Digital and Fire Paging

[alottabull]

Our county currently uses vhf analog conventional wideband channels for all communications. There has been talk of going vhf digital conventional however I have the following questions.

What happens to fire department paging?
If fire paging will still has to be done on analog narrowband what is the motivation to move to digital?

Correct me if I am wrong but if FD's went digital wouldn't they have to have a digital repeater for primary communications and then a seperate analog narrowband repeater for fire paging and possibly more equipment for their users...

 

[loumaag]

Our county currently uses vhf analog conventional wideband channels for all communications. There has been talk of going vhf digital conventional however I have the following questions.

What happens to fire department paging?
If fire paging will still has to be done on analog narrowband what is the motivation to move to digital?

The key is that all PS eventually has to move to narrow-band. Digital is not necessary, but narrow-band is required by current regulations. And you are correct, paging (as it exists now) will have to continue to be done on analog channels as digital does not carry the tones correctly.

Correct me if I am wrong but if FD's went digital wouldn't they have to have a digital repeater for primary communications and then a seperate analog narrowband repeater for fire paging and possibly more equipment for their users...

If you are referring to P25 digital, I am not aware of any P25 capable repeaters that are not also capable of carrying analog traffic. Same channel, same equipment can be both analog and P25 capable and used interchangeably with little or no trouble at all.

 

[alottabull]

Thank you. It seems it is exactly as I thought. There seems to be no compelling reason for our small VFD's to go to P25 digital especially if we are paying for it. The only thing I can come up with is maybe some handhelds and mobiles for interoperability prior to 2015 under the updated Texas interop plan. It doesn't make sense for small VFD's to pay an exponential rate for a p25 digital repeater system.

 

[K5RYA]

Our department is currently on motorola trunking and has a simulcast on vhf. now our entire city is going to p25 this year so we will make the switch also and they will tear down our vhf patch rendering minitors useless. we just got alpha pagers, not sure how excited i am about the alpha pager business but i digress. but now that i just got my 346xt i will have to sell it and get a 396xt.

 

[K5RYA]

here is a short read that you might find of interest. not sure where i got it but i just was gonna pass it along.

 

[SkipSanders]

Paging IS 'digital'. FSK digital. Unless you were talking about 'voice' paging with tone-outs.

 

[alottabull]

Well excuse me, seems everyone else knew what I was talking about. Glad you could contribute.

 

[alottabull]

pyrofallout, I can understand when you are getting the benefits of a trunking system but in our situation where there is no TRS and no plans for a countywide radio system it seems nothing is pressing us to switch, which is what I thought. It seems going analog narrowband makes much more sense for us at this point. Especially since anything we upgrade to now will probably need to be replaced again by the time we are forced to move away from it.

 

[K5RYA]

pyrofallout, I can understand when you are getting the benefits of a trunking system but in our situation where there is no TRS and no plans for a countywide radio system it seems nothing is pressing us to switch, which is what I thought. It seems going analog narrowband makes much more sense for us at this point. Especially since anything we upgrade to now will probably need to be replaced again by the time we are forced to move away from it.

Trunking is nice, when everyone of your surrounding cities you mutual with are on it. But I think that cities should keep a simulcast on a vhf channel going for volunteer departments. There is really not a large amount of drawbacks to it and it would allow you to keep your minitors and conventional scanners working.

 

[scanfan03]

What city do you work for? I am guessing it is around the houston area.

 

[alottabull]

What city do you work for? I am guessing it is around the houston area.

I have a hard time determining who people are replying to using this message board software. Was this directed to me? How can I tell who someone has replied to in this message board software?

 

[K5RYA]

What city do you work for? I am guessing it is around the houston area.

Pearland

 

[K5RYA]

I have a hard time determining who people are replying to using this message board software. Was this directed to me? How can I tell who someone has replied to in this message board software?

You can't really, unless they quote you.

 

[scanfan03]

Yeah, I'm sorry alottabull that was to pyrofallout. Sorry to highjack your thread, I was just curious as to who else in the Houston area was switching to the P25 system.

And like pyro said, you can't tell if someone is replying to you unless they quote you.

 

[alottabull]

Yeah, I'm sorry alottabull that was to pyrofallout. Sorry to highjack your thread, I was just curious as to who else in the Houston area was switching to the P25 system.

And like pyro said, you can't tell if someone is replying to you unless they quote you.

Understood and it is quite alright. I have family in Pearland and was hosting an online scanner from there so that is good information for me too.

 

[K5RYA]

Understood and it is quite alright. I have family in Pearland and was hosting an online scanner from there so that is good information for me too.

Ya. I had a feed for Pearland on ScanAmerica for a few months, but I didn't keep up with it and when a soundcard went out I left it off for over 2 weeks and Gordon deleted it.

I am still waiting on more clear info from the city on WHEN we are actually switching to P25. They just said we are switching to P25, that doesn't mean it won't be 3-4 years from now. :lol: