Okaloosa County might be moving over to SLERS

[wise871]

I just saw a news brief on the local news. This week local EMS crews are getting training on new MA/COM radios. Next month the fire departments will be trained on the new systems. They didn’t say if it was the Statewide Law Enforcement Radio System but they were gray looking handhelds with MA/COM across the top in white letters and digital readouts. The one on TV had FWB EMS on the display. They said that police, sheriff, fire and EMS will be able to communicate with each other unlike the older more expensive system. I’m all for them getting new radio gear. I just hope it’s not on SLERS. Okaloosa County provides tons of listening in the panhandle area.

I know Santa Rosa County Sheriffs department just did some radio upgrades two weeks ago but they still remain on the same frequencies. Each car was asked if they had MOT or MA/COM radios in their units and asked to report to the radio techs operating at one of the fire stations for radio upgrades.

 

[wise871]

Yep, looks like it will be SLERS. EMS is suppose to move over this fall. Here are some links with local info. From what I read so far, the new EOC will not be operational until 2010. The original estimate was 2009. Not sure if there moving the timline up for the radio switch.

Okaloosa County 911 Training
http://www.weartv.com/newsroom/x_stories/story18.shtml

Crestview weighs radio options
http://community.emeraldcoast.com/entertainment/system_17717___article.html/crestview_villani.html

Okaloosa County works toward new emergency center
http://www.nwfdailynews.com/article/8906

 

[sjcscanner]

they never seem to look at it from our point of view....

 

[wise871]

Between rising home owners insurance cost, hurricanes and now SLERS, I might have to move to someplace like Atlanta where I can get some good scanning in. :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[JohnnyGalaga]

Dammit Dammit Dammit

 

[sjcscanner]

well this states goin to crap scanner wise now isn't it. if you look up your counties, some of them sadly actually have extended growth licenses that some times have encription in the plans... . goes back to this thread i started a while back-- http://radioreference.com/forums/showthread.php?t=78749

 

[gcr33]

Lets see it work. Most sites only have a few frequencies. So, an FHP car can use it and one SO unit but fire at the same time might be a no no.

 

[wise871]

Well there going to make it happen. Our EMS is suppose to switch over first next month.

 

[gcr33]

Lots of luck. You will need it.

 

[n4dog]

That really stinks. I wonder how they are going to page out the FD's and EMS? There is no paging system with SLERS.

 

[flecom]

Lets see it work. Most sites only have a few frequencies. So, an FHP car can use it and one SO unit but fire at the same time might be a no no.

i guarantee you the sites have more than 3 channels

 

[ElroyJetson]

Before they make that switch, they should have informal interviews with every FHP officer they can make contact with.

I've talked to a number of FHP officers and NONE of them thinks the SLERS system is as
good as the SmartZone system was. To be blunt about it, the majority of the officers
I've talked to, and asked them what they thought of the SLERS system, have essentially
told me that the system sucks rocks.

They are particularly underwhelmed with the low quality and reliability of their portable
radios, which are 7100IPs. Being an owner of that sort of radio myself, I can tell you
that I'd tend to agree. Mine hasn't broken but it hasn't impressed me yet, either. My
Astro Sabers are all vastly superior in every meaningful way.

Going to SLERS was a mistake. Going to it when you don't have to is a crime.

Elroy

 

[flecom]

Before they make that switch, they should have informal interviews with every FHP officer they can make contact with.

I've talked to a number of FHP officers and NONE of them thinks the SLERS system is as
good as the SmartZone system was. To be blunt about it, the majority of the officers
I've talked to, and asked them what they thought of the SLERS system, have essentially
told me that the system sucks rocks.

They are particularly underwhelmed with the low quality and reliability of their portable
radios, which are 7100IPs. Being an owner of that sort of radio myself, I can tell you
that I'd tend to agree. Mine hasn't broken but it hasn't impressed me yet, either. My
Astro Sabers are all vastly superior in every meaningful way.

Going to SLERS was a mistake. Going to it when you don't have to is a crime.

Elroy

yes but Astro sabers were great radios but they are unsupported now so they would have XTS's anyway which i think is definately on par with the 7100... motorola wanted to get away from the whole saber/astro saber thing because the radios were too good... they worked too well, so motorola couldent sell you new "better" radios

another thing ive noticed, 99.99999% of officers will tell you ANY radio system sucks... becuase they dont have 1000% coverage in every toilet and dunkin donuts in the entire state... and they always say the old system was better, even if the old system sucked just as much, or more... so i wouldent be too quick to start crying wolf...

even tho i agree the whole encrypted pro-voice thing is pretty lame its really kind of inevetable that most systems out there will become encrypted or at least digital...

