While I will agree that there are unscrupulous sales people out there, your 'blanket' accusation that the loss of coverage, when switching from wideband analog to narrowband analog, is being caused by unscrupulous dealers "deliberately decreasing the coverage", is not supported by the facts. I've personally reprogrammed some systems to narrowband and have seen a loss in range in some of those systems, significantly higher than 10%.
Your dislike of Motorola (and why not use the name - everyone knows who you're talking about) and 'bias against' anyone who has any connection with Motorola, is very obvious. In the 35 years that I've been in this industry, I've seen unscrupulous dealers and some of the worst were/are not Motorola dealers. And I've seen a lot of very reputable dealers as well, who were associated with all the different brands that are out there, including Motorola. No one company has 'cornered the market' on having unscrupulous dealers.
The fact is, there are numerous factors that will have a bearing on the difference in range between a wideband system and the same system when it is narrowbanded. The specific design of an FM receiver will have a lot to do with the amount of loss in range that a user will experience when switching from wideband to narrowband. Even within the same brand, some models may work better than others in narrowband mode. And it is a fact, that in most cases, digital systems (such as MOTOTRBO, NexEdge, and P25) will provide better range (and in some cases, a LOT better range) than narrowband analog systems, when both types of systems are operating properly and with the same 'parameters' (the same power output, the same antennas, etc).
As to the MOTOTRBO Enhanced Privacy, yes, the enhanced privacy makes use of the ARC4 algorithm. But there's more to the Enhanced Privacy than just that algorithm. Additional methods are used to enhance the security and the exact details of these methods are kept 'secret' (not even licensed MOTOTRBO Application Development Partners are given that information). And the key is 40 bits, not 5. Sure, it's not 'unbreakable', but it is at a level comparable to analog rolling code scramblers, which are not likely going to be broken by anyone in the 'general public'. While ARC4 has been broken, I've never heard of anyone breaking the MOTOTRBO Enhanced Encryption (and neither have any of the engineers at Motorola, who I've discussed this with).
Getting a second opinion on something is usually never a bad idea. But, when it comes to land mobile radio communications companies, the 'value' of a second opinion is going to depend a lot on the technical expertise of the technicians involved. And I've seen some VERY bad technicians (they shouldn't have even been trying to do the work, they knew so little of what they were doing) and they weren't working for Motorola shops.
John Rayfield, Jr. CETma
W0PM
What I have found is that people where they have reputable dealers program their equipment only lose about 10% coverage. Where other dealers deliberately decrease the coverage so they can sell digital systems. A lot of those dealers that do such a thing sell products starting with an M.
I know several counties that use a non M dealer and they have very negligible loss.
If you're thinking of having a new digital system put in because of coverage, be sure and get another dealer (non-M) to check your duplexors, cables and antenna.
I know of one such place that did and found a bad connector on a newly installed jumper. Ironically they were never billed for such a jumper, but it was replaced, and their system started working fine. You'd get a second opinion before spending $60,000 on a new car or medical procedure wouldn't you?
Second, why not spend the extra $20,000 to equip all the officers that don't have awin radios, instead of spending the $60,000 it takes to put up TRBO/NexEdge? Because dealers tell them RC4 encryption is unbreakable, where in truth, it's only a 5 bit key that can be cycled through easily, even with Motorola's claimed "billion" codes. RC4 has long been broken.
