Happened to catch a good show on the local government channel this evening, City Councilmen Mike Mentel held a meeting to discuss the purchase of handheld radio's. It pitted EF Johnson radios vs. Motorola radios. Lots of techinical data was given. The radio's cost $3039 for the motorola and $2504 for the EFJohnson radios. 837 Radios for Police and Fire are wanted. 142 for Fire to replace the older model STX motorola radios. The rest would go to CPD for each officer to have. This come about because of Officer Bryan Hurst death during the winter. Bearcom would be the supplier for EFJohnson radios. Bearcom and EFJohnson underbid Motorola by @$500,000 so it was Bearcom contract to loose. But EFJohnson radios had 4 strikes against them:
#1 EFjohnson tried to use Columbus as a beta sites.
#2 Problems with speaker mic both CFD and CPD had issues
#3 Lots of flash upgrades for the EFjohnson
#4 EFJohnson engineers flown in while tests were going on to do lots of upgrades on the walkies while the testing was still going on.
Lots of issues with the EFJohnson radio's including displays locking up on the 5100J radios, walkie display freeze up so its unknown what talkgroup you were on. It affliates slower than the Motorola, and seems to cut off 2 or 3 seconds of audio in the start of the transmission. STX5000 (Motorola) radios seem to transmit better further away from sites then the EFJohnson 5100J radio's.
CPD advised it will not use the EFJohnson radios if they were bought for the City of Columbus. The FOP and IAFF Local 67 both agree on this
FOP and IAFF local 67 were involved in the testing of these radios
This is just the 1st 15 minutes of the meeting.
#1 EFjohnson tried to use Columbus as a beta sites.
#2 Problems with speaker mic both CFD and CPD had issues
#3 Lots of flash upgrades for the EFjohnson
#4 EFJohnson engineers flown in while tests were going on to do lots of upgrades on the walkies while the testing was still going on.
Lots of issues with the EFJohnson radio's including displays locking up on the 5100J radios, walkie display freeze up so its unknown what talkgroup you were on. It affliates slower than the Motorola, and seems to cut off 2 or 3 seconds of audio in the start of the transmission. STX5000 (Motorola) radios seem to transmit better further away from sites then the EFJohnson 5100J radio's.
CPD advised it will not use the EFJohnson radios if they were bought for the City of Columbus. The FOP and IAFF Local 67 both agree on this
FOP and IAFF local 67 were involved in the testing of these radios
This is just the 1st 15 minutes of the meeting.
