Erie County P25 System

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wrath

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Locally here in west county, radio installations not complete at fire dept, some radios installed minus face plates, no base unit or siren controller yet. Installers saying probably 4 more months til operational. Which confirms the paper saying end of Q2 this year!
I have a funny feeling that "date" is very optimistic & highly inaccurate ,judging from the trouble they are having with tremendous communications failures observed in the limited use roll out of equipment thus far . 911 center has been making alot of phone calls due to ambulances not being able to do med patch ,people not being able to communicate directly on old or new systems , we have had two structure fires with absolutely no comms ,chiefs had to radio to county ,county then had to radio to the Jake's and vice versa ,the fireground repeater didnt work nor did radio to radio function (you have to get the idea theres a big problem when you cant be heard on another radio 20 feet away simplex) i dont know what kind of BS the county is handing out to men or officers but i would not be standing down when lives are on the line (they may be firefighters ,but needing to send smoke signals is ridiculous !) When your primary radio system and backup system fail at the same time ,because your blowing 30 million for the privledge of not communicating ,that radio salesman is going to have an A$$ chewing.

I hope the administration has answers ready for the inquiries , the Senate has started an investigation into the 800 million dollars dumped in the last abortion radio system ,who authorized it ,and why ,it didn't do anything for public safety or officer safety and I distinctly remeber the only other suckers dupped into "open sky" telling PSP don't go there, it doesnt work ,it never will its a mony pit (its a b.o.a.t, a hole in the water you throw money into ,Bust Out Another Thousand would have been cheap compared to nealy 1 billion ) our roads ,bridges and infrastructer is crumbling around us but blowing money on radio systems is fine.
Can you imagine what our school system could have done with billion $ ,instead we have a pile of scrap electronics that will never be worth the money wasted.

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scnrfrq

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I have an email request in to the head consultant in charge of this project. I'm hoping to get a realistic answer to the completion date and start of testing. I've been getting that 3/31 date for months now, but it sure looks to be not the case now. I'll post his response once I get it.

Here's the whole response:
"All is well with the project. The county will be sending out an update this Friday, which I will forward to you. "
 

terryho

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Can’t wait for the update! I imagine they will get the encrypted channels online before the fire and ems whom it was intended.
 

Railbender

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I have an email request in to the head consultant in charge of this project. I'm hoping to get a realistic answer to the completion date and start of testing. I've been getting that 3/31 date for months now, but it sure looks to be not the case now. I'll post his response once I get it.

Why bother all you get is more BS. When did we ever get any accurate information from the county or the consultant?
 

scnrfrq

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Why bother all you get is more BS. When did we ever get any accurate information from the county or the consultant?
Just tryin to keep the lines of communication open. Maybe I can end up with a copy of the Talkgroup channel plan. That would save us all some work trying to figure it out.
 

MarkPalmer

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I apologize to forum administrators if what I have stated in regards to this “NextGen” Erie County radio system has been construed as negative. But for those who have been playing along at home since day one the system development was announced, you know the top-dog, main thing they were selling the expenditure on was easy and open communication at emergency sites among various agencies. Encryption, plain and simple, is locking people out of the line of communications. This can involve VFD and EMS folks at emergency sites who use their own scanner radios. They have listened to local police agencies at sites for decades. No more? It’s contradictory to what they said we needed the system for.
 

scnrfrq

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Those are Med frequencies for ambulance service. Not related to this system.

OK, is this a renewal then? Looks to be all 2019 dates, with MCM Consulting as the contact. Med channels will be part of the new system also.
 

Railbender

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Those freqs are licensed as: PW - Public Safety Pool, Conventional. The P25 system is; YW - Public Safety Pool, Trunked.
 

scnrfrq

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Here's the whole response: let you know when I get it.
"All is well with the project. The county will be sending out an update this Friday, which I will forward to you. "

The update has been delayed (hmmmm...). I'll let you know when I get it.
 

scnrfrq

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The update has been delayed (hmmmm...). I'll let you know when I get it.

