Fairfax County Police Feed

[brownlab]

That is interesting news considering there is a budget shortfall. How much would all those radios cost?
I will have to ask Mr. Hyland why we are buying radios if we cannot give raises.

 

[cpetraglia]

What's the cost on the new APX radios? What model are they buying? I have a radio count of 6328 as of today and that's a clean load of Pro96Com only 2 weeks ago. At lets say $3000.00 each, that would be almost 19 million dollars. I know we live in a rich county, but I just cant see the need for it as the system is working very well at this time.
My two cents.

Chuck

 

[brownlab]

Yes that is a good question considering that we had to find a couple of million just the other day in order to open and staff a new fire station (Station 42) and that was staffing for only an engine company. No medic units. I can see replacing radios as needed but replacing the entire inventory? Just does not seem to make sense at this point in time.

 

[c5corvette]

Retail for an APX radio is about $5,000 or more. With AES and DES encryption it could be $7000.

 

[jkahn]

What's the cost on the new APX radios? What model are they buying? I have a radio count of 6328 as of today and that's a clean load of Pro96Com only 2 weeks ago. At lets say $3000.00 each, that would be almost 19 million dollars. I know we live in a rich county, but I just cant see the need for it as the system is working very well at this time.
My two cents.

Chuck

Probably got a DHS grant, Seeing as the Federal Govt has all this money they are saving from paying the entire freaking govt (except themselves). they can afford to buy everybody radios to interop with theirs (except Cap PD & USPP).

JK

-sorry for the rant-

 

[brownlab]

Fairfax County Fire works in conjunction with FEMA for the National Capital Region and helps operate and maintain over 1200 radios for them but I do not know what model they are. Perhaps these are the new APX radios? Here is the link and picture if anyone can identify them. NCR Radio Cache | Flickr - Photo Sharing! . I spoke to a couple of people and noboby is aware of any new radio purchase which does not mean anything…………..

 

[cpetraglia]

Considering the county just announced a 130 million shortfall in 2014 for the public schools, I imagine the other county departments are not doing much better. I am already tracking 10-12 encrypted TGs, why buy new radios when these all seem to work fine?

 

[RonBon]

I have kept very quite but now feel that I can disclose my stance on Encryption and radios purchased.
Encryption is bad for forward progression at the local government level. Not allowing your citizens to hear your operations is flat out rude. DC's PD Chief who shall not be named ruined the idea of logically implemented encryption for our area based on false notions instilled by the fear of radio traffic tarnishing the name of an already failed public safety system chain of command in use today.

I find it unlawful that "E" has not been deactivated after 2 backfires worse than the discovery channel incident that started this all. My calls about obtaining audio via freedom of information have not been returned.

Fairfax and Loudoun should lead any further movement toward total NCR system encryption. The progressive nature of both will insure the proper method has been implemented.

Motorola radios with vhf/7/800 are the only radio that will not require special bridging for the Motorola IP connect to work seamlessly no matter what your location in the NCR. All other products suitable for the NCR require bridging(Harris). Funny enough all homeland USA military bases are being outfitted with the vhf/uhf/7/800 unity portables....good product and will work properly with P25 phase 1 out of the box. I got quoted 2499.00 for the full feature model with built in Bluetooth and on screen gps navigation. My point is Motorola has been chosen for local government in the NCR and we are stuck.

The only way it will work is when the two best work to see if its plausible on the Virginia side of the area.. Safety being the most important factor of success. With this said I have hours of ideas and if anyone wants to bounce ideas contact me. This is a hobby and would love to VOLUNTEER my help.

 

[RonBon]

I feel the need to reiterate the fact that DC POLICE officials are not doing their job. Voice encryption and secure mode need to be deactivated UFN after the navy yard shooting. PROPER USE OF NCR RADIO ZONES NEED TO BE TAUGHT TO ALL FIRST RESPONDERS ALONG WITH RINS, etc. With maybe an implementation of a conventional P25 24/7 repeated system. No need to have a human deploy stored equipment when it can be unified across the board. For use in any multi government response to an emergency. VHF with properly placed repeaters works amazing on paper. No trunking to complicate operations "hit PTT hear Tritone and talk" that hurricane that goes up the Chesapeake right into the Mall on dc next year will show the need for change.

 

[RonBon]

FYI police feed will be back some time soon after a decision is made. Due to a few dislikes two(2) emails from the same person I have uncombined fire with police on the advice of people I respect. However, I must say there was an overwhelming approval of the combined feeds. Would anyone like a stereo feed perhaps? Left speaker police/ right speaker fire.

 

[Friday6990]

Fairfax County PD Dispatch

Hi, thank you for broadcasting FC Fire/Rescue and ( PD when it is active). I really enjoyed listening to police dispatch, even while it was combined with Fire was great. Thanks again for volunteering to do this!

Patrice

 

[Bote]

Would anyone like a stereo feed perhaps? Left speaker police/ right speaker fire.

No. I vote no with both hands and both feet.

I tried a stereo feed on my scanner stream here in Florida a few years ago. When listening on a smartphone speaker (not headphones nor earbuds) it's a jumbled mess of traffic that is unintelligible. Just too much for the brain to figure out cleanly.

The best thing is to provide separate feeds, one for fire, one for police. Most people seem to be interested in only one or the other in my experience running feeds.

If somebody wants to monitor both, they can start two instances of feed players. Good luck deciphering them both as Fairfax is a busy, busy county and they both talk a LOT.

 

[mikev]

No. I vote no with both hands and both feet.

I tried a stereo feed on my scanner stream here in Florida a few years ago. When listening on a smartphone speaker (not headphones nor earbuds) it's a jumbled mess of traffic that is unintelligible. Just too much for the brain to figure out cleanly.

The best thing is to provide separate feeds, one for fire, one for police. Most people seem to be interested in only one or the other in my experience running feeds.

If somebody wants to monitor both, they can start two instances of feed players. Good luck deciphering them both as Fairfax is a busy, busy county and they both talk a LOT.

Try a different app then? I use Gordon's Scanner Radio app on both iOS and Android, and it provides a balance control. For your mono phone or tablet speaker, it allows you to set it to left only, both, or right only, and even adjust each side independently so you can make one much louder than the other.

Most smartphone apps aren't able to monitor two different feeds simultaneously, so a stereo feed makes keeping up with two agencies in one county much easier than switching between two different feeds.

 

[loco-lee]

No. I vote no with both hands and both feet.

I agree with Bote! And, to those who say get another app, it might not be that easy for someone to switch.

Stereo feeds are not only a bad idea but usually takes up more than twice the bandwidth of two single feeds.

 

[ks4ui]

Fairfax County missing talk groups

Anyone know what happened to the Fairfax County Talk Groups that use to be in the 16000's, them seem to have disappeared. Have they moved to the Virginia STARS VHF trunked system?

 

[lisam1120]

Oh noooooooo please keep both fire n police

What happened? I absolutely loved the two feeds, fire and police together. I thought the plan was to keep it that way as you had such positive feedback about it. Why the change to just one or the other now? It was so much better being able to listen to both, it was crystal clear, lots of activity, and no long pauses in between calls. I really wish you would keep it as a combined feed.

 

[jenjona]

Bring back the Ffx co police feed

I would love to hear the Ffx co police feed again! Even if it habits own feed! I enjoy knowing what's going on in my county!

Thank you for doing all this! Please bring back the live live feed.