kyparamedic
Member
Currently we operate off of two towers. They are programmed in to our radios as 2 separate systems that we have to manually switch to depending on our location in the county. They are putting up a 3rd site at which time we will be adding ProScan so that we no longer have to switch. Will our radios still have 3 separate systems programmed in? From what I've been told, not all the talkgroups are on both the sites we have now as they're not needed in that part of the county. If for some reason we were to try to use one of these and were in the coverage area of the site that doesn't have it, what would happen?
What are the advantages/reasons for operating a multicast system like this as opposed to simulcast? It seems like it just ties up more frequencies. The only thing that came to the top of my head is that if one site went down, you would still have the others if in range.
One last thing. We have a few radios that will automatically pick up the strongest tower. It will go to CC SCAN for a second and then WA SCAN until it gets the other system. (I know this stands for control channel and wide area.) When we rebanded, some people asked the radio guy to program their radios to do this. He said that he didn't really feel comfortable because we could get in an area that had about equal reception and it would just switch back and forth continously and we wouldn't be able to call out. However, he would do it if they insisted. He said that for the radios to switch automatically and reliably, they needed to install a switch in dispatch which would run about $30k. Was he referring to ProScan?
Thanks.
What are the advantages/reasons for operating a multicast system like this as opposed to simulcast? It seems like it just ties up more frequencies. The only thing that came to the top of my head is that if one site went down, you would still have the others if in range.
One last thing. We have a few radios that will automatically pick up the strongest tower. It will go to CC SCAN for a second and then WA SCAN until it gets the other system. (I know this stands for control channel and wide area.) When we rebanded, some people asked the radio guy to program their radios to do this. He said that he didn't really feel comfortable because we could get in an area that had about equal reception and it would just switch back and forth continously and we wouldn't be able to call out. However, he would do it if they insisted. He said that for the radios to switch automatically and reliably, they needed to install a switch in dispatch which would run about $30k. Was he referring to ProScan?
Thanks.