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Is dutchess county planning or in the beginning stages of building a p25 system for police fire and ems I am hearing bits and pieces but wanted to confirm weather it really is being built out or not
Dutchess county p25
- Thread starter jrock71984
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You're probably going to end up hearing the same bits and pieces here as well. No one from the County is going to come to the forum and officially say anything.
What I know is some of the sites have had prep work done, new gas lines, new generators, antennas moved around.
New frequencies have been licensed.
Not sure if any infrastructure equipment has been delivered or installed.
When the system is ready for testing, they will move DPW over to it first, let them find all the dead spots, once that's all ironed out then they move PD over, and then Fire/EMS if they decide go go that route. Last I knew they planned on making some upgrades to the UHF conventional system and keep Fire/EMS on UHF.
MegaHertz315
Member
Emergency Response Receives $3M Grant for Countywide Radio Communications Project
Dutchess County’s ambitious Consolidated Two-Way Radio System Project received a significant boost last week with a $3 million grant award from the New York Division of Homeland Security & Emergency Services’ (DHSE) Interoperable Communications Grant
According to their publicly posted adopted budget, its a 7/800 MHz P25 Phase II, (2) simulcast cells dividing the County into North and South Cells
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I hear bits and pieces from dispatch on 453.9 all the time
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MegaHertz315
Member
I'd love to hear what evidence you have that your pretty sure the system is dead-in-the-water. The system isn't going to be built out overnight. Its proposed to have 17 tower sites, so its very possible that not all the tower sites have been fully constructed yet.
Has anyone in the area even bothered to plug in the frequencies and see if anything is going on?
769.54375
771.28125
772.39375
772.80625
773.64375
774.44375
I'd love to hear where you got your info..
As @MegaHertz315 mentioned these buildouts don't happen overnight, they take years just to get one site on the air. The County has been doing site prep work, new shelters, new backup generators, relocating its current antennas to make room for the new ones. Just last year there were new license granted to Dutchess for the new system.
About an hour ago Senator Michelle Hinchey just posted that Dutchess is receiving 1.250.992 dollars through the Statewide Interoperable Communications Grant, funding will bolster Land Mobile Radio systems, upgrade and maintain communications equipment.
KE2BHF
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My ‘evidence’ is admittedly anecdotal, as I personally am not working directly on the project. However, my statement is based on (fairly recent) discussions I’ve had with folks that *were* directly involved. I say ‘were’, because… due to the constant issues that have arisen (College Hill, etc), they have essentially walked away from it. Without giving names or too many specifics, I was told the original contractor NYSTEC had either completely abandoned the project, or at least put it on pause until the various municipalities and jurisdictions had resolved their differences. Also, I was told the initial tower contractor had walked away, and no replacement has been found. As I said, if anyone has better, truly factual info, I’d love to hear it.
Regarding the SIEC grant, this is an annual grant program… and has nothing whatsoever to do with this project. Several millions have been awarded over the years to all County-level PSAPS. I have not read DC’s 2026 application, so I don’t know what they plan on doing with the $$.
Regarding the SIEC grant, this is an annual grant program… and has nothing whatsoever to do with this project. Several millions have been awarded over the years to all County-level PSAPS. I have not read DC’s 2026 application, so I don’t know what they plan on doing with the $$.
I've wondered the same thing. NYCOMCO is building a new P25 system as well, and testing is already happening on it. A large amount of what is left with NYCOMCO is several of the larger Dutchess County PD's.
The Ducthess County P25 system is not dead in the water. Like others mentioned above its not going to be built overnight and theres is wayyyyyy more to concider then it just going live. I have personaly been monitoring their FCC licences for activity and found nothing, altho i dont expect them to be live yet.
NYCOMCO is building out their system and Dutchess County is building out their system, 2 diffrent agencies and 2 diffrent systems. We will see what happens down the road when both are built out where agencies will move to. I would hope that everyone in the county (Including agencies on NYCOMCO) will be on the new Dutchess County P25 when its build but we will have to wait and see.
NYCOMCO is building out their system and Dutchess County is building out their system, 2 diffrent agencies and 2 diffrent systems. We will see what happens down the road when both are built out where agencies will move to. I would hope that everyone in the county (Including agencies on NYCOMCO) will be on the new Dutchess County P25 when its build but we will have to wait and see.
I've also heard rumblings of drama behind the scenes, and while I do believe the system will eventually get built out (a ton of money has already been sunk into the project), I would also not be surprised if things go south fast and NYCOMCO picks up the pieces with their EDACS replacement.
Keep in mind that NYCOMCO does not spend money unless they have to, so them finally building out a replacement for EDACS is not insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Yes, some of it has to do with agencies in Ulster that aren't getting a county P25 system, but they have a large footprint in Dutchess as well.
Fact of the matter is that any agencies going from EDACS to NYCOMCO's new P25 system can just as easily migrate to the county system if/when it gets built...same band, same radios, not a big deal to modify the codeplugs in the future. So, will NYCOMCO be a stop-gap until the county gets their act together, or will agencies simply remain on that system forever while also programming the county system for interop purposes when the time comes? Who knows, time will tell.
Keep in mind that NYCOMCO does not spend money unless they have to, so them finally building out a replacement for EDACS is not insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Yes, some of it has to do with agencies in Ulster that aren't getting a county P25 system, but they have a large footprint in Dutchess as well.
Fact of the matter is that any agencies going from EDACS to NYCOMCO's new P25 system can just as easily migrate to the county system if/when it gets built...same band, same radios, not a big deal to modify the codeplugs in the future. So, will NYCOMCO be a stop-gap until the county gets their act together, or will agencies simply remain on that system forever while also programming the county system for interop purposes when the time comes? Who knows, time will tell.
Yeah, I just do not see NYCOMCO doing all of this P25 work as a stopgap. The Dutchess system may end up being just a county system with its own agencies and fire/EMS. Sort of like the Westchester system.
