El Paso TX police upgrading subscriber equipment

[SCPD]

As title says.

I was consulting with someone today that way and it was mentioned (individual works within a not specified here area regarding it) that the phase 1 equipment is being replaced with phase 2 capable equipment. The plan is down road to migrate to a phase 2 system, which most the main infrastructure exists however isn't used but for phase 1, though capable minus the subscriber hardware which has been being replaced since November with APX low tier equipment. Meaning not your 8000s, 6000s in that fashion.

The big question some have wondered seeing this. Yes it will follow suit with what EPSO did to its system across the board when the time comes to be. The time frame isn't being specified but once certain conditions exist it could occur prior to any phase 2 system being deployed. I did not touch on it as it was just something added in the discussion of other matters but comment was made a few media outlets (legit official ones) were leasing or going to when that time came with locked radios to specific talkgroups with a very lengthy strict MOU which could be revoked anytime or equipment inhibited then uninhibited if need be.

If you have comments about that part the rant tavern is your best place.

 

[CapSS92]

I know the cops have already upgraded most of the radios to the APX low end series and they have encrypted their special ops channels (SWAT, Auto Theft, etc) but it's going to take the fire side a while to upgrade. I hadn't heard of fire encrypting anything but the phase 2 thing keeps coming up. In the end it's all about money and as long as everything is working I can't see them spending any more than they have to. They still use pagers, for crying out loud. I even heard they're going to be upgrading them soon. We'll see.

 

[Project25_MASTR]

It doesn't really matter when Phase 2 comes into play. One of the benefits to a Phase 2 migration is that the control channel is the same 9600 bps channel that Phase 1 uses minus a handful of signaling extras. If a FDMA only radio tries to affiliate the system will recognize it as FDMA and knock the affiliated talk group down to FDMA system wide (assuming the system is programmed to allow FDMA operation).

The big reason you are seeing the mass exodus to the APX line though is because this is the last year Motorola will be supporting the Astro 25 line (XTL/XTS) on the depot level. As a result agencies all over the state are migrating to TDMA capable radios even if Phase 2 isn't in the immediate future such as with the GATRRS system where infrastructure upgrades are being made to meet the next planned core upgrade which will no longer support the Quantar as well as planned system merger with PBRRS (rumored CVCOG will merge as well). They'll maybe begin talking about Phase 2 in another 3 or 4 years.

Sent from my SM-T713 using Tapatalk

 

[CapSS92]

Hmm makes sense. I guess it's time to get ready lol.