Ahhhh seems to me like a few of you are just upset that your favorite town and or agency is switching to a digital system that you are not able to monitor. Well, welcome to the 21st century and the digital age. I am not at all standing up for Open Sky or it's problems at all and share the same regard as you all do but BA got a good deal at the table and they get to shut the ears off of the scanner listeners in the process. If it wasn't Open Sky that they chose it might have been ProVoice and then there would be *****ing about how much ProVoice sucks. The point I am tying to make is that it's the digital age and the age of post 9/11. There may be a point in the future where nothing public safety wise will monitorable. It's not the agencies fault it's the times and it's technology and the options they have to chose from, sorry. At the end of the debate the fact is you will just have to find something else to listen to or hope for some type of digital scanner that will scan this newer technology which is highly unlikely.
Yes you are correct. I'm not going to sit hear and tell you that switching to a proprietary format that is not monitorable is not concerning. I think we all (well maybe not all) enjoy listening to our favorite agencies..but...wait for it......BUT
OpenSky has been a problem child for a
long time. Our beloved LVMPD keeps pushing off the sign off date because of these problems. I would think you would be familiar with the debacle regarding the City of Milwaukee as well and the boatloads of money that are being put into a system that was a failure from the start! Then there's New York state that CANCELED a 2
Billion dollar contract with them. I could go on, but I'm sure you know how to use Google. Maybe you haven't had the chance to listen in on a VHF patch of the system during testing. I have and I can tell you that even the
users of the system are frustrated. I can't keep track of how many times a dispatcher has had to have an officer repeat and repeat what they are saying because they sound like they are in a fish tank! You can
hear the frustration in
their voices!
My point is there are PLENTY of other systems monitorable or not that
WORK! My opinion (and more than a few others) is that OpenSky a poor choice when it comes to spending tax payer dollars. Would I be able to monitor these other systems...NO! But at least they would be up and running by now and not be a massive waste of my money!
Finally, I am as sure as it will snow this winter in Buffalo that there will come a day when the majority if not all public service agencies will encrypt or be unable to be monitored. It doesn't take a 21st century digital rocket scientist to see this coming. But thanks for letting me know. :roll:
:roll:
