MTA Police on State Of New York Metro-25 Trunking System

[CqDx]

Thanks for the insight!

In Westchester County I hear MTA PD regularly on VHF and occasionally on METRO 25. Based on the radio ID and the audio quality it doesn't sound like a patch which makes me think some APX radios are already programmed with METRO 25 system. Though MTA PD doesn't patch VHF calls over 800 so does it mean dispatcher already have both VHF and METRO 25 consoles/consolettes today?

 

[Spec]

Just a little background on the MTA so folks don't get too confused. The MTA is the parent organization. It is comprised of : MTA PD, LIRR, MNRR, SIRT, MTA B&T, NYC Subways, and Bus. The are some more parts to it. Each organization is separate and responsible to the parent organization. Each has it's own budgets and operating departments. The MTA PD does not have its own radio shop per se . Example MNRR takes care of the PD in the north for the most part. There are people who are assigned (correct me if I'm wrong Radio) to various departments within the RR and PD. Now given the amount of various agencies TBTA ,LIRR, MNRR etc one can see how over the years why the radio systems were and still are a mess. The radio shop has to deal with budgets, charge backs and of course politics of each organization. This dates back to before many of the users on this board were born. AND so does the radio system to some extent. Try to push a rope and you will understand what it's like. When the merge and creation of the MTA PD took place in 1998 it even got more confusing. The task of getting things working throughout system have been left to people like Radio. So every time you think you have an answer to the whole problem think about pushing a rope. I thank people like radio for their diligence in trying to create a great system . Now add the problems of freq. coordination and tower sites acquisition I think you'll all get the idea.

 

[radioman2001]

To further the discussion MTA PD basically has one budget, the rest of the MTA (Metro North, LIRR, TBTA etc) are separate agencies under one umbrella. I don't know the politics of it, but what was said to me was that when the PD's merged the power structure went out towards LI, and that's probably why the new HQ is in Queens. Metro North does maintain all the North equipment, and did up to the move to Queens maintain all facilities that came into and was located at 347 Madison. I don't know who does it now, a lot of the circuits are Verizon who now maintains it instead of the in house fiber, the consoles are maintained by Zetron directly and the Metro-25 equipment is maintained by a private radio shop. You are right there is no MTA PD radio shop per-se, just a few techs (2) that address minor issues, so each division (Metro North, LIRR etc) still maintains it's own.

 

[4-crime]

Doesn't anyone know the channel band plan for this system?