Glastonbury

[LedZeppelin]

This was approved.

Voters will be asked to approve $3.1 million to effectively replace the outdated communication system. The new system will eliminate dead spots and provide nearly 100 percent coverage across town.

The proposal calls for an upgrade to a digital simulcasting operation with multiple transmission locations, boosting coverage to 97 percent of the town's area. The proposed system is expected to meet public safety needs for the next 15 years.

"We didn't just pick an option," town council Chairwoman Susan Karp said Monday. "We explored all options and selected one that will last us the longest and serve us the best. Parts are failing and they just can't be replaced anymore because the parts aren't out there."

Not only would police communications get a boost, but also public works, fire and ambulance systems, Sweeney said.

Under the current system, two towers - one at police headquarters on Main Street and the other off Birch Moutain Road - provide coverage across town. With each tower providing approximately 50 percent coverage, dispatchers have to select the most appropriate tower and hope the signal reaches the cruiser.

Even so, there are low areas and dead spots where the signals cannot penetrate. The coverage of the town is estimated at 85-90 percent, leaving a gap the town can't afford to have, Sweeney said. There are some areas in town - including South Glastonbury and Buck's Corner - where officers cannot receive signals from headquarters.

"We need to think of not only the safety of residents, but also the safety of first responders. We have to make it work, especially during emergencies. We can't continue to jerry-rig things," Sweeney said.

Maintenance of the system is also expensive. Replacement parts are difficult to get because the manufacturer no longer makes them. Wires have become frayed and when something breaks down, parts have to be "cannibalized" from other systems to repair the problem because replacement parts are no longer being made.

"We think it's a quantum leap," Sweeney said of the new system. "This is the most efficient and economical solution. It's easy to cry wolf and say we have a problem and not have a solution. We want to make sure it's done right."

 

[wesct]

notice how "replaement parts" is repeated numerous times, although, the town is not buying alot of replacement parts to keep in stock.

i sure hope this works well. phase 1 is to start in january.

and i also hope its not full time encryption.

wesct

 

[dimab]

what kind of system will it be?

 

[Tom_G]

Gee....

I didn't think their system was that old. Seems to be plenty of 800MHz stuff around.
This ought to be interesting....

I would guess this is going to be a Motorola deal.
I wonder how many towers will be going up .....

I also hope it won't be full encryption.

 

[a727469]

I voted against this..totally unneccesary...again trying to make 800 work in a very mountainous terain so they just keep adding more sites..also why digital?...what advantage does this give them...actually the 800 has been around for almost 15 years so they had a lot of time to just add a few remote receive sites which would have helped and at less cost(maybe a few hundred thousand)...now with the digital they have to replace every radio..what a joke.....many years ago they had a low band system that had less dead spots...amazing....your tax dollars at work.

 

[wesct]

try this website

www.glasct.org

the rocky hill receive only site will be upgraded to a full repeater.

the apple hill site will be upgraded (both fire and pd)

the birch mountain site will be upgraded and new voter added

wesct

 

[800crazy1]

good job LED ZEPPELIN , always good to see someone on there toes. i work in the hartford area , and monitor glastonbury all the time, and iv never heard any thing said on the air about....any problems tx or rx ....but maybe this would be solved with the rebanding , and they really would save a lot on just reprogramming there radios , maybe those dead spots are nextel related , and of course if it is motorola as the vendor , there not going to say , hey this is going to be solved withen 2 yrs.....no , sell the digital , thats the anser.... look at weathersfield , ill bet most if not all there problems are nextel related....but oh well , lets spend the money , were ct. the wealthiest state in the country !!!

 

[dittrimd]

Here is a link to the RFQ for their system. It is amazing that one town could afford to do something like this. They have radio system upgrades, Microwave system upgrades and dispatch center upgrades. Unbelievable!!

www.glasct.org/Public_Documents/GlastonburyCT_BBoard/006D9F08-000F8513

Pages 38-49 Specifications
Pages 50-59 Microwave
Pages 60-62 Infrastructure
Pages 63-64 Console Upgrade.

very interesting reading.

