Just have a second to respond here so please do not take my brevity as agreement. This is one of my favorite topics and I do not agree with many of your points
Ok, I do not doubt that EBRCS has good coverage, but I said untested JPA, not radio system. It is easy for a voice to get lost in new a Joint Power Authority especially with all the political games that are played behind the scenes on the rubber chicken circuit. I am sure the coverage is great but JPA's often turn out to be political gardens.
I stand corrected on MERA. Please retract, delete MERA and insert San Rafael. LTR really?
I bet you are right about Richmond compared to EDACS i am sure they are happy. Sounded like they were about out of options. The RPD EDACS was pushed and sold in West COCO as MANDATORY due to re-farming back in the late 80's. The word was everyone was going to get shut off if they did not go to 800hmz. I was there for the rumors.
Anyway, I was born and raised in the East Bay and have spent more time at 7th & Penn/North Richmond, on the Oakland flatlands and other bay area garden spots than I care to even think about.
That said, I have also been that guy getting his *** handed to back to him in the middle of the street while all the sales reps, radio techs and the newly promoted Captain all told me how the system worked while I got to experience it first hand. Please read my sig at this point. Anyway, I offer this as nothing more than to qualify myself with non-hypothetical experience. I do know how it all works and I would much rather put my bacon on the line with a decent conventional system than anything that even has the word failsoft in its repair manual.
Cities that pull out of radio systems that do not work are not ignorant. Some things are far more important than money. The lives that depend on these most critical systems such as cops and firemen. Please do not try to assert that trunking supports interoperability in some way.
P25 is a standard this is true, Unfortunately,the moment you add trunking. OTAR or just about any option not in the P25 standard, it becomes proprietary- that is a big interoperability problem. In addition, the trunked cop of FF in the field cannot scan or monitor another system or even a single conventional channel besides the trunked system he is bound to.Try scanning CLEMARS (sorry old skool) or VTAC30489 or Fire White with your radio active on a trunked system.
As for SMCO's system, we must talk to different people. Within the past few months I had candid conversation with a current employee- who used the old system alot, so they have know the system well. Lets just leave it at that, but if you think the troops love it, then you should find some folks who will be candid
. We are talking performance points not P25 sounds different than analog.
Like I said, the radio systems are so expensive that the exercise becomes about politics at a certain point, promises are made, deals executed that have nothing to do with the system itself but careers, elected office, and even getting the mortgage paid. The user and the taxpayer both lose.
I am retired and have my civil rights back, so I will advocate (and do) for the bluesuiters;
Conventional is superior for public safety in nearly all instances. If you strongly disagree with this statement, there is a likelyhood you are a radio tech, system manager, sales rep or someone else who has profited along the line.
LMR is not perfect and never will be. Managing user expectations is a critical skill, I agree. Radio is light, you can make it simple and illuminate what you need to see, or put up a disco ball that looks fun and spins in place for effect, but really does not illuminate much of anything in any meaningful way. TRS' are disco balls in the public safety world.
Training, yeah, that is always a good place start the blame. A lot of LE training consists of 'it will work just like the old system, it is not working now but when it does it will be the same. This is the new radio, but the battery is dead for it, sorry. but it will work the same. Training is not the complete answer.
When it comes to a new TRS' I think it would be far wiser to put animal control, mosquito abatement and county roads on the system for a few months and work out the bugs before you put your critical resources on it. Hey, it works for Microsoft so why not the beat cop.
The contractor, shotcallers and the guy who got promoted supervising the rollout of the new system, are all in a big rush to get everyone on the new toy and pull the conventional stuff out of the racks. Have you ever wondered why? I would say to you that if you actually tested with AC/Roads/Mosquito abatement, then LE/FD would hear of the problems and would insist that the issues be resolved before they committed. Dumpsterizing their old system tends to prevent a retreat attempt. I say kudos to RCPD for pulling out and maintaining a retreat path.
Bringing this full circle, I do not blame OPD for trying to stay autonomous, they likely felt like they knew their old EDACS, a new system would not be that much different, and the spectre of a new, untested JPA (not radio system) was just was not attractive.
Best,
Mike
