1) They're getting quite the bargain on the salary for the Communications Director.
2) Patching legacy systems to the P25 system seems questionable, especially if served agencies perceive a reduction in coverage.
No mention has been made as to the exact issues except some unstable coverage ones. No mention has been made of how many towers, if this is a simulcast system and the type of equipment being used.
If I read between the lines of what little details have been given, is this a case where the new system was poorly designed and or the using agency chose to cut the purse strings when they installed the system and didn't go all the way with the recommended system install? Without knowing the details on who wrote the system specs, who reviewed the system specs and exactly what was installed, we are all just speculating where the problems are.
As for patching systems together with a console patch or a gateway, this works very well for most agencies doing it. The only down side is that you are using twice the resources as at least 2 radio channels are being used all the time for each patch. If the radio traffic is not that high, then there is no problems.
A good example of using patches for interoperability is the state of Virginia. The state has installed gateways at over 130 dispatch centers around the state. This allows the ability to patch all sorts of non compatible radio channels between different agencies as needed. These radio systems cover the gauntlet from low band simplex channels to a multitude of different trunking systems like EDACS, Motorola analog type II, Motorola type II digital and a spread of VHF and UHF systems. Even the state police have 5 dispatch centers on their VHF digital trunking system with gateways on the system. Some of the mobile command vehicles are using a satellite link to connect into the gateway system. If your looking for more info on what the state has done, do a search for "Virginia COMLINC Project" and you will find a number of hits with information.
More information is needed here before the gossip gets too far out on what may be the problem. Hopefully the county will be forth coming with some details.
