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..