Heres a link to one of the Plain Dealer articles:
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/12/clevelands_policecar_radio_sys.html
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/12/clevelands_policecar_radio_sys.html
Cleveland shopping for a new radio system
- Thread starter tobarger
- Start date
- Status
NewsShooter
Member
Let it be simple...
Please please please, unencrypted p25. Even if they take a page out of Cincinnati's book, I hope at least the dispatch channels are in the clear.
With the Ohio MARCS system looking to expand in Cuyahoga County, does anyone think Cleveland will go the route of MARCS?
Or do you think they will build out their own system?
Is it possible in today's technology to not allow Cleveland users to roam across the state? This way if more channels are added to the Cuyahoga County sites to prevent overloading, a municipality the size of Cleveland can utilize MARCS for day to day operations without over-burdening the system?
I believe you could use the foundation of MARCS (with sites in Strongsville, Hopkins, Richfield, Beachwood, Downtown, and Wickliffe, along with Parma's and SWRCN's system sites to form one system. Knowing that SWRCN has 2 sites in Strongsville and Brook Park, and the Parma site in Parma, you could even integrate part of that infrastructure to increase coverage on the lower west side of the county. Parma also has a license for a site in Warrensville Heights and SWRCN has a license for a site in Highland Hills. Both of these east side sites appear to not be in service from my experience.
With that sort of combined infrastructure you could add in new sites in the Euclid, East Cleveland, North Olmsted, Solon and Independence areas...and you would have a pretty reliable system.
I would just rather see one system in the county, than 3 separate systems. Easier to scan that way.
With the Ohio MARCS system looking to expand in Cuyahoga County, does anyone think Cleveland will go the route of MARCS?
Or do you think they will build out their own system?
Is it possible in today's technology to not allow Cleveland users to roam across the state? This way if more channels are added to the Cuyahoga County sites to prevent overloading, a municipality the size of Cleveland can utilize MARCS for day to day operations without over-burdening the system?
I believe you could use the foundation of MARCS (with sites in Strongsville, Hopkins, Richfield, Beachwood, Downtown, and Wickliffe, along with Parma's and SWRCN's system sites to form one system. Knowing that SWRCN has 2 sites in Strongsville and Brook Park, and the Parma site in Parma, you could even integrate part of that infrastructure to increase coverage on the lower west side of the county. Parma also has a license for a site in Warrensville Heights and SWRCN has a license for a site in Highland Hills. Both of these east side sites appear to not be in service from my experience.
With that sort of combined infrastructure you could add in new sites in the Euclid, East Cleveland, North Olmsted, Solon and Independence areas...and you would have a pretty reliable system.
I would just rather see one system in the county, than 3 separate systems. Easier to scan that way.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=
103944432956324828792.00045fb3ecad8f6f3c90c
Check out this link. I mapped out the existing towers locations for MARCS, Cleveland 800, Parma 800, and SWRCN in Cuyahoga County. If you merged all of this together and maybe added a couple more sites, it would all fit together to cover the county well.
103944432956324828792.00045fb3ecad8f6f3c90c
Check out this link. I mapped out the existing towers locations for MARCS, Cleveland 800, Parma 800, and SWRCN in Cuyahoga County. If you merged all of this together and maybe added a couple more sites, it would all fit together to cover the county well.
Don't hold your breath. MARCS may be actively courting smaller departments with a limited number of radios, but major large city agencies, no. With the thousands of radios and hundreds of talkgroups involved, MARCS just can't handle the load. Added frequencies are only part of the equation; there is also a limitation on how many talkgroups and ID numbers are available.
That being said...
If Cleveland were to buy a P25 system, it could be connected to MARCS as a separate zone. This would make it, in effect, a stand-alone system tied into MARCS, with a separate list of IDs and so on. However, the functionality on the MARCS side would be limited by talkgroup and ID capacity until MARCS upgraded to P25 as well.
Wow. They've just now decided to start shopping for a new system? Since Motorola doesn't sell new VSELP radios and Astro Sabers are being RURed, I sure hope they make their minds up fast.
Whatever they buy I hope they realize that it can and will break at some point and plan (read: program radios and train users) accordingly. Of course, if they listen to the Motorola salesmen like most government customers, they probably won't.
Whatever they buy I hope they realize that it can and will break at some point and plan (read: program radios and train users) accordingly. Of course, if they listen to the Motorola salesmen like most government customers, they probably won't.
N8IAA
Member
Never gonna happen
Cleveland AND Cuyahoga getting together to do something???? I grew up in Cleveland and moved from northern Ohio almost 10 years ago. There has never been anything that they could agree on
) Much less co-ordinate a comm system. I hope that when they do decide, that they do it responsibly.
Larry
Cleveland AND Cuyahoga getting together to do something???? I grew up in Cleveland and moved from northern Ohio almost 10 years ago. There has never been anything that they could agree on
) Much less co-ordinate a comm system. I hope that when they do decide, that they do it responsibly.Larry
Politics will overrule any other considerations
The contract will go to the company that is willing to kick back the most money to the politicians for the contract. It's only tax money. That's how the city got screwed by Motorola for the last fifteen years.
The contract will go to the company that is willing to kick back the most money to the politicians for the contract. It's only tax money. That's how the city got screwed by Motorola for the last fifteen years.
Are you a city employee who has firsthand knowledge of the radio system not functioning correctly over the last 15 years?
Or are you just a disgruntled scanner listener?
Unless you have firsthand knowledge that the system has not been performing properly for 15 years, perhaps they haven't been getting "screwed" by Motorola. One would think if they have been unhappy with it for 15 years that 1) the outside world would have heard of it by now and 2) the city would have taken steps to rectify it rather than put up with it for 15 years.
Personally, I've never had a problem with any Motorola system as long as it was properly engineered and installed as designed... and I manage a Motorola system. All the first hand users in Cleveland I've ever talked to have been perfectly happy with the way it worked... especially compared to their old systems.
And face it, systems get old and start to fail, just like your home computer, TV, stereo, whatever.
Akron's Motorola VSLEP system worked fine, they were just smart enough to move to the next generation of digital communication before VSLEP became outdated. Actually Akron & Summit County partnering for a county wide system was brilliant. I agree with origianl post, that's not going to happen in Cuyahoga County.
N8IAA
Member
Tom, I lived in the city of Cleveland until the Spring of 1999. When the system went online, the major complaint was firefighter safety. My next door neighbor's grandson was a FF with the city. He could not be heard on the system when inside of a building(they were on VHF simplex, which they reverted to on FG). The city had just purchased new UHF repeaters and Astros from /\/\otherola. Updated their antennas on the towers. Then when motorola was threatened with loosing their 800Mhz frequencies in the early 90's, they found the Water Dept who was using VHF simplex, as the go to guys to fund the new system. I have heard that there have recently been three failures of the system. Yes they do get old, and need to be replaced. My dualband ht's and mobiles were the best way to monitor CPD and CFD. Undoubtly, they will go to a P-25 encrypted system as my county has done here in N GA. Motorola's pockets are veeerrrry deep. Don't be suprised with what happens in Cleveland. They were hoodwinked once, and it can happen again.
Larry
talked the the system manager a while back and he said encryption is the last thing there worried about. Motorola pockets may be very deep, however Cleveland does not have the money right now for a 25-30 million dollar radio project, and i doubt they would spend 1000 dollars per radio for encryption. They just spent 13 Million on new CPD,CFD & EMS Vehicles. Also they havent even starting the bidding process which could take at least 8 months or longer. As far as the reliability of the system they have now, i have not heard any complaints for at least 10 years. Even when it went down recently they really didnt complain.
- Status
