Hancock County seeking bids for a new system

[firemantom26]

6 sites DMR with P25 capabilities.

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Official page of the Hancock County, WV Commission. Containing contact information.

hancockcountywv.org

 

[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.

 

[firemantom26]

The deadline has come and gone. No official word that I have seen who won the bid.

 

[firemantom26]

Lauttamus did when the bid for Hancock County. No surprise on that.

 

[Bethanylt241]

My question is, I think someone mentioned when decoding Weirtons new system that there a Kenwood system. So Hancock County awards bid to Public Safety including the City Fire and PD, So did the City just dump a bunch of money into a system that they will switch off of to go to Mtrbo when they County is up? I guess im a little confused Because the city just put a couple towers up for there system, and the county bid 6 sites. thats alot of towers in the northern part of the county. Somethings just dont add up

 

[firemantom26]

Correct, Wierton FD has been testing again on 154.145 lately. It is a Kenwood DMR conventional system. I am not sure why they would build their own system than move to Hancock's DMR T3 system.

 

[IStebleton]

Correct, Wierton FD has been testing again on 154.145 lately. It is a Kenwood DMR conventional system. I am not sure why they would build their own system than move to Hancock's DMR T3 system.

What Color Code are they using?

 

[mtindor]

What Color Code are they using?

Color Code 1

 

[medziatkowicz39]

Final phase of Hancock County 911 upgrades gets its approval | News, Sports, Jobs - The Herald Star (heraldstaronline.com)

the price was incorrectly listed as $945,873.64 but the correct price is $1,945,873.64. Also no new radios are included in the upgrade currently but will probably be bought just before the new system goes live.

 

[medziatkowicz39]

This will be a Trunked Tier 3 DMR VHF system when it goes live.

 

[djkmeissner]

Sounded like when Weirton just purchased new police cruisers one of the council members asked about the radio system. The Weirton Police chief said they were waiting on the county and no new radios would need to be purchased.

"Referencing the purchase of the new radios, Marsh briefly raised the question as to whether they will need to be replaced once Hancock County’s new digital communication system goes online.

Both Police Chief Charlie Kush and Fire Chief Kevin Himmelrick explained it already had been addressed through previous radio purchases.

“They’re installed and everything now,” Himmelrick said.

Finance Director Diana Smoljanovich confirmed those purchases had been made using COVID relief funds during the tenure of a previous city manager.

Kush added he has been told the new digital system should be ready in the near future.

“They say it’s going to be very very soon,” he said. “We keep asking.”' Weirton moving ahead on police vehicle purchases

Hancock County also just put a lot of money into a microwave system as well from grant money from the Governor. I know of 1 new tower that went up near a water tower on Rolling Acres Drive in New Cumberland.

looks like the SIRN region 2 team mentioned the Hancock County radio system at the last meeting in September:
"Discussed the Hancock County 6 channel DMR system"

I have also noticed that the Weirton Police FCC license is expired so maybe they are moving off those frequencies for police? It expired in April.