The system will be coordinated by Motorola and the nearby Louisville MetroSafe.
Communication system to be upgraded | PioneerNews.net
Communication system to be upgraded | PioneerNews.net
Bullitt County KY upgrading to 800Mhz digital system
- Thread starter ColonelMike
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Current plans are for police, fire and EMS to switch to the new system in 12-18 months depending on build-out. The last of the voting issues occurred a few days ago so the system is a go.
Best of luck with that new system.
Roughly a month ago a new system went online coordinated by Motorola.
4-6 months behind schedule. 3 weeks into it and fire dept still had huge issues with speakers not opening up during station alerting, wrong stations getting calls. Plus other issues they wont talk about since PD is encrypted. LOL
Hope it goes well.
And for the record, I blame the police and fire officers higher up who signed off on the system to go live with out proper testing. I put less blame on the contractors who Motorola hired as they need guidance with some of those extra features and need proper testing.
Roughly a month ago a new system went online coordinated by Motorola.
4-6 months behind schedule. 3 weeks into it and fire dept still had huge issues with speakers not opening up during station alerting, wrong stations getting calls. Plus other issues they wont talk about since PD is encrypted. LOL
Hope it goes well.
And for the record, I blame the police and fire officers higher up who signed off on the system to go live with out proper testing. I put less blame on the contractors who Motorola hired as they need guidance with some of those extra features and need proper testing.
I think we are very lucky because this is basically an extension of the Louisville MetroSafe system to a certain degree. That system has been very solid for years and they recently completed some upgrades that went very smooth. That system has 6,000+ users from what I remember. I don't see us having the normal issues that come with a start up system. I am sure it won't be trouble free but it should be smoother than 95% of installs based upon the current infrastructure we are basically joining.
In addition, Oldham County nearby is currently over halfway thru doing the same thing we are doing so we should be able to learn from any of the issues they encountered along the way.
In addition, Oldham County nearby is currently over halfway thru doing the same thing we are doing so we should be able to learn from any of the issues they encountered along the way.
Yes that will definitely help. Going from the ground up can be a lot to handle.
Congrats on the expanding system in your area.
Congrats on the expanding system in your area.
Before retirement I was a user on the MetroSafe system and had a hand in the planning. For the Louisville/Jefferson County area it significantly improved coverage - and we had a pretty decent system as it was. Interoperability and narrowbanding were the drivers for us.
We spent a lot of time testing, checking, re-testing and general "playing around" with the radio system before it went "live". There was one area of the county that had "dead spots" and a new site was built to cover that. However we did not have any of the horror stories of bad audio, etc. early digital users experienced.
For Bullitt County, quite frankly, "it's about time". They got a horrible radio system with way too many dead spots. They have used up all the rubber bands and bubble gum they can find just to keep what they have sort of functioning. First responders face enough risks as it is and should not be forced to rely on less than the best communications equipment available.
All I ask is just don't go nuts with encryption. Some things should be but not everything. One of the biggest gripes I heard from the public back during the big train derailment was they didn't know what was going on. With scanner apps and feeds, they would have that ability and not rely on media briefings.
We spent a lot of time testing, checking, re-testing and general "playing around" with the radio system before it went "live". There was one area of the county that had "dead spots" and a new site was built to cover that. However we did not have any of the horror stories of bad audio, etc. early digital users experienced.
For Bullitt County, quite frankly, "it's about time". They got a horrible radio system with way too many dead spots. They have used up all the rubber bands and bubble gum they can find just to keep what they have sort of functioning. First responders face enough risks as it is and should not be forced to rely on less than the best communications equipment available.
All I ask is just don't go nuts with encryption. Some things should be but not everything. One of the biggest gripes I heard from the public back during the big train derailment was they didn't know what was going on. With scanner apps and feeds, they would have that ability and not rely on media briefings.
I think its exciting to finally see counties surrounding Jefferson finally getting on the digital bandwagon. I think it will tremendously help with mutual aid purposes as well.
Hopefully the users in Bullitt County now that use there own personal radios will be okay with the fact that they won't be able to do the same with the new system and don't try to cause to much of a stir about it.
Hopefully the users in Bullitt County now that use there own personal radios will be okay with the fact that they won't be able to do the same with the new system and don't try to cause to much of a stir about it.
my only issues with this unless they they leave the an analog ch for bridge other counties that touch bullitt have no way to communicate with them they work with hardin and nelson a **** ton and this leaves them in the dark
The Kentucky Wireless Interoperability "thing" is intended to deal with this situation. Many agencies in Bullitt, Nelson and Hardin counties are participants in the plan.
https://kwiec.ky.gov/Pages/default.aspx
But human nature being what it is, resources infrequently used tend to be forgotten about, when things get really hectic.
When our department migrated to MetroSafe, we retained quite a bit of VHF equipment for when we responded in to Bullitt County. Also if there was a need to purchase new equipment, dual band radios were purchased.
My two cents is that Kentucky ought to be giving some thought to a statewide radio system (yeah it would take forever to accomplish). We are at the back of the pack in that regard.
https://kwiec.ky.gov/Pages/default.aspx
But human nature being what it is, resources infrequently used tend to be forgotten about, when things get really hectic.
When our department migrated to MetroSafe, we retained quite a bit of VHF equipment for when we responded in to Bullitt County. Also if there was a need to purchase new equipment, dual band radios were purchased.
My two cents is that Kentucky ought to be giving some thought to a statewide radio system (yeah it would take forever to accomplish). We are at the back of the pack in that regard.
In addition to the interoperability that Chief talked about above, there was discussion about our Mutual Aid channel being bridged back to one of our current VHF channels. We are still about 12 months out potentially as they are awaiting approval on two new tower sites before starting the actual buildout.
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