

My question is how did we all miss this one, (and if this was discussed previously I apparently missed that as well).

nosoup4u said:

My question is how did we all miss this one, (and if this was discussed previously I apparently missed that as well).

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I don't think it was. At least I don't recall seeing anything.

what are the freqs?

10 frequencies for TDMA system in a county that big is pretty impressive!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but proposed Site 1 shows as Newport Towers. Wouldn't that put it on the same physical location as Jersey City Site 4?

W2SJW said:

10 frequencies for TDMA system in a county that big is pretty impressive!

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I don't know what the scope of the project is, or anything about it, really, but there are a number of T-Band frequencies in use throughout the county for Jersey City, Bayonne, and West New York. If I had to speculate, I'd think this could be a unified mitigation effort. But that's a complete WAG.

I'm a little surprised, actually. I grew up around, and worked in the county before I moved away. I couldn't think of a better model for home rule... um... "fractality." I guess common issues and having been involved in several very high profile incidents brought the leaders together. Good for them!

I spent most of my life in Hudson County, including an entire career in Law Enforcement there, and if all the municipalities decide to go to a common Public Safety radio system, I'd have to start believing in unicorns and other creatures one normally doesn't see when sober.

I wouldn't be against it mind you, both from a Public Safety and a taxpayer point of view, but the political realities there don't favor it. Never did. Most of the County's politicians can't stand each other and political alliances are very will of the wisp. Home Rule? Hudson County, Jersey City and Frank Hague defined the term nearly a hundred years ago.

It seemed a miracle to me when a few North Hudson cities and towns formed a regional Fire Service a couple of decades back (after years of discussion), but that's the last regional talk I've heard since then. It's true the 4 or so trunked systems used there are no longer spring chickens, and several of the larger PD's are still on analog, but if there's been any talk of a common County system, I haven't heard anything and I'm up there quite often. Here now as a a matter of fact.

That said, Hudson County OEM has become a much bigger player than they were twenty years or so ago. If there's any radio regionalization it will come slowly and with much more political discussion than there's been now, which is virtually nil. In reality, the municipalities control Public Safety. The Sheriff's Office, for example, while valuable is considered a secondary Police Agency, patrolling only County owned roads and facilities. This is not a denigration of a fine group of men and women, merely political reality.

I note that referenced plan is Fixed Base transmitters only. There are no mobile units. There does not seem to be a gap in any Public Safety coverage in any of the municipalities' radio systems. The Sheriff and all of the County PS agencies are still on their traditional frequencies. I suspect this is HC OEM jumping on some grant money with a future plan in mind for disaster purposes.

If there's a plan, great. Getting all the cities and towns to go for it? It's going to be a tall order.

WQPW689 said:

I spent most of my life in Hudson County, including an entire career in Law Enforcement there, and if all the municipalities decide to go to a common Public Safety radio system, I'd have to start believing in unicorns and other creatures one normally doesn't see when sober.

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LOL!!! I was thinking it, but was trying to be polite :lol:

Interesting parallel

Hoboken PD Chief referenced upgrading their radio system in a recent article with the Hoboken Reporter

Hudson Reporter - The top cop speaks Hoboken Chief Ferrante talks Halloween scandals lower crime rates

No real details but I have to wonder if that is related to the system above.

A friend who wished to remain anonymous contacted me over the weekend about this. He said those plans were made way back in 2008 when Region 8 still thought 25k spacing was going to suffice for these 700 systems, and the 10 channels are what the county qualified for.

To agree with what WQPW689 said, he felt that it might be some time before we see anything happen on those frequencies as far as a build-out may go...

t13one12 said:

Hoboken PD Chief referenced upgrading their radio system in a recent article with the Hoboken Reporter

Hudson Reporter - The top cop speaks Hoboken Chief Ferrante talks Halloween scandals lower crime rates

No real details but I have to wonder if that is related to the system above.

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Hoboken is in the process of upgrading their radio system. Detectives already have APX radios. I do not know any more details than that. I suspect they're going to go P25.

and do the dead still vote in Hudson? if they do then they may go for it

Sounds as bad as the Bergen Co. operation.

looks to me like the prosecutors office is the one overseeing it, at least the all the licensing comes back to hcpo. maybe the prosecutor is leaning on the pd's to go to one system?

I doubt anyone's pushing this 700 MHz system right now. It's a brand new prosecutor, just appointed and she has no skin in the game yet. The Prosecutor's Office can't pressure anyone to go this route unless they pay for it. Jersey City has some 800 plus cops, Bayonne 200 plus, Hoboken and Union City close to that, and that's only 4 cities out of 12. Not to mention all the Fire Departments in the County are paid professionals (possible exceptions of Secaucus and maybe East Newark, too close to bedtime to research). That's a lot of radios to buy and I don't know where that money's coming from. I know the cities' mayors are gonna laugh when they're asked to spend millions of dollars on radios, when in reality most of what they have works pretty good, certainly not critically bad. And there's always the Home Rule aspect. Politicians don't like giving it up. At least not in Hudson County.

Besides, Union City PD just implemented a brand new APCO P25 Phase II system. Why would they spend that money if there was a serious regionalization push? I suspect the poster above is right and Hoboken goes the P25 route. Jersey City and Bayonne already have, and I don't know of anyone in my old outfit complaining.

As I said above, I bet it was some combination of available grant money and a future disaster plan. Who knows?

The smart play here would be to toss the state or county the 800 allocations. I think between Hoboken/Union City TRS there are probably 7-8 more 800 channels that could be added. They could add Jersey City either by ISSI or as another zone. That would give county agencies a system with 18 700/800 channels. Add TDMA and that is a TON of capacity. Thrown North Bergen's 800 allocation in there too and it keeps going up.

Furthermore - if they wanted to save on buying a core/upgrades they probably could talk with the state and ask to be added as a zone on the PSIC system. The state could probably then beef up the north simulcast with more coverage/talk capability. As they get PSIC better in the north - pull the 3600 system north simulcast down and build the channels back up on PSIC.

Tie in Jersey City as another zone for interop (why should they buy all new infrastructure unless they are forced off in 10 years?).

Then again...

"I spent most of my life in Hudson County, including an entire career in Law Enforcement there, and if all the municipalities decide to go to a common Public Safety radio system, I'd have to start believing in unicorns and other creatures one normally doesn't see when sober."

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I'll echo this.

Hoboken is likely to also make a change. I don't have any insight in to what that change is. If they are buying APX subscribers I have a feeling it could be a talkgroup or two on PSIC, or, a really good Motorola sales person earning their commission. Their Astro25 subscribers will work fine on a repeated digital channel(s)....