City of Okmulgee Going Digital

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peterjmag

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Heard from a reliable and inside source that the City of Okmulgee is going digital. I was told that FD is already digital and PD is in the process of switching. I think it might be MOTO Turbo that they are using. I will find that out later. They will still have the options of switching to analog and other interop freqs like state fire net 490, etc. I will report more as I find it.
 

rusd

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Okmulgee PD &FD going Digital

That is correct both are going digital. It's a Motorola Lighting system, the freq's will be the same and have the options of analog and digital. Digital antenna will be on roof @ 5th & Grand , Analog be on city water tower @ 11th & mission. Last few times that PD tried to test system nothing worked, i heard them try to use here about a month ago when they had a murrder here ,Police Chief ask for one to switch over, and unit said if i can figure it out nothing happened. Still not using it as far as i know. I have a BCD396T thought they would have used the system last weekend for the big rodeo, but nothing happened.
Wynn radio here said that officer were told not to give out any info on the system. But like most someone had let it out. So it is true.
 

car2back

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Ah, I love the super secret "if we don't tell anyone, they won't figure it out" idea that pervades Okie police telecommunications :D
 

peterjmag

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I guess the next question is will any of the current digital scanners on the market follow this format?
 

car2back

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I don't think so, MOTOTRBO systems use is based on ETSI's DMR digital standard for the private business sector, not P25.
 
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peterjmag

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I knew that MOTOTRBO was not scanable but this system is a Motorola Lighning. Are you saying that they are alike?
 

car2back

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I've never heard of Motorola "Lightning" before (and wasn't able to find anything on google), I was going on the assumption it was a MOTOTRBO system since the description fit it (being a conventional 2 channel radio system capable of both digital and analog).
 

mam1081

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The radios and repeaters in a TRBO system are capable of analog OR digital. The end-user radios can swap manually or scan between analog and digital, but the repeater can't be mixed mode (as rusd stated two different locations anyhow).

This isn't to say it is or isn't TRBO or P25 or ProVoice or whatever other proprietary digital they might try. Anyone get an eye on what the radios look like?
 

woodyrr

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MOTOTRBO Radio Equipment

Assuming that like Purcell, they have selected MOTOTRBO or some other system targeted at business radio users. Are "business" radios typically designed to the same durability standard as a P25 or other "public safety" radio? For instance, are they designed to take a good squirt from a fire hose and not quit working - or get smashed against a brick wall when a suspect suddenly goes nuts and still work for a call for help - at least to the extent that a typical "public safety" radio can?
 

KX5MOT

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Woody you have a good point there, MOTOTRBO wasn't designed for public safety but it appears these cites think its a cheaper alternative to P25. I have yet to have a TRBO radio in my hand, but from all the ones i've seen they definitely don't look like they have the ruggedness of say an XTS or XTL.

On a lighter note, i did hear Purcell PD back on their old police repeater the other day running traffic, kinda makes one wonder.
 
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WX5JCH

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We will have a MotoTRBO system here in a few months. PO has been signed. We will be able, just like Okmulgee use analoge and digital talk groups. We are using the XPR 6550, portable along with a MotoTRBO XPR8300 UHF 40 watt Digital Repeater. Should be a nice system.

Forget to mention that will be GPRMC only PD & FD will remain the same.

I sure would like to know who chose my back yard for Elk PD's 4.9G base antenna. Came home from work and there it was. They are all over town now on top of phone poles.

Jim
Elk City
 

peterjmag

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Ok my mistake its a Motorola Saber System

Okay now I'm confused. Isn't Saber a style of Motorola radio? I'm trying to figure out the digital format used, not the type of radio. If the radios do in fact say Saber on them does that mean that they are not MOTO TRBO?
 

Chaos703

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Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that P25 was a sort of federally "mandated" (support by federal grants) program meant to slowly migrate the entire world of public safety to a common standard of communications.

If that's the case, wouldn't a city that upgraded outside the P25 world loose all sorts of grant opportunities?

Have I finally smoked so much dope that my mind is just making stuff like this up or did I actually read it somewhere?
 

Chaos703

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AH!!! I can go light another fatty straight away without any worry for my brain! I just found this on Wikipeda (so you know it HAS to be true):
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"Funding for communications upgrades from the Department of Homeland Security usually requires migrating to APCO-25."
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Giving an interesting nod to Woody's question about durability, I also found this line on the page in a section that was comparing and contrasting various systems ...
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"And while Terrestrial Trunked Radio systems are sometimes cheaper - handsets are often not suited to more rugged environments."
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I realize, of course, that we were talking about MOTOTRBO and not TETRA systems, but I found it interesting that durability is an issue with other non-P25 systems (now that I write this I'm suddenly confused about what the operating system [MOTOTRBO vs. TETRA vs. P25] would have to do with the durability of the hardware into which it is placed. Maybe I'll think more about this after the smoke clears. I suddenly have the munches.).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_25
 
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iamhere300

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mototurbo takes them out of the hardware built for public safety, it also takes them out of the running for federal grants. Simple. It is the work of unscrupolous sales people to an unwitting enduser.
 

rusd

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Okmulgee city going digital

So according to RR this system is not scannable. Does this mean the 396T or the 996T will not recieve and what about the GRE PSR600.
 

dbestfirefighter

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No current retail scanner will pick up the digital signal. Your scanners will pick up the signal if they decide to use the repeater in analog mode.

Just found this on the Big M site. "MotoTRBO is the first digital two-way radio system from Motorola specifically designed to meet the requirements of organizations/industries outside the public safety sector mainstream"
 
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