 

[wesct]

basically, the voter system is the big part that doesnt work. the dispatcher has to switch the sites manually.
and there are times when the cop in the car has to have the dispatcher repeat several times whats going out over the air. when the site is changed, the cop in the car can hear everything.

i guess my big question is- why didnt the town make the voter in rockyhill a full repeater?

wesct

 

[ltng92]

I had heard that Glastonbury is going to get full encryption. They are moving to an 800 Mhz digital system.

 

[800crazy1]

yea , cause theres so much national security issues in glastonbury , they need to go encrypted ! same with bristol.....they really needed full time encryption also....ooooowww.....a jay walker..., hey car 9 could you stop and pick up 3 coffees , 1 for the sarge, one for the capt. and one for the dispatcher ? i really dont see the reasoning for these small towns going encrypted....the larger citys with major crimes everyday , or a huge drug problem , maybe ....but i think its a waist of money. i hate seeing depts . going encrypted....like most of us in this hobby....i live in mass , and nothing up here is encrypted...but i love monitoring ct.where i work and i cant see some of this nonsince and waste of money...

 

[wesct]

I had heard that Glastonbury is going to get full encryption. They are moving to an 800 Mhz digital system.

see the posts above.

wesct

 

[800crazy1]

wesct , i had to , myself go back and reread your posts, and your right , nothing mentioned about encryption, not to say they wont or have the capabilities , i just get furious when that (E) word gets mentioned. so i ranted, but you seem to have the best angle on what there going to be doing for upgrades. and how the currant system works, with switching sites, that would explain why i never heard anything about , i cant recieve you , or having trouble recieving you " the kinds of transmissions you here constantly with a bad radio system...i live in chicopee actually , and there anolog 800 and if you go on scancapecod / scanmass , you could read some of the posts about how bad there sysem is...i live about a mile from one of the sites and the pd station.....and its terrible....although its gotten a little better after the radio techs did somethings. like i think they needed some voting stations added , but anyways , when something like this happens , i guess well know when the lights go out , or get brighter.......ill just end by saying ....(I HATE THE E WORD) kills me to even spell it outright. ok , again , im done ranting, i apoligize to all that had to endure !!

 

[dittrimd]

If you go to the link I provided for the PDF spec you will find on page 69 which is Part "D" that they clearly spec digital encryption for the police. It is also mentioned on page 39 under the general spec. I am not sure if things have changed since this spec was put out but it would seem that the police are in fact going to an encrypted system. Not sure what their justification would be other than to keep the public from being able to monitor their transmissions. The most rediculous part of their whole spec is that they are making each angency have a separate frequency range. Police on 800. Fire and EMS on UHF and Public Works on low band. It would make sense to me that if they are going to spend 3.1 million they would try to get better interoperability. Not to mention any mutual aid assistance from other towns. In our town we are attempting to do the exact opposite which is get all agencys on the same frequency range UHF. This makes life a lot easier during operations where we need to be able to talk to each other. Thinks like weather emergencies or large scale incidents. Oh well just my 2 cents.

Mark

 

[CT22]

Perfect!

I couldnt have said it better myself. I was wondering the same thing. Why keep each service on serperate bands?

It seems like UHF would work best for them. Just getting DPW off low band wouldnt be that expensive. Im sure they have less radio equipment than the FD and EMS. But, UHF spectrum is very hard to come by. Manchester, Hebron, Marlborough, Rocky Hill, and East Hartford are on UHF. I think Wethersfield still has there UHF FD channel up as well. That may be why they are keeping the FD and EMS on UHF. The PD may be able to access the 800 Mhz RAFS links if they need to talk out of town?

 

[wesct]

wesct , i had to , myself go back and reread your posts, and your right , nothing mentioned about encryption, not to say they wont or have the capabilities , i just get furious when that (E) word gets mentioned.

the spec calls for radios that have encyrption and apco 25. it doesnt mean that the encryption will be full time. i think Bob Dibella would insist that the encryption would be on a part time basis, considering that emergency management needs to hear whats going on.
(at least i hope)

and yes, wethersfield still has 460.625 as a simulcast from the trunk system that STILL has
problems covering the town.

Happy Thanksgiving

wesct