Hillsborough County (EDACS and P25 32D.1E306)

[zlandmedia]

Hillsborough County Sheriff has switched to their P25 system this morning.

Yep hope they stay!!
Tim

I'll believe it when I hear it in three days 😂

 

[zlandmedia]

Funny thing, I literally muted/avoided HCSO in my scanner on the P25 system just to stop hearing the test messages two days ago. Maybe that was what they needed! LOL

 

[pandel]

I know we have beaten this horse to death but... I bought an SDS100 when HCSO first said they were going over to 700. Now that they are there, the audio sounds terrible and very tinny even with an external speaker.
Really, everyone says they are great scanners, but I can't find much to crow about. Any help with audio settings would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[mitbr]

HCSO is no longer on the edacs system!! They are not simulcasting the P25 system.
Tim

 

[AESFTW]

Sounds like everything is going well sofar.

 

[mitbr]

Sounds like everything is going well sofar.

Sounds great on G4 Unication!
Tim

 

[ngel]

What site are you all hearing them on

 

[zlandmedia]

What site are you all hearing them on

Both sites. D1 and D3 are west. D2, D4, and D5 are east.

 

[frankbreden]

Sound like crap on my SDS200. Real muffled.

 

[mitbr]

Sound like crap on my SDS200. Real muffled.

Crystal clear on my Unication! have you tried an external speaker?
Tim

 

[Petertherock]

Sounds like crap on my BCD325P2. Not to mention the batteries suck because someone in their engineering department thought it was brilliant to only have 2 batteries so now it only lasts about 4-5 hours when other scanners will last 12 hours or more.

 

[pandel]

For $700 you shouldn't need an external speaker!
Unimpressed with mine too. eBay tomorrow.

 

[zlandmedia]

Ditto to the crap sound on the SDS100. It sounds like it's overmodulated and peaking (audio board ops know what I mean).

I have an external speaker on my SDS200 and it does make it sound better but still overmodulated.

 

[zlandmedia]

Another thing to consider, it sounds like some people are shouting or talking really loud into the mics when they are transmitting with the mic close to their mouth. That's why some sound like crap.

 

[mitbr]

Guys the old adage buy the right tool for the job and one tool quite often is not enough. My hp2 wont recieve the Hills p25 system even with an outdoor yagi antenna but my G4 sits beside me on my couch with the antenna it came with receiving loud and clear.
Tim

 

[ngel]

Not sure if the EDACS towers will be reused or not when that system finally sunsets.

Almost 2 years ago I made this map as well showing where each sites' towers are located for the P25 system:

Hillsborough County P25 Tower Sites - Google My Maps

Hillsborough County P25 Tower Sites

www.google.com

So looking at this map where is the north coverage? I can't believe there is no tower north of the Busch gardens area covering the west site.

 

[zlandmedia]

So looking at this map where is the north coverage? I can't believe there is no tower north of the Busch gardens area covering the west site.

There is no "north" coverage. It's split between east and west.

 

[18bravo]

Hopefully FD soon?

 

[pandel]

Can someone explain why all the excitement over P25? Sounds bad, audio levels are uneven to say the least, radios are difficult to program and expensive as hell.
What is so terrible about the existing 800mhz system? Plenty of radios, both scanner and commercial. Not too difficult to program and the cost isn't outrageous.
Just wasting taxpayer money in my very humble opinion.
I say "If it ain't broke, why fix it?"
Tell me where I'm wrong.

 

[zlandmedia]

Can someone explain why all the excitement over P25?

For one thing the Hillsborough County EDACS system is literally 27 years old and the P25 system has been operating for like 10 years at this point.

radios are difficult to program and expensive as hell

The radios are the same and are backwards-compatible to EDACS. That's a feature of L3Harris systems.

Tell me where I'm wrong.

As a hobbyist I can understand where you are coming from, but the system itself is just old and aging. It's costing us more as taxypayers for them to keep the antiquated EