Whats advantage of county putting in a simulcast system
- Thread starter mitchkrat
- Start date
dgruver911
Member
When we did it, was for a couple of reasons.
Number one, frequencies can be hard to find/authorize. Using simulcast, you only have to get one set of frequencies, rather than 3-4 sets.
Second, and more important to us, was the overlapping coverage that simulcast provides over stand-alone towers. Portable coverage on the fringes of the simulcast overlap is much improved.
Yes, it is more expensive. The timing and GPS units are expensive and fail a lot. And in our case, having a major city to the west means all 3 of our towers get a LOT of traffic from them. But we want to add a 4th simulcast site in SE Harvey County if we can ever afford it, and if we do, the Burrton site out west will switch to a stand-alone site so we're not fighting against Hutch in Newton for airtime.
Number one, frequencies can be hard to find/authorize. Using simulcast, you only have to get one set of frequencies, rather than 3-4 sets.
Second, and more important to us, was the overlapping coverage that simulcast provides over stand-alone towers. Portable coverage on the fringes of the simulcast overlap is much improved.
Yes, it is more expensive. The timing and GPS units are expensive and fail a lot. And in our case, having a major city to the west means all 3 of our towers get a LOT of traffic from them. But we want to add a 4th simulcast site in SE Harvey County if we can ever afford it, and if we do, the Burrton site out west will switch to a stand-alone site so we're not fighting against Hutch in Newton for airtime.
mmckenna
I ♥ Ø
Also means you can use a non-trunking capable radio, which can save money.
If the agency does not need more capacity, just more coverage, simulcast is an excellent option. It also makes it so the end user doesn't have to manually change channels depending on which area they are in. It's transparent to the end user.
If the agency does not need more capacity, just more coverage, simulcast is an excellent option. It also makes it so the end user doesn't have to manually change channels depending on which area they are in. It's transparent to the end user.
dgruver911
Member
Huh? First, how would a non-trunking radio help? Simulcast is trunking, at least with reagrds to the 800 systems. Second, why would a user have to change channels to change towers? If Talkgroups are, like ours, assigned to all towers in your county as well as every surrounding county (or statewide) they don't have to do anything, reagrdless of whether they're on our simulcast towers or one of the stand-alone towers in a neighboring county.
nd5y
Member
Simulcast is NOT trunking and has nothing to do with the frequency or band used.
The LA fire dept had simulcast low band simplex channels decades ago before trunking existed.
That depends on the type of system and how the system and user radios are configured.
dgruver911
Member
Yes, I worded that poorly. But I was answering a question from within our own state about a system that I am intimately familiar with. Not low band, not VHF or UHF, not conventional. I'm sorry if that sounds snarky, it's not meant to.
Project25_MASTR
Millennial Graying OBT Guy
You say that, but look at Bandera, TX. The county put out an RFP not to long ago in the wake of the July 4th Flooding that greatly affected counties such as Kerr, Gilespie, Kendall, Comal, Blanco, Burnet, Llano, Lampasas, San Saba, Bexar, Hays, etc. for a conventional simulcast system. Most of the counties listed above are on one of two P25 trunking systems either in 700 MHz with some simulcast and a lot of wide area or a a mixed band system that is VHF, 700/800 MHz with simulcast and wide area trunking. In the wake of all of that, Bandera decided that they wanted nothing to do with trunking even though that's the migration path the rest of the state is working towards.
mmckenna
I ♥ Ø
No, it's not. Simulcast can be done with conventional systems. A lot of areas that do not need trunking use conventional simulcast.
Again, simulcast is not necessarily trunking. On a non-simulcast conventional system, the user may need to change channels to access repeaters specific to an area of a county.
You were a bit unclear in your original question. Trunking systems can use simulcast, but so can conventional systems. Based on your clarification, a simulcast system reuses the same frequencies across the entire county, easing licensing. Most areas have plenty of 700 and 800MHz frequencies available, so that's not really a big deal.
Adding a trunked site with it's own frequencies is marginally easier since the timing of making a simulcast system is not required.
firefive76
Member
The OP is clearly talking about the state’s radio system, KSICS, which dgruver911 (and myself) are both very familiar with. The system is a P25 TRUNKED radio system. That negates the non-trunking radio concept and most likely the changing channels for different sites.
