Lawrence PD Grant For Radios

[cmed325]

Lawrence Mass has received a grant for 1 Million Dollars to update their Radio system to a P-25 Digital system much like Methuen.How much will be encrypted remains to be seen.

 

[KB1VLA]

Lawrence police radio system getting $1 million upgrade | Merrimack Valley | eagletribune.com

 

[garys]

The reporter obviously knows nothing about radios, digital or analog.

 

[N4GIX]

Really? What gave that away? This thoroughly ignorant sentence perhaps?

The police radios will upgraded from an analog system, which relies on antiquated copper wiring, to a digital system.

:roll:

 

[garys]

That was the first clue, but not the only one. Apparently, he just read press releases and retyped the parts he (or she) thought sounded impressive.

I took the copper wire thing to mean they are going to VOIP or at the least fiber for connectivity. How wonder how many copper control lines are left out there?

Really? What gave that away? This thoroughly ignorant sentence perhaps?
:roll:

 

[potala1369]

Will the new digital radio system rely on 'modern' copper wires?

 

[cmed325]

I have to admit i enjoy trying to make sense of what non-radio people are trying to say.

 

[jim202]

Your not going to get that much of a system for a million bucks. The mobile and portable radios go for at least $3 K to $6 K each depending on the options. The tower site cost can run from between $250 k to over $500 k each depending on how many channels the tower sites will have. Then you have the dispatch consoles and the new link between the dispatch center and each of the tower sites.

Bottom line here is that amount of money may seem like a whole lot of dollars, but once you start to add up the real cost, it doesn't go that far. On top of the radio cost, most vendors will require that the entire antenna system be replace to guarantee the radio system coverage. New antenna systems don't come cheap. The other issue is which antennas the portables will have. The short stubby that don't work well at all in fringe coverage areas, or the long antennas the people out on the street don't like because they are irritating to the arm pit.

Let the group on here know just how the system turns out and what the agency is actually getting for their money.

 

[garys]

I think that they will have to upgrade to "digital compatible" copper wires because the analog copper isn't compatible.

They probably have to get "digital compatible" speakers as well.

Will the new digital radio system rely on 'modern' copper wires?

 

[garys]

I lot will depend on what sort of contract rate the state has for Motorola radios. There is no doubt at least one contract out there that they can buy under. State law in MA (and many other states) allows municipalities to buy equipment (not just radios) at the rate on any municipal contract even if the city (Lawrence in this case) didn't participate in the original process.

Many agencies buy their cruisers under the "state contract" to get a better rate.

The article states that they are going to go out to bid, but the truth is that they don't have to. In fact, they'll likely end up paying more if they put it out to bid than if they buy under one of the existing contracts.

Your not going to get that much of a system for a million bucks. The mobile and portable radios go for at least $3 K to $6 K each depending on the options. The tower site cost can run from between $250 k to over $500 k each depending on how many channels the tower sites will have. Then you have the dispatch consoles and the new link between the dispatch center and each of the tower sites.

Bottom line here is that amount of money may seem like a whole lot of dollars, but once you start to add up the real cost, it doesn't go that far. On top of the radio cost, most vendors will require that the entire antenna system be replace to guarantee the radio system coverage. New antenna systems don't come cheap. The other issue is which antennas the portables will have. The short stubby that don't work well at all in fringe coverage areas, or the long antennas the people out on the street don't like because they are irritating to the arm pit.

Let the group on here know just how the system turns out and what the agency is actually getting for their money.

 

[potala1369]

The City of Lawrence only has 7 square miles and has about a 2 mile radius from the PD to the extremes of the city. Their existing antennas should be useable with the new radios.

As I understand what they are going to do is be going P-25 on their regular dispatch channel and the will have an encrypted channel for their detectives. 'Channel 16' is already encrypted and in use by the SNEU(Narcotics unit) already. One of the 2 pairs of the VHF channels appears to have some sort of encrypted traffic.

The LPD is using several other of the wall encrypted(?)frequencies that I have as of yet to find.

I agree that a million bucks isn't a whole lot of money to spend on a communications system upgrade, but something has to be done ASAP as some radios that are in use are unreadible.

 

[Firefox10]

Their retired radio guy replaced 2 repeaters which are digital ready, 3 years ago. Their console was just upgraded last year, and 50% of their portables were bought earlier this year through another grant and are Harris. He was in the process of hitching on the city owned fiber optics to the sites and the install of 2 generators. The new guy is rather radio illiterate. A Lt. and Sgt. run the radio system. He really thinks that copper is analog and fiber is digital. There is a highly paid consultant now brought in, since other radio systems (fire, dpw, schools) kinda told him he should hire a consultant. They loose their comms due to the wiring but doesn't know that the back up is Bapern NE. The cops don't know much about another set of radios standing by for down time??