Instead of saying the update was delayed, maybe I should have said "cancelled", for lack of them knowing what to say at this point. I also tried to get it directly from Kathy D., but no response so far. Looks like they may be 4 years behind pretty soon.....
 

terryho

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Par for the course! I wrote the Mike at MCM consulting asking him for info last week and he was nice enough to get back to me and say he would try to get the info from his team! But guess the team doesn’t want to give out any info because haven’t heard anything yet!
I did see someone must have been on the Fairview tower and straightened up the antennas that were out of wack, they certainly could not have done any testing the way they were!
 

terryho

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I was wondering does anyone know what sites are simulcasting sites or do all sites simulcast, trying to figure that out. I see there are 2 simulcast cells and some sites designated as a green dot but don’t know much more than that!
 

scnrfrq

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I was wondering does anyone know what sites are simulcasting sites or do all sites simulcast, trying to figure that out. I see there are 2 simulcast cells and some sites designated as a green dot but don’t know much more than that!

Looks like they've built quite the big, silent wall around this project, huh? I'll try to get info from John Grappy tomorrow, like when if ever will testing start, and can he send me the list of TG's (I can dream, right?).

Not sure about the simulcasting - still kind of a mystery to me.
 

wrath

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Instead of saying the update was delayed, maybe I should have said "cancelled", for lack of them knowing what to say at this point. I also tried to get it directly from Kathy D., but no response so far. Looks like they may be 4 years behind pretty soon.....
If there four years behind do they get a free upgrade to P25 P3 ? Or will they just be using old technology as is there history ?not that they will ever admit þhey got oversold snow job from radio salesman and disregarded all advice from experts as is there repeated pattern of history.

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scnrfrq

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Got an update (of sorts) from John Grappy. Nothing really new here. I asked for a TG list, but nothing was sent:
"The new radio system is being installed, provisioned and will be operational in the 2Q2019.

Our next step will be to conduct extensive field testing with public safety users, in conjunction with county officials, to ensure the coverage requirements have been met. The user training on the operation and function of the new radio system will be scheduled, and will be provided by EF Johnson at various locations throughout Erie County.

I prefer not to provide a specific date on the cutover to the new radio system. Simply stated, when all public safety users are confident in the operation and functionality of the radio system, then we will select the cutover date.

It has been brought to my attention that there is a lot of rumors and misinformation being circulating throughout Erie County. I am in the process of revising the power point presentation provided at our last public meeting (held in October of last year), and will be providing the latest project update to our public safety community and the general public. We will disseminate this information through our mass email distribution list.

Upon review, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me directly at my office or email."
 

terryho

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As expected nothing new from them. I think it will be some time before they get things sorted out. It will be interesting to see the next power point presentation they give, sounds like he has some explaining to do to the public about the encryption mess. I’m sure he won’t take the blame!
I am beginning to think all sites might be simulcast, if so the Lake City Site will be close to me and I am hoping for good reception but only time will tell. Still wondering how cell a and cell b will work, if only city stuff is on one and county stuff on another or will everything be heard throught the county. Doing a lot of reading on the subject.
Still waiting to hear back from mike at mcm consulting
 

terryho

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Got an update (of sorts) from John Grappy. Nothing really new here. I asked for a TG list, but nothing was sent:
"The new radio system is being installed, provisioned and will be operational in the 2Q2019.

Our next step will be to conduct extensive field testing with public safety users, in conjunction with county officials, to ensure the coverage requirements have been met. The user training on the operation and function of the new radio system will be scheduled, and will be provided by EF Johnson at various locations throughout Erie County.

I prefer not to provide a specific date on the cutover to the new radio system. Simply stated, when all public safety users are confident in the operation and functionality of the radio system, then we will select the cutover date.

It has been brought to my attention that there is a lot of rumors and misinformation being circulating throughout Erie County. I am in the process of revising the power point presentation provided at our last public meeting (held in October of last year), and will be providing the latest project update to our public safety community and the general public. We will disseminate this information through our mass email distribution list.

Upon review, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me directly at my office or email."
Thanks for the update!
 

scnrfrq

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As expected nothing new from them. I think it will be some time before they get things sorted out. It will be interesting to see the next power point presentation they give, sounds like he has some explaining to do to the public about the encryption mess. I’m sure he won’t take the blame!
I am beginning to think all sites might be simulcast, if so the Lake City Site will be close to me and I am hoping for good reception but only time will tell. Still wondering how cell a and cell b will work, if only city stuff is on one and county stuff on another or will everything be heard throught the county. Doing a lot of reading on the subject.
Still waiting to hear back from mike at mcm consulting

I have also been corresponding with Mike. He did say he'd send me a copy of the update. Sounds like John Grappy is doing it, and it may take some time to explain all the delays, use of encryption, no testing yet, etc.
 
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