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3600 Mixed Mode

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ButchGone

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I read a posting on another website that Motorola announced last year it will stop supporting 3600 baud analog/digital mixed mode 800MHz trunking systems within five years? Is this true or will Moto continue supporting 3600 baud digital? Does that mean Moto will only build new 9600 baud all-digi systems? Thanks in advance!
BG..
 

N4DES

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Motorola is not building any new 3600 systems. They have only deployed 9600 systems (6.x & 7.x) for the last few years.

As to support, I can get the exact dates in the office, but 2011 rings a bell as to the end of the support cycle. But remember just because the support ends doesn't mean that the system, will stop working or that it can't be fixed. Typicially it means that System Support can't be used to assist in troubleshooting over the phone and replacement components are opnly available until the well runs dry, which is usually a few years after the end of the cycle date. Local MSS or FSO staff can still support the 3600 system(s) after the date but the owner runs the risk of not being able to get replacement components.

Motorola will continue to manufacture 3600 radios way past that date as well, I believe that date is 2014.
 
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ButchGone

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Re:

Thanks for the reply! 13 months ago the city-county trunking system here in Chattanooga got a $3.8-million upgrade from a SmartNet to SmartZone mixed-mode ASTRO system. No one really uses digital modes, except for an occasional encrypted group for county narcs, or the radio shop chit-chatter. It's still 99.9% analog...and sounds great I might add.
And Memphis just finished building a 3600 baud mixed mode system and they're still tweaking the digital side. Either way, it sounds like we'll have to do another upgrade in a few years because the reason given for the latest upgrade in Chattanooga was "Motorola will stop supporting SmartNet."
Sounds like radio systems are getting to be like PC's...here today, outdated tomorrow.
Thanks again!
BG..
 

rdale

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"Sounds like radio systems are getting to be like PC's...here today, outdated tomorrow."

Guess we have different interpretations of tomorrow ;> First digital systems went in the mid-late 90's, so outdating them in 2011 is a 15-yr span. Not too many PC's from the mid-90's will be running 5 years from now...
 

ButchGone

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Re:

While digitial may have made it's debute some years ago, for 99.9% of us it's been analog all the way and digital is still a new thing for most of us. And digital doesn't even come close to matching the audio quality and clarity of analog. I have never heard a digital system that doesn't sound watery on scanners or Moto radios. Police officers, firefighters, paramedics all agree digital does NOT match sound quality of analog. It's taken this long for digital cells phones to have semi-decent audio quality..still not close to analog cell phones.
The point is, local governments got sold on trunking type 1, then had to upgrade to trunking type 2 a few years later. Then it was mixed mode 3600 baud, now it's 9600 baud digital trunking. Also the price of radios keeps going through the roof. When Type-1 trunking was the deal, spending $1,000-$1,500 for a radio seemed outrageous. Then the MTS 2000's came out for Type-2 systems at 2-grand a pop. Now, $4,000 for a portable radio? Gimme a break! What's next? $8,000 for a portable?
Before trunking came along systems maintained conventional repeater systems for decades and they worked fantastic. The portables were $500 to $800 each and worked fabulously. Seems like the more expensive radios get with bells and whistles the worse they sound on the air and the more trouble they have getting out of dead spots that demand millions more to fix with remote recievers. Just ask firefighters in New York City! Or any major city for that matter. With FCC mandated narrow band use and splinter channels, the number of available frequencies is tripling, if not more.
I don't want to bash new technology, I'm all for progress and improvement. But it seems like as systems get more outragesouly expensive and complex, the more problems they have and the worse they sound without millions $$$ more in enhancements. I thought technology was supposed to make our lives easier, more efficient and with less expense? My two-bits worth.
Cheers!
BG..
 

N4DES

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The XTS 2500 series of radios are available in the $2,000 range and aren't
much different than the prices of the MTS2000's before they went away.

Don't compare an XTS5000, that does have a $4K price tag, to an MTS2000.
They are totally different radios.
 
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