Informational Only;
As is my practice, most mornings I will do a bit of “hill-topping”, find a good high spot to make ham radio contacts… which brings me to a “Park & Ride” parking lot off I-84 in Farmington, about the same elevation as the Channel 61 Tower on Rattlesnake Mtn. It’s where I saw a Ct. Transit Bus parked, waiting for his day to start. It got me wondering if every state transit bus were equipped with a CLMRN transceiver, a very hefty number of radios to say the least. My guess is that Ct. Transit could be the largest single agency user of CLMRN, or at least one of the largest. So, I asked the driver. He said that yes, his belief was all busses were so equipped. But he volunteered further “For what they were worth!” How so? I asked. He said reception was spotty, where there were areas that the radios didn’t work and he would need to call his dispatch using his cell phone. Further discussion revealed they also use the “Private Call” feature, where there were transmissions addressed to one single bus when they need to converse with the driver and only that driver.
As this is only the opinion of one, it can not by any means be considered a valid evaluation of CLMRN performance where Ct. Transit is concerned, but I thought it worth mentioning. I do have the ability to monitor them as I run a Uniden SDS200 in my vehicle, but don’t and therefore have no first hand Input as to how well the agency’s radios perform for them. I won’t venture a guess as to how well the CLMRN works for other statewide agencies, such as State Police, DOT, DEEP, etc., but wonder if others in this group have any tidbits they'd like to share on the network’s performance.
As is my practice, most mornings I will do a bit of “hill-topping”, find a good high spot to make ham radio contacts… which brings me to a “Park & Ride” parking lot off I-84 in Farmington, about the same elevation as the Channel 61 Tower on Rattlesnake Mtn. It’s where I saw a Ct. Transit Bus parked, waiting for his day to start. It got me wondering if every state transit bus were equipped with a CLMRN transceiver, a very hefty number of radios to say the least. My guess is that Ct. Transit could be the largest single agency user of CLMRN, or at least one of the largest. So, I asked the driver. He said that yes, his belief was all busses were so equipped. But he volunteered further “For what they were worth!” How so? I asked. He said reception was spotty, where there were areas that the radios didn’t work and he would need to call his dispatch using his cell phone. Further discussion revealed they also use the “Private Call” feature, where there were transmissions addressed to one single bus when they need to converse with the driver and only that driver.
As this is only the opinion of one, it can not by any means be considered a valid evaluation of CLMRN performance where Ct. Transit is concerned, but I thought it worth mentioning. I do have the ability to monitor them as I run a Uniden SDS200 in my vehicle, but don’t and therefore have no first hand Input as to how well the agency’s radios perform for them. I won’t venture a guess as to how well the CLMRN works for other statewide agencies, such as State Police, DOT, DEEP, etc., but wonder if others in this group have any tidbits they'd like to share on the network’s performance.
