7 OH Counties land $17 million grant and new radio systems

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mdulrich

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This grant will provide funding to put these counties public safety agencies on Ohio MARCS.

Mike
 
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wa8pyr

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Right now the hard sell is with the per radio monthly user fees

If they plan to use MARCS for regular, daily operations, they're pretty much stuck with the user fees. Unless the radios are LEUO (Local Emergency Use Only) radios, everybody pays them.

That being said, however, $20/month per radio is a lot cheaper for each of them than spending the considerable sums it would take to either buy all new equipment to improve and upgrade conventional radio systems on their existing frequencies, or even more money for trunked radio systems of their own. Add to that the long-term costs of system maintenance and repair (which they won't have to worry about anymore), and MARCS becomes a pretty good deal for them.

This doesn't even take into consideration the hidden costs of interoperability; operating on MARCS can reduce or even eliminate these.

BTW, this grant was awarded a few months ago....

http://www.radioreference.com/forums/showthread.php?t=93806
 
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hoser147

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If they plan to use MARCS for regular, daily operations, they're pretty much stuck with the user fees. Unless the radios are LEUO (Local Emergency Use Only) radios, everybody pays them.

That being said, however, $20/month per radio is a lot cheaper for each of them than spending the considerable sums it would take to either buy all new equipment to improve and upgrade conventional radio systems on their existing frequencies, or even more money for trunked radio systems of their own. Add to that the long-term costs of system maintenance and repair (which they won't have to worry about anymore), and MARCS becomes a pretty good deal for them.

This doesn't even take into consideration the hidden costs of interoperability; operating on MARCS can reduce or even eliminate these.

BTW, this grant was awarded a few months ago....

http://www.radioreference.com/forums/showthread.php?t=93806

To Smaller Departments $20 user fee's add up and hit the budget hard, the grant is a great deal, all the way around, but several of the Fire Chiefs are looking at other options. Dubbins Thread musta slid thru. It's been hashed in the media now for several months. Some of the depts are looking at just having portables for interops. Seems like the EMA directors are wanting to get everyone on line with it, but I know here it has to pass thru the LEPC and then the county commissioners and they are studying the cost factor hard. Just seems the biggest question Ive heard the most is how long before the user fee's go down?? Hoser
 
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