Dodge County going digital?

[SCPD]

I was recently in Dodge county for a couple of weeks. I talked to my aunt who is an EMT for the city of Mayville. She told me that Dodge county was going to a digital system. Unknown if it is going to be trunking or conventional. She did not know what type of digital system either. In the Sheriff squad cars they have Motorola Spectra Astro radios.
So would that mean if they are going to a digital system that it would be
P-25?
Has anyone else heard about this?

 

[Thunderbolt]

I recall hearing something about this a while back, but have not heard anything new recently. How old the ASTRO Spectra radios in the patrol cars?

73's

Ron

 

[SCPD]

I don't know. The face plate look beat up but the radio look like it was in very good condition. I saw the radio when I was doing a ride along with a deputy but I did not want to ask.
How long ago did you hear about this?
Also I read that they are finally getting computers but in their squad cars. They did upgrade their communications since November. They finally started repeated CH1 the local PD channel. Before it was duplex. I know the sheriff wants to improve their communications alot. So who knows.
If they do go digital it maybe soon. The local agencies are starting to order new radios. Unkown what brand.

 

[SCPD]

The sheriff's dept. currently has three communication towers. They are or will be building three more for a total of six. So, I would think that they would be going to a trunking system. They should beable to cover the whole entire county with no problem with six radio towers.

 

[GlacierClipper]

Dodge County Sheriff

http://www.dodgecountysheriff.com/

The Annual Report for 2003 did not mention a Digital System or any radio upgrades.


Attached page is from the Annual Repot.

The attached page is for info only.

 

[SCPD]

I read that. That is where I got the info about the towers and them putting computers in their squads. Also they want to build a seperate place for the dispatch center. Curently it is in the sheriff's dept.

 

[R8000]

A *very* reliable source tells me....
Dodge County is upgrading to a multi site voting system. As of now, there are no digital upgrades being done. Maybe in the next few years, but none as of now.

Still analog.

Matt

 

[SCPD]

Do you know when they will be done? I notice a new tower up behind the highway department in Junuea this week.

 

[R8000]

I dont know for sure, but they have been doing alot of tower/repeater work in that area, so it very well could be .

I work for the Motorola shop that is doing the system ;-) However, I am not assigned to the shop that is doing Dodge County (we have 3 shops).

Been overhearing alot of work in the Jeauno (sp?) area on our company radio for Dodge County. Dodge County has thier own radio tech, but we are building the system and then will turn it over to the county tech from that point on.

Also been rumors of the City of Beaver Dam doing a centralized dispatch with Dodge County. As far as I know, it's just a rumor for now because of the lack of cash.

Matt

 

[R8000]

oh...and a FYI about the Astro Spectra's......

You may have seen them in the squad cars because the Astro Spectra is the only thing out there from circle M that will do a built in siren. The MCS and CDM's dont have any siren capability. Alot of PD's had SyntorX9000's and Analog Spectra's with the siren control, and when the Analog Spectra was axed, they went to Astro's because of the built in siren feature...one hell of a expensive siren !! So basically alot of PD's will order the astro spectras JUSt for the siren features. Once they have the built in siren, the dont want to goto a seperate siren unit usually because of console space limitations (laptop/mdc...etc.)

We also see Astro Spectra's in ambulances because of the dual control head feature. The Astro digital is there, waiting to be used, but wont for many years to come Rumor is, the idea of a dual head CDM mobile is being considered. I am sure you'd see thos in ambulances if they were avail.

Sooooo...that may be why your seeing the Astro's in a area where everything is analog.

Happy Holidays !
Matt

 

[Stephen]

Well when I was talking to a Motorola Radio Corp. Rep. and they said that many other depts that had also been using the MCS2000 wanted the same nice big display of 2 x 14 characters on a digital format so I believe next quarter motorola is releasing a new form of the XTL5000 digital Mobile that is similiar if not the exact same of the mcs2000 with digital capabilities. Also, this last quarter motorola discontinued the MT2000, MTX8000, XTS3500, JT1000, the GTX, LTS2000, P1225. The MTS2000 will most likely be retiring next year early. Just thought I would throught that in there.

 

[R8000]

Yup,
We get a print out of all that good stuff. Interesting to see though, the GR1225 repeater is now on the "dead list" for something around 2005 or 2006...can't remember. In other words, I think it's getting the axe soon. Sorry to see it go, neat little repeater despite the overheating issues.

The MCS 2000 was tested by Richland County, and they hated it. RC runs encryption and while the MCS was in the encrypted mode...scanning almost came to a stop. They didnt like that, and went back to Astro Spectra's. It was rumored they would try a CDM 1250 and aftermarket "transcrypt" type of board in em. RC also liked the VRS and siren package that the specra offered, but the MCS doesnt do either. So they tried a Pyramid repeater. But was so disappointed about the scanning speed, they didnt look at the MCS anymore.



The MCS 2000 if I remember is also on the "axe" list soon. i do remember hearing it was going to be dropped.

The XTL currently uses the spectra "goodies"....but we already knew that. They are going to give the XTL it's own control head soon. The prototypes I saw were something totally new. All I saw was a b/w faxed sheet, of a b/w faxed sheet so the quality was bad, but it looked like the high end control head was like 4 or 5 lines of text on the head with soft keys on the lcd ?!? dunno for sure .

It will be sad to see the ole VFT go away. Granted , in the daytime ya cant see it but it had a good running. Very pretty at night.

 

[SCPD]

Do you know what frquencies they will be using for this system? The county has not been issued any new frequencies.

A voting system is a trunking system correct. I am not really familiar with voting systems.

 

[N_Jay]

A voting system is a trunking system correct. I am not really familiar with voting systems.

Voting is a system that uses multiple receiver sites and pickes the best audio.
It can be trunked or conventional.
It is usually repeated, but there are system that just provide voted audio to the dispatcher.