Is Albany County Phase I or Phase II

[kc9tng]

So I am going to be volunteering with a local EMS that broadcasts on Albany County's system. I was looking to get a scanner. My dad (who lives in another state) has an old Radio Shack scanner (Pro-106) that he sometimes uses and he offered it to me. I turned him down because it doesn't support Phase II and was looking at buying a scanner that supports Phase II...however one of my friends said that he believes Albany County is a Phase I system but licensed for Phase II.

So...is Albany County a Phase II system or going soon to a Phase II system? I can't imagine Radio Reference isn't accurate!

Thanks!

 

[IFRIED91]

Phase II.. however on a phase II system you can have FDMA TGs.. matter of fact if a legit user on a system is using a p25 phase 1 radio, it will knock that TG and everyone on it to phase 1.

 

[GTR8000]

So...is Albany County a Phase II system or going soon to a Phase II system? I can't imagine Radio Reference isn't accurate!

The system itself is Phase II capable, however the Albany County cells operate in FDMA (Phase I) mode. Schenectady County's cell is operating in TDMA (Phase II) mode.

When trying to determine something like this, look at the talkgroup mode in the database, not just the system type.

 

[GTR8000]

matter of fact if a legit user on a system is using a p25 phase 1 radio, it will knock that TG and everyone on it to phase 1.

Only if the system has DDM (Dynamic Dual Mode) and the talkgroups are provisioned in that mode, otherwise they will be strapped for either FDMA or TDMA. And of course the site repeaters must be capable of TDMA.

 

[IFRIED91]

Only if the system has DDM (Dynamic Dual Mode) and the talkgroups are provisioned in that mode, otherwise they will be strapped for either FDMA or TDMA. And of course the site repeaters must be capable of TDMA.

I've always wondered; how tough/expensive is it to upgrade phase I to Phase II. I was told its astronomical and most agencies wont do it due to phase I being completely interoperable with phase II.. not to mention phase I having clearer audio.

 

[GTR8000]

The claim that FDMA audio is clearer than TDMA audio is completely subjective, and a bit of a myth. I've been listening to both modulations with APX subscribers for a decade, and I promise you that if I blindfolded you and asked you to listen to both, you would never tell the difference. You may even prefer the TDMA audio, since the AMBE+2 vocoder is more refined than the original IMBE used with Phase I. Most of difference can be attributed to differences in the quality of audio input by the subscribers. Garbage in = garbage out.

Anyway, the cost to upgrade to Phase II depends entirely on the circumstances. How many sites/subsites, how many repeaters, subscribers, etc. I'm sure if you're dealing with a huge system, it can approach "astronomical" costs, however if you need the spectrum, then ultimately it would be cheaper than purchasing new repeaters, new combiners, etc. to expand an FDMA system. The upgrade from FDMA to TDMA is largely a matter of licensing and software upgrades vs outright hardware to expand an FDMA system's infrastructure capacity.

 

[Thunderknight]

A lot of the “astronomical“ costs come with subscriber replacements. Meaning if a county is still using XTS/XTL, they would need to be replaced with APX series radios to take advantage of the TDMA switch. If you left it as DDM and had lots of ASTRO25 series subs, you probably aren’t going to see much improvement as you’d reverting to FDMA a lot.

 

[Com-Tech51H8]

A lot of the “astronomical“ costs come with subscriber replacements. Meaning if a county is still using XTS/XTL, they would need to be replaced with APX series radios to take advantage of the TDMA switch. If you left it as DDM and had lots of ASTRO25 series subs, you probably aren’t going to see much improvement as you’d reverting to FDMA a lot.

To my knowledge all the county agencies have went to various apx series radios a mixture between 1000,4000,7/8000s but could be wrong...

 

[FDNY10-75]

To my knowledge all the county agencies have went to various apx series radios a mixture between 1000,4000,7/8000s but could be wrong...

There are a TON of old (and abused) XTS radios still in use on the system. Even the public safety agencies.

 

[Com-Tech51H8]

There are a TON of old (and abused) XTS radios still in use on the system. Even the public safety agencies.

no surprise

 

[kc9tng]

Thanks everybody. I ended up getting the SDS-200 so I am future proofed. I am glad I did. I also was able to program my old Radio Shack that doesn't support Phase II. Not nearly as easy to use as the SDS-200.