Yes, it's VHF
... I am in a county in Florida that has oneof th eonly VHF P25 conventional Amateur Radio Systems and the coverage is ausome.
I couldn't agree more.
This is why the federal government's alphabet agencies have stayed on VHF.
Like your P25 system (and we also have a P25 ham repeater in Detroit, which also has awesome coverage), the federal government still has great coverage on VHF, digital and encrypted.
Are there any 900 Mhz ham repeaters down your way?
Ever talk on one with a handheld?
We have several in Michigan.
Full signal one minute, move a foot to the left or right, and the signal will drop right out.
800 Mhz just isn't meant for voice communications. Sure it will work if you spend, spend, spend the taxpayers money. And if everything is on relatively flat land. It's great for data, it just keeps trying until the parity bits are in perfect harmony.
As a ham, I'm sure you agree with me.
You have to swap out your feedline and antenna every ten years, or your signal will be degraded.
This is why so many new mulit-million 800 Mhz systems are sold.
The municipality has had the same coax up there for 40 years. When you take it down, you can snap the coax like a twig (don't laugh, I've actually seen it). And the antenna is all corroded.
So here comes a vendor doing a demo on a new system that, yes, can talk further than the existing system. And the taxpayers just spent millions of dollars on a $2000 fix.
An excellent example is Corbin Kentucky.
The police chief said "Every time it rains, the signal goes south".
Did their radio vendor suggest they take a look at the antenna and coax and connectors?
No, the vendor sold them a Nexedge system that can't be monitored.
Here's a link to the Corbin story:
http://forums.radioreference.com/ke...orbin-911-center-replace-outdated-radios.html