Caroline County's upcoming system upgrade

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IBM

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Hey all,

So most of you who live in the area already know that Caroline County has been operating on an ***OLD*** conventional system for decades now. Using mostly Motorola radios and far out-dated repeater towers that have been placed in not-so-efficient locations. Their whole dispatch/communications system is a relic, and a museum piece. Kind of funny actually. One would think that with all the critical events that occur in the county, the administration would have been quick to jump on the digital bandwagon years ago. Seems that the excuse for lack of an upgrade was in part by some of the administrators' stubborn nature.

But, I caught wind of some rumors at Caroline's 911 dispatch center that the county is considering upgrading to an 800MHz EDACS system in the near future. Safe to say that it wouldn't be a bad idea to do so, since coverage in the county is very spotty... but EDACS???? Why? I mean, EDACS is great and all, but old. Unless they decide to use ProVoice, I don't see how the 800MHz system would benefit them if they use the same setup as Spotsylvania County.

But again, this is what I heard from a friend of mine who works in dispatch there. If it is an EDACS system, then I guess it's not all that bad... Spotsylvania's EDACS system has served them well for many years, and still does to this day. Hanover County had a similar system, but was poorly implemented, and the wigs in Hanover County were just too ignorant to listen to GE's recommendations to improve the system (it's always the county's fault). :)

But this should boost coverage in the county exponentially, especially in/near the Tidewater Trail area, where on the conventional system, absolutely nothing is heard.

Thoughts?

-IBM
 
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Dafe1er

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I would think they would jump on the P25 bandwagon. Everyone around them basically are and interoperability should be at the fore front of the agenda. Especially since what happen there over the weekend.

Spotsy's EDACS system has served them well but the coverage sucks. I wonder if Caroline does go this route, if they have thought about the "outage" zones they could potentiality have. Maybe they should contact Spotsy and discuss the pro's and cons of the system.
 

IBM

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FYI, there's another thread on this:
http://forums.radioreference.com/vi...aroline-county-approves-new-radio-system.html

Caroline's 2011 proposal was for a P25 system. A link to this proposal can be found in the above thread and on the Caroline County web page.

And Spotsylvania is also upgrading to P25.

FYI.

I did some further investigation today, in fact. I seen some of Caroline's new equipment at the ECC. It's from Harris Corporation. Seems they're not jumping on the Motorola bandwagon completely, although they do already have some Motorola XTS3000s and XTS5000s I've seen the officers using. Not sure if they have some in the 800MHz range yet. But again, this is what I am seeing. They have some Harris portables sitting at the communications center.

If they are going with P25, that's great, but I must say from experience, Motorola is not the best choice for the dollar anymore. I work dispatch for Hanover County, and we have the P25 digital system from Motorola as well, to be quite honest, it sucks. The range has been extended greatly, but the reliability is still sub-par. Every once in a while, transmissions will come out garbled and the broadcasting radio must be restarted. Seems like a bug with the firmware. Hanover has the XTS5000 portables, XTL5000 mobiles and some M/A-COM P7100 P25 radios. I'd much prefer the old EDACS system back over this crap. To be honest, the only thing the county needed to do is set up one more tower in Mechanicsville and the old system would have been superb. But they were too excited and misinformed.
 
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kc4jgc

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Didn't Harris stop producing/supporting EDACS systems a couple years ago?

I agree the Spotsy EDACS network coverage, as far as my Pro-106 is concerned leaves much to be desired.
Hanover's P25 (to me at least) coverage seems much better than before /w EDACS. Looking forward to Caroline's & Spotsy's transition to P25. Hope the "E" bug (if you know what I mean) doesn't infect the local leaders.
 

fredva

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But, I caught wind of some rumors at Caroline's 911 dispatch center that the county is considering upgrading to an 800MHz EDACS system in the near future.
There have been several posts in this forum about Caroline's new radio system. It's not an 800 Mhz EDACS system but rather a 700 Mhz P25 system. The contract has already been awarded. Here's one news article about it: Caroline advances radio project | The News Desk

EDACS is being phased out. Nobody is buying EDACS these days.

But again, this is what I heard from a friend of mine who works in dispatch there.
-IBM
I've seen this happen before. Some of the people who work in dispatch centers aren't always as knowledgeable about the technical details of new systems as some people on the outside.
 

W4UVV

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You are correct

Didn't Harris stop producing/supporting EDACS systems a couple years ago?

I agree the Spotsy EDACS network coverage, as far as my Pro-106 is concerned leaves much to be desired.
Hanover's P25 (to me at least) coverage seems much better than before /w EDACS. Looking forward to Caroline's & Spotsy's transition to P25. Hope the "E" bug (if you know what I mean) doesn't infect the local leaders.

You are correct. All existing EDACS system's days are numbered. Harris possibly could install a P25 Phase 1/2 trs similar to what Pittsylvania Co. uses.

John

W4UVV
 

K3EP

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I did a quick Google search for Caroline County and P25 and found this document:
http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/v...Dwgjc8ff!1291806534!-1272756975?id=7520925577

It's the County request to the FCC to extend its narrow-band deadline from June 2014 to November 2014 pending completion of the new radio system. It's signed by the County Administrator so that would seem fairly authoritative. Motorola has the contract. Its a P25 Phase II TDMA system.

FYI.
 

Dafe1er

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I did a quick Google search for Caroline County and P25 and found this document:
http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/v...Dwgjc8ff!1291806534!-1272756975?id=7520925577

It's the County request to the FCC to extend its narrow-band deadline from June 2014 to November 2014 pending completion of the new radio system. It's signed by the County Administrator so that would seem fairly authoritative. Motorola has the contract. Its a P25 Phase II TDMA system.

FYI.

Thank you for the information.Phase 2 ready here. Now to hope for NO encryption.
 
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