 

[ElroyJetson]

I'm not sure you understand me...

The 10-year-old Astro Saber is dramatically superior to the CURRENT GENERATION 7100IP.

Before Florida lost its collective governmental mind, new XTS5000s WERE purchased and used on the system. No doubt if Florida had continued with the SmartZone system,
most of the Astro Sabers would have been replaced with XTS5000s.

And believe me, if the Astro Saber is dramatically superior to the 7100IP, the XTS-5000
utterly outclasses it. My limited experiences with XTS5000s have left me as deeply
impressed as my first experiences with Astro Sabers.

And the 7100IP is still a lightly built toy with poor audio quality, spotty performance,
and an operating system that's slow to respond and somewhat flaky.


Elroy

 

[flecom]

And believe me, if the Astro Saber is dramatically superior to the 7100IP, the XTS-5000
utterly outclasses it. My limited experiences with XTS5000s have left me as deeply
impressed as my first experiences with Astro Sabers.

And the 7100IP is still a lightly built toy with poor audio quality, spotty performance,
and an operating system that's slow to respond and somewhat flaky.


Elroy

hrmm, i dont agree, but then again, we probably havent had the same expierences with both radios... the AS was a great radio, i definately dont think the XTS is really that much better than the AS except for more features like texting etc...

the 7100IP in my expierences has excellent audio quality, do you have the latest DSP files?? the 7100 does have terrible battery life tho, and the "pop" sound of the audio amp turning on and off drives me crazy, but you can fix that easily...

plus i just tend to stay away from motorola becuase i dont want to get questioned every time i go to a ham fest (i have seen the /\/\oto police walking around at certain events... the one /\/\oto hacker i knew kind of dissapeared off the face of the earth lol)

 

[grem467]

Quote Of The Week!!

99.99999% of officers will tell you ANY radio system sucks... becuase they dont have 1000% coverage in every toilet and dunkin donuts in the entire state... and they always say the old system was better, even if the old system sucked just as much, or more...

BEST.QUOTE.EVER!

 

[gcr33]

Elroy, I love your comment about Motorola Police. Give me a break. Motorola has a division called intellectual property. They are the lawyers who sue those who violate the patents and contracts.
Motorola Police are right up there next to ghosts and cartoon characters they are all in one's mind.

 

[ElroyJetson]

It wasn't I who mentioned the Moto police! Read again.


Let's see...my hands-on experience with Jaguars and 7100s could best be described as "considerable" since I've carried one with me every single day for about three years now,
and I've got about FIFTY of them in various versions at the shop that are in varying stages
of repair and/or functionality. My latest recovery has P25 trunking, ESK, and ProVoice in its feature string.

I've also owned and used Astro Sabers since they were still a pretty new model. I currently own five of them. In all bands.

I wouldn't say I have extensive experience with all these radios but I'm definitely some
sort of veteran on all of them. And my informed, carefully considered opinion of them
based on real-world usage and many experiences on the test bench is that Motorola's
Astro series radios (ALL that I have any experience with) may be a bit harder to work on,
but they are, to my way of thinking, undoubtedly superior to any Jaguar/7100 series radio
in both build quality and performance, including and ESPECIALLY audio performance.

M/A-Com does have some good ideas in the 7100. But they could also stand to learn a lot
by doing a detailed analysis of what it is that made the Astro Sabers so good and makes
the XTS-5000 such a good radio today.

I genuinely hope that BOTH companies learn from each other and produce better products
in the future. If that happens, everybody wins.


Elroy

 

[wwhitby]

another thing ive noticed, 99.99999% of officers will tell you ANY radio system sucks... becuase they dont have 1000% coverage in every toilet and dunkin donuts in the entire state

The problem is that crime doesn't always happen in areas where you have good radio coverage. A law enforcement officer needs as much confidence that their radios will work when they need them as that their weapon will go bang when the pull the trigger.

It sounds like some of the troopers have already lost confidence in that system.

Warren

 

[ElroyJetson]

Most of them, judging from the ones I've talked to. And NOBODY who has any understanding of the system thinks that they should be running full-time encryption. It's apparently a source of a considerable number of headaches all by itself.

I think a lot of problems could be solved if they simply dropped the full-time encryption,
and used it only on an as-needed basis. Which, for a department that mostly does
traffic enforcement, shouldn't be very often.


Elroy