Hancock County seeking bids for a new system

[firemantom26]

6 sites DMR with P25 capabilities.

http://hancockcountywv.org/legal/Hancock%20County%20Two%20Way%20Radio%20Communications%20Upgrade.pdf

 

[lebrunmn]

Interesting post--many thanks for the insight into the Northern Panhandle happenings. Seem to recall reading that Hancock Co. didn't want to join SIRN as far back as 2008, and always wondered what the reasons were--I'd just always assumed it was a slam dunk. Not feeling the love, I guess.

 

[firemantom26]

I guess they did not want to drink the SIRN KOOL-AID. I am thinking they may get sticker shock when bids come in for how much this system will cost them.

 

[Bethanylt241]

This is quite interesting. “DMR with P25 capabilities” I think this has a lot to do with vendor located in Weirton, that will be the first one submitting his bid, if he didn’t already write it for them. The Sirn tower in weirton will already distribute signal for the city and outskirts, my understanding was the state was going to put a tower in across the river from dispatch center the would complete coverage for northern Hancock county. Once again politics over safety! Also interesting that it was posted a while ago that Weirton spent a million or two in what I believe is this system and still haven’t got anywhere.

 

[firemantom26]

From what I was told, Weirton Police and Fire were going to spend 1.6 million to upgrade their system . This project seems to be on hold for some reason.
Weirton Police and Fire were also listed as departments as part of the bid. I am a little confused on that part.

 

[n3obl]

There always some politicians and directors that want to have total control of a system. By going to the state they would have to abide by their rules.

 

[firemantom26]

From what I was reading it is a 6 site simulcast on VHF. This seems to be a little overkill

 

[Bethanylt241]

Agreed, I feel from being on that side of things, it’s less headache letting the state cover the infrastructure. A whole new system, towers, antennas, etc that’s a lot to maintain at 6 sites in a small county.

 

[fredva]

If I lived in the county, I'd be questioning this. Most other counties don't have a problem using SIRN, so what's unique about Hancock County that they can't use it? I also know multiple counties in VA and WV that decided to go digital by using DMR or NXDN, then decided later to go P25, making the taxpayers pay twice for a digital system.

 

[radio259]

That vendor did not write the specs. VHF actually kicks but in the panhandle. Has for years. From what I heard in the meeting, using the Stimulus funds all states/counties got late last year. Getting close to use it or loose it time.

 

[Bethanylt241]

VHF absolutely does not kick butt in the Northern Panhandle. The City of Weirton Fire Department can’t even make out transmission in the parking lot of downtown Headquarters and one of the repeaters is on Maryland Heights. In Brooke County, the Sheriffs Dept had multiple towers through out the county and still couldn’t get out on there radios. Plot twist, VHF might be a good system, it might be the vendor maintaining their system tweaking it a little too much to steer them into spending money.