Luzerne county will open bids for new radio system

[WB3DYE]

Luzerne County, Pennsylvania on behalf of its 911 center (COUNTY) is soliciting proposals for a P25 Phase II, Trunked, Repeated, Simulcast, 150-160 MHz / VHF, Next Generation Public Safety Radio System to meet the future needs of COUNTY’s Public Safety Emergency Services Providers. The system shall include county-wide VHF analog paging.

Luzerne County, PA

 

[One13Truck]

I guess unless they do typical Luzerne County type things and rush this through they will never meet their initial EOY 2020 deadline. Also interesting to see they are going with the VHF rather than using the 800's they have licensed already (maybe they can't, I'm far from an expert at the FCC filings and that database). But if they're going VHF I don't understand why they are paying to build out their own system instead of using the PSP system. Another thing of interest is that it looks like they will be combining a few of the fire and police zones to shrink down the number of them in use if those links were correct. Not a bad thing on paper but the way they are combining makes me scratch my head a bit. Not exactly the way I would've combined them based on how departments in the field actually work with each other. Should make for a very interesting couple of years coming up.

 

[WB3DYE]

I suspect part of the reason there isn't a PSP/county pact is simply public relations---unfairly so PSP has taken over the failed 800 MHz system--Whoever decided on going 800 MHz with the mountains all over doesn't know basic propagation or someone was getting their hands "greased". Lawmakers are demanding answers over who approved 600 MILLION DOLLARS in cost overruns.
I am glad to see they want whoever gets the contract the county is making those who build it jump through a lot of hoops. one of the biggest---the county does NOT want propietry equipment. That way they won't be locked into one company---Something the state police system suffered from

 

[One13Truck]

I ran out of time at work looking over all the filings but will pick up tomorrow. I am glad they have all of those hoops in place. I assume it's probably standard but nice to see it was included. It really confirms for me just how crazy that EOY 2020 deadline will be to hit though unless they roll out something that has a ton of issues. I'm also hoping as time goes on the fire and police zone map gets tweaked. I have zero idea how they put them together. It splits up a lot of areas that work together. But that's a worry for many months down the road. For now it will just be interesting to watch the progress as things move along.