Gonzales County

[KevinC]

Commissioners deny request to extend tower project bid date…​

Commissioners deny request to extend tower project bid date - The Gonzales Inquirer

After a very heated discussion, Gonzales County Commissioners Court voted 3-2 on Monday, April 8 to deny a three-week extension request by Motorola to submit a bid on the emergency communications …

gonzalesinquirer.com

 

[KevinC]

“We’re going to give them an $8 million system and then we’re at liberty to them,” Davis added. “We’re at their mercy if say a little while from now they’re going to go to $25 per radio per month. I don’t know how many radios we have, but divide that by $8 million and you get 160 years. We should have free radio because everyone who comes through here is going to use that system and (LCRA) is going to get paid for it and what does the county get?”

Or…

Brzozowski said Motorola would “charge the dickens out of us for maintenance” on a Motorola-built system, to which Davis said the maintenance fee could be whatever the county decided it wanted to pay for maintenance.

🤷‍♂️

 

[rattlerbb01]

Read the whole thing, I think for interoperability LCRA is the best bet, but I also think the sentiment is valid. They are paying for the radios, infrastructure and all and still have to pay for airtime while the state/LCRA gets funds and everyone passing through can use their spectrum/infrastructure. They are not a large county that really needs the capacity, they have a handful of VFDs, small towns, ambulances and maybe 50 LEOs countywide. A Medina county style solution that they pay for on their own and have total control over would be fine IMO, 2-3 VHF P25 LSM voted channels for SO, Fire/EMS and combined ops and a geographical repeaters for fireground ops would be fine for them.

 

[KevinC]

I sure hope no (Funky) Munky business is going on.

 

[Project25_MASTR]

I don't actually know what LCRA bills me right now...need to look into that.

What other system were they looking at going on to? Some systems, if you build the infrastructure and expand the system, you don't pay subscriber fees per se.

 

[KevinC]

What other system were they looking at going on to?

I would guess GATRRS, but that's just a guess. The original RFP was VHF and TxWARN doesn't allow anything other than 7/800 (unless that changed in the last couple of years).

 

[NC5267]

Geographically, they're surrounded by mainly LCRA users, a couple of VHF counties, and Caldwell, which is on GATRRS. So, as Rattler said for I/O, LCRA looks best. But, as with most counties, money is the driving factor for communications. If they can save money, easy access to other agencies for I/O would come second. I have seen it in many places where a county is surrounded by the user on an extensive system, but they opt to build their own system. It is amazing how much politics goes behind city and county systems.

 

[rattlerbb01]

Geographically, they're surrounded by mainly LCRA users, a couple of VHF counties, and Caldwell, which is on GATRRS. So, as Rattler said for I/O, LCRA looks best. But, as with most counties, money is the driving factor for communications. If they can save money, easy access to other agencies for I/O would come second. I have seen it in many places where a county is surrounded by the user on an extensive system, but they opt to build their own system. It is amazing how much politics goes behind city and county systems.

and don’t forget Caldwell Co is supposed to be transitioning to LCRA this year, so that’s one more neighbor on LCRA. They are also in the LCRA intended footprint along with Lavaca Co, but I still think they are just rural enough to stick with VHF P25 and have more than enough capacity. Nothing in Gonzales County is caught up in any urban sprawl. They probably have more Eagle Ford oil money than they know what to do with so this is a way to spend it without lowering their tax rates. I totally made up that last sentence 😂

 

[BenScan]

Article from from Gonzales Inquirer: Sheriff: Statewide radio network could save county hundreds of thousands of dollars​

https://gonzalesinquirer.com/stories/sheriff-statewide-radio-network-could-save-county-hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollars,116473

This came up in my Google automatic searches because of some of the acronyms. It's not an area I follow, but I though others might be interestesd.

Happy Scanning,
Ben

 

[mwjones]

Not an area I follow either, but I did catch a bunch of system names...

Heinze said partners in GATRRS include Texas DPS; Texas Department of Emergency Management; Texas Parks and Wildlife; Texas Wide Area Radio Network (TxWARN) in the Houston area; Western Regions Regional Radio Systems, which covers the Hill Country; Middle Rio Grande Development Council Radio System (MRGDC); South Texas Development Council (STDC); Permian Basin Radio System; and East Texas COG.

Looking at RRDB, I don't see any of those systems mentioned (that I highlighted in the quote) other than TxWARN. Looking at the slide he was pointing to in the picture, you can see the various regional systems across the state, and of course I'm sitting on the North side of the kaleidoscope known as the DFW metroplex. Could some system name corrections be in order?

 

[rattlerbb01]

All those systems to the scanner users are just sites of GATRRS all under the BEE09-13E system ID. The infrastructure was built out and funded largely by their COG partnerships, but the work was done by MSI/GATRRS under the 13E umbrella as a whole. Permian Basin was its own system for a while but Western Regions, MRG, STDC and TxDOT have all been 13E since they were turned on.

 

[mwjones]

All those systems to the scanner users are just sites of GATRRS all under the BEE09-13E system ID. The infrastructure was built out and funded largely by their COG partnerships, but the work was done by MSI/GATRRS under the 13E umbrella as a whole. Permian Basin was its own system for a while but Western Regions, MRG, STDC and TxDOT have all been 13E since they were turned on.

Guess since that's not a system I monitor regularly, I hadn't looked to see just how big that system is...



I knew TxWARN covers most of East Texas (I was in Houston when it was in its infancy and was still an analog system called STARnet), but thought the rest of the state was smaller regional/local systems (aka San Antonio, Lubbock, DFW, El Paso etc).

 

[KevinC]

Guess since that's not a system I monitor regularly, I hadn't looked to see just how big that system is...

View attachment 172094

I knew TxWARN covers most of East Texas (I was in Houston when it was in its infancy and was still an analog system called STARnet), but thought the rest of the state was smaller regional/local systems (aka San Antonio, Lubbock, DFW, El Paso etc).

And unfortunately I've been to 95% of those sites. The best day was Laredo in the morning and Texarkana in the afternoon.

 

[rattlerbb01]

And unfortunately I've been to 95% of those sites. The best day was Laredo in the morning and Texarkana in the afternoon.

Is El Indio one of those 5% you haven’t been to? That one is……out there. Driven right by it to a Briscoe wellsite down old Mines road last year. Most people would never see that site since it’s so remote.

 

[KevinC]

Is El Indio one of those 5% you haven’t been to? That one is……out there. Driven right by it to a Briscoe wellsite down old Mines road last year. Most people would never see that site since it’s so remote.

I've been there. Not much else out that way. The ones I haven't been to are the ones added in the last couple of years.

 

[KevinC]

One of my favorites is still Glass Mountain, only about 12 miles off the paved road but it's a 45 minute drive.

 

[BenScan]

Another article for those interested.

Commissioners again press pause on communications tower decisions

 

[KE5PL]

One of my favorites is still Glass Mountain, only about 12 miles off the paved road but it's a 45 minute drive.

Guessing that means I must know you. Met at King Mountain the first time?

 

[KevinC]

Guessing that means I must know you. Met at King Mountain the first time?

You have chosen wisely.

 

[KE5PL]

Another article for those interested.

Commissioners again press pause on communications tower decisions

Sheriff: Statewide radio network could save county hundreds of thousands of dollars - The Gonzales Inquirer

Gonzales County Sheriff Keith Schmidt told commissioners at their regular Monday, Oct. 28, meeting that a partnership with the Greater Austin Travis Regional Radio System (GATRRS) could save the …

gonzalesinquirer.com