St. Mary’s Signing on to FiRST

Picture says it all:

http://forums.radioreference.com/ma...aryland-first-700mhz-trs-198.html#post2996905

It's still unclear if they think they signed on a as "free" interoperabilty user or a primary user....

Hmmm. Now that I read it again, that’s a very misleading article. Interoperability user only gets you MD Tac talkgroups. So they may have signed on for Interoperability but aren’t fully planning on replacing the Harris system and making themselves a primary user... yet.

Yup - if you watch the video, it seems like after discussion on the motion, they probably weren't clear hat they actually approved....

Yea, I think they're talking about being an Interoperability User vs. a Primary User. I was at the control board meeting today, and there was some discussion about the STMC Commissioner's meeting with the state's rep. Basically he went there to discuss the county becoming an IU, but the commissioners expanded the scope of his planned presentation. I'll have more to post after I digest my notes from the meeting later this evening.

It was a slightly confusing and long meeting. But it definitely seemed the main topic of the meeting was supposed to be about becoming an interoperable user. Then the discussion of the radio issues that they have been having changed into a discussion of becoming a primary user.

My guess is that they will apply to become a primary user in December even if they aren't 100% sure they are going to switch to FiRST.

I bet that they will stick with their current system and then will use MD Tac Channels if and when they have issues with the system. My assumption is that they won't want to spend the millions to add multiple additional sites.

ThePhotoGuy said:

It was a slightly confusing and long meeting. But it definitely seemed the main topic of the meeting was supposed to be about becoming an interoperable user. Then the discussion of the radio issues that they have been having changed into a discussion of becoming a primary user.

My guess is that they will apply to become a primary user in December even if they aren't 100% sure they are going to switch to FiRST.

I bet that they will stick with their current system and then will use MD Tac Channels if and when they have issues with the system. My assumption is that they won't want to spend the millions to add multiple additional sites.

Click to expand...

Yea, I'd certainly think twice (and more) before walking away from the Harris system after spending $25M+ on it. But it has happened, and agencies have been able to recover some fraction of its cost. Apparently they've had several complete failures of their simulcast site - which is all of the towers. This is what the FiRST rep was getting at. Since STMC would have coverage from adjoining FiRST sites and at least one ASR in-county, they would not lose comms if the FiRST STMC simulcast site went down, they'd experience some degradation except for down by Point Lookout. Filling out coverage with additional ASRs would improve coverage to in-building specs, and maintain coverage down south in case of a simulcast failure.

None of this bodes well for Worcester given - if I recall correctly - St. Mary's has 13 towers and Worcester only has 6....(plus 3 OC system towers). Of course, no two areas or systems are the same.

I was in Worcester/OC Tuesday and Wednesday and believe I heard unit multiple times reporting coverage issues requesting they be added to the logs.

troymail said:

None of this bodes well for Worcester given - if I recall correctly - St. Mary's has 13 towers and Worcester only has 6....(plus 3 OC system towers). Of course, no two areas or systems are the same.

I was in Worcester/OC Tuesday and Wednesday and believe I heard unit multiple times reporting coverage issues requesting they be added to the logs.

Click to expand...

Hmm, multiple reports in the span of two days - that goes against the narrative of what the system managers have said recently. Doesn't sound good - could it have been part of coverage / acceptance testing procedures?