Boston Police Radio System Upgrade

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jmorrissey23

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It appares based on this article posted by Macro Consulting that Boston Police will be upgrading their exsisting radio system to P25.

This project seems to be in its very early stages, so you should not have to change anything to listen to BPD in the immediate future, however if you are interested in monitoring the Boston Police in the future you may want to start saving up for a digital scanner.

It appares that after the upgrade they will remain UHF conventional on the same frequencies just in P25 digital mode, however there is little infomation avaible at this point in time. There is a therad over at Scan New England discussing this upgrade.

Link to the Article: (City of Boston Police Department Radio System Upgrade | Work | Macro)
Link to SNE thread: (Boston PD to transition to P25)
 

coolrich55

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The next obvious question is what if anything is going to be encrypted. Correct me if I'm wrong but so far there is very little encryption used in the Boston metro area. So far anyway...
 

12dbsinad

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I am wondering about encryption as well as being a drive to go P25. For them, going P25 conventional using existing sites has little to no benefit as they have a good analog system with good coverage.

The big "E" however would make sense.
 

ecps92

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Well, most agencies are still Analog
However a few have moved to P25 and yes, Some of them did go E

Haverhill is/was one of the First, if I recall
Some of the Campus PD's did, some have gone back to CLR [for now]
The next obvious question is what if anything is going to be encrypted. Correct me if I'm wrong but so far there is very little encryption used in the Boston metro area. So far anyway...
 
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KC3ECJ

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So is there any actual technical reason they want to go to P25 or is this another agency that wrongly believes there is a mandate to go to P25?
 

jmorrissey23

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So is there any actual technical reason they want to go to P25 or is this another agency that wrongly believes there is a mandate to go to P25?

Aside from encryption, P25 would allow for mixed voice and data use over the air, also digital voice sounds better when on the fringe of coverage.

Likely BPD wants to upgrade the aging infrastructure with the newest technology rather then just replacing the analog equipment.
 

RoninJoliet

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I will be visiting Boston area this summer, can you please tell me is Middleboro and Plymouth PD-FD still on UHF freqys so I can print the list shown in this web site database....Thank You
 

garys

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Yes, they are.



I will be visiting Boston area this summer, can you please tell me is Middleboro and Plymouth PD-FD still on UHF freqys so I can print the list shown in this web site database....Thank You
 

IdleMonitor

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Not sure where you get digital voice sounds better on a fringe area. Digital is all about 1's & 0's it's either there or it's not. Atleast with analog you will have some fading but still a readable signal. Not so much with a broken digital voice. Digital sounds better yes, when the signal is at it's best, but certainly not while in a fringe area.

Aside from encryption, P25 would allow for mixed voice and data use over the air, also digital voice sounds better when on the fringe of coverage.
 

garys

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I don't see an advantage unless they are going to try to move the Mobile Computer Terminals from Verizon to the UHF system. Then again, I don't know what the data rate would be using UHF frequencies instead of the Verizon data network.

Digital voice is definitely NOT better in fringe areas. That's been one of the complaints about digital voice from early on. As IdleMonitor points off the fall off on analog is gradual. A good dispatcher can pick the voice out of the mud on an analog system, but that just doesn't happen on digital. Which is why more receiver sites are needed on digital.

Aside from encryption, P25 would allow for mixed voice and data use over the air, also digital voice sounds better when on the fringe of coverage.

Likely BPD wants to upgrade the aging infrastructure with the newest technology rather then just replacing the analog equipment.
 

mrsvensven

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I don't see an advantage unless they are going to try to move the Mobile Computer Terminals from Verizon to the UHF system. Then again, I don't know what the data rate would be using UHF frequencies instead of the Verizon data network.

Digital voice is definitely NOT better in fringe areas. That's been one of the complaints about digital voice from early on. As IdleMonitor points off the fall off on analog is gradual. A good dispatcher can pick the voice out of the mud on an analog system, but that just doesn't happen on digital. Which is why more receiver sites are needed on digital.

Digital blows analog out of the water, especially on newer radios with the AMBE+2 vocoder. There are several P25 ham systems in the Massachusetts area. You should give them a try and experience it for yourself.

The "falling off" of analog may be gradual, but at the point that analog becomes unreadable, digital still sounds 100%.
 

garys

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Comparing amateur radio to public safety communications isn't a particular valid comparison. The coverage needs are much different.

Digital blows analog out of the water, especially on newer radios with the AMBE+2 vocoder. There are several P25 ham systems in the Massachusetts area. You should give them a try and experience it for yourself.

The "falling off" of analog may be gradual, but at the point that analog becomes unreadable, digital still sounds 100%.
 

ecps92

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IT maybe folks doing the Scanner comparison vs using a Commercial aka EFJ/Harris/Motorola radio :D

There is a big difference, especially with Simulcast Sites

Digital blows analog out of the water, especially on newer radios with the AMBE+2 vocoder. There are several P25 ham systems in the Massachusetts area. You should give them a try and experience it for yourself.

The "falling off" of analog may be gradual, but at the point that analog becomes unreadable, digital still sounds 100%.
 

OceanNora

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Not to hijack the threat, but has anyone else noticed that BPD channels have been periodically patched to the analog and digital state systems? I wonder if there's any connection to the upcoming move, maybe as a backup?
 

garys

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Yes, and yes. I noted this in a thread on Scan-ne several weeks ago. It's the TG Citywide 3 on both the Zone 1 and 700 Mhz Overlay systems. Mostly Area D, but I have heard Area A and Area B on occasion. I thought it a bit odd at the time, but now wonder if there some sort of testing going on?

Not to hijack the threat, but has anyone else noticed that BPD channels have been periodically patched to the analog and digital state systems? I wonder if there's any connection to the upcoming move, maybe as a backup?
 

KC3ECJ

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Digital blows analog out of the water, especially on newer radios with the AMBE+2 vocoder. There are several P25 ham systems in the Massachusetts area. You should give them a try and experience it for yourself.

The "falling off" of analog may be gradual, but at the point that analog becomes unreadable, digital still sounds 100%.

AMBE+2,on DMR anyways, sounds like crap. Makes people sound like Microsoft Sam talking with bread in his mouth. It can't handle wind into the mic, poping sounds such as with the letter P, and can't pick up the human voice properly with macinery in the background.
 

goaheadover

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Have they moved to the new system yet?for a medium sized city they talk very little on their analog uhf freqs. Unless I was monitoring wrong channel
 
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