'Leap second' knocked key city radios offline New Year's Eve

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IdleMonitor

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IdleMonitor

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IdleMonitor

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Ottawa firefighters caught between two rocky radio systems

Ottawa firefighters are “between a rock and a hard place” when it comes to transitioning from an outdated radio system to a precarious new one, their union’s health and safety chair says.

Vic Dillabaugh, a fire captain, said the Ottawa Professional Fire Fighters Association has been working with the city for more than a year to make sure the new radio system is stable before implementing it.

Ottawa firefighters caught between two rocky radio systems | Ottawa & Region | N
 

OttawaBob

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Getting a bit tired of seeing the current EDACS system being marked as "hanging by a thread" etc. For a system which went EOL years ago, the system is still functioning without any huge failures. Kudos to the hardware and radio techs who implemented and maintain this current system. The city has changed/grown since this system was first rolled out and it still works reliably well enough to serve its purpose. To imply that it is almost failing is unfair in my opinion unless there are technical issues which are unknown to me. Don't get me wrong. I'm all for progress and interoperability as well as more secure communications going forward. I just think people should recognize and appreciate a reliable infrastructure as well.
 

bpsmicro

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The worry is that parts are failing here & there, and replacement parts are getting scarce. For the portables, the batteries are pretty much done. In many cases they'll last a couple of hours, or even less. And while batteries are probably available, they're expensive. And as you can imagine there's a reluctance to spend thousands of dollars (we're talking six figures here) to buy a whack of batteries that are *supposed* to be obsolete.
But more worrisome are things like the various controller boards in the repeaters & consoles. They're failing, and being swapped out, and the supply of those boards is dwindling. And the manufacturer has no interest in making replacements, or repairing the flamed out ones. Sooner or later, they'll be down to the last board, and when it dies they'll be boned.

I'm with you in extending kudos to the folks keeping things running. They're mostly the same folks dealing with the headaches of the new system too, so I'm sure many of them are aging prematurely. :)

Brad.
 

OttawaBob

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Good points all. These were some of the components which I did not take into account.

As for those who are handling the new P25 implementation issues, there are a number of different agencies involved including Airbus/Cassidian/Bell who are stick handling the various issues.
 
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