West Orange EDACS

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ansky

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The West Orange EDACS system has been sounding terrible lately. I live right in town and they are very scratchy and sometimes cut out completely. I also notice that often the dispatcher audio comes in very low and almost inaudible. I'm wondering if the system is having problems. I know someone posted here a while back saying that West Orange may be upgrading to a digital system this year, but I have not seen anything more about it since then. I know EDACS is EOL at this point so just wondering what they may be looking to do.
 

slingshot202

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Some days I can barely hear units and then others it is like they are sitting in the room with me. I have not noticed any poor reception, but then again I would have to look to see if I am receiving them at all.

Sometimes I notice that I have 1 bar on them and the scanner does not move, so I am sure it has to be them or a tower that is down.
 

Markscan

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I get them full strength in West Caldwell on my SDS200. I set the filter to wide normal and they sound ok.


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markjrenna

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No matter what I use and try they sound like crap a low scratchy mess in Verona.
 

ansky

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No matter what I use and try they sound like crap a low scratchy mess in Verona.

I noticed in particular the 853.6625 frequency is especially bad for me. Whenever they transmit on that frequency they always sound worse than when they transmit on the others. Luckily 6625 is not used for control channel purposes or I probably wouldn't be able to pull them in at all.
 

Tac-1

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I get west orange 100% in Linden on my sds100 with filter set to wide normal had the same problem with irvington pd coming in very noisy low signal until i changed the filter to INVERT now they sound like their tower is down the street. so, if you have a sds100 or 200 experiment with filter settings to see what works best
 

ansky

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The West Orange EDACS system continues to have problems. This afternoon the police dispatcher was complaining that units in the field were being received low and choppy (exactly how I hear them on my scanner). So clearly this is a bigger issue than adjusting the settings on my scanner. It makes you wonder how much longer they can stick with this old system.
 

markjrenna

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They could go to NJ ICS tomorrow. But they won't because the corrupt politicians won't get greased for that obvious smart decision.
 

ansky

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They could go to NJ ICS tomorrow. But they won't because the corrupt politicians won't get greased for that obvious smart decision.

The town does not have any licensed frequencies outside of the EDACS system. I have no idea what they would do in the event of a system failure.
 

Markscan

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It’s already failed. On July 17 it went down completely for about 10 minutes. They were lucky they got it to come back up. They are not being very proactive about replacing it. It’s been on the air since the late 1980’s.

There have been a lot of complaints from the police and fire departments, but not very much has changed. Maybe they need to have the PBA file a series of grievances about officer safety. That’s what happened in Montclair, and they eventually moved to NJICS.


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ansky

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It’s already failed. On July 17 it went down completely for about 10 minutes. They were lucky they got it to come back up. They are not being very proactive about replacing it. It’s been on the air since the late 1980’s.

There have been a lot of complaints from the police and fire departments, but not very much has changed. Maybe they need to have the PBA file a series of grievances about officer safety. That’s what happened in Montclair, and they eventually moved to NJICS.


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The town is too busy wasting taxpayer dollars on other unnecessary projects. Last winter they did a big project at the town pool to build a new entrance for pool members including a brand new building (a building that is only going to be used 3 months out of the year for pool season). The old entrance and building just sits there, vacant.
 

ansky

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The West Orange TRS sounds much better lately. I guess they fixed whatever the problem was. They are coming in stronger and there is no annoying buzzing after every transmission.
 

markjrenna

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The West Orange TRS sounds much better lately. I guess they fixed whatever the problem was. They are coming in stronger and there is no annoying buzzing after every transmission.
WOW you are right! Maybe the fixed the loose connector.
:D
 

NParkNJ

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They’ve been sounding good. Programmed them in my BCT15X and am hearing them nice and cleae from Pompton Lakes(IAO 287).
 

ansky

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I spoke too soon. As of this afternoon they are back to sounding crappy again. Scratchy and in some cases cutting out completely. Some transmissions are so low they are barely audible.
 

ansky

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I'm sitting here listening to West Orange this evening and the dispatcher just came on the air and said the main network is down and everyone needs to switch to their back up radios. I'm not even sure what those back up radios are. Makes you wonder how much longer this system can go on.
 

slingshot202

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I am home today and on the antenna on the roof, they are low, and the signal strength is pretty bad. I can only imagine how the feed scanner is picking them up (where ever that is)...hmmmmm :)
 

kevinb77777

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West Orange NJ
Living in West Orange, @ 6pm on 9/6/2019 their signal is very strong 5 bars with either my RS Pro 651 or WS-1080. I am using the small portable antenna on both units.

Kevin B

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slingshot202

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So odd, I am in Livingston over the hill and I am getting them like garbage. I think there is an antenna at the top of the hill, perhaps it is out now. I have had my feed up for a while which comes from the basement and just realized I have not heard anything off it all day. I have to see if it has any bars, I am doubting that it does.
 
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