San Francisco 700mhz in 2010

[radio10-8]

I do not know if this has been covered in a previous thread but I heard from Motorola rep last month that Motorola will be submitting the radio plans to the City & County of SF for a 700mhz system. It will include trunking (smart net II?) and APCO25 digital and some analog. Plans are for a fireground channel for PD & Fire to use together for scene security. Fire will keep a fire specific channel for working fires. Also a travel type channel (154.????) when on mutual aid. Changes to MDC system also (Unknown type of changes) Sgts & up could get a yellow housing XTS 3 or 5k to identify radios that have extra freqs programmed into them, (Poss a connection to Coast Guard ch21? and another Fed type interagency coordinatrion freq.) All these are just plans at this time and are have been submitted for review. Rep also told me that 2 other radio manufactures ahve submitted similar proposals. He said it will be similar to what NYC has coming up in their system. I don't know anything about NYC if anyone has some info? I also do not know when the hearings are for this system upgrade or if hearings are open to the public.

 

[trooperdude]

Everybody is lining up for the 700Mhz block.

Most of the big cities first.

The plan for the consolidated regional system for ALCO/COCO counties will also
include 700Mhz channels as they become available.

 

[karldotcom]

That spectrum wont be ready that quick

 

[Eng74]

Sounds more like they are getting bids for a system so this is just the start.

 

[karldotcom]

Since it is SF it will probably be OpenSky...Does Alameda County's system operate correctly? I heard they had a lot of problems with it.

 

[WayneH]

Since it is SF it will probably be OpenSky...Does Alameda County's system operate correctly? I heard they had a lot of problems with it.

SF can upgrade with what they currently have to support 700 without issue. What they're using now, infrastructure-wise, can support a P25 Trunking upgrade with little to no equipment swap-out. Subscribers on the other hand...I think there's still a lot of analog-only gear. I'm not sure if Site 2 is running Quantars or not.

ALCO...their system seems to be operating fine. Nothing out of the ordinary. They don't seem to be gearing up for the transition to the new system yet.

 

[rooivalk]

Some random thoughts:

--There's already a channel that can be used between the PD/FD at fire scenes
--The system, currently, has not the best coverage, with multiple dead spots, especialy downtown
--There's still occasional interference from other 800MHZ trunked systems
--Range is poor as compared to the older 460MHZ PIC radio system

For 40million, I would have thought performance would be good, but I dont think anyone is happy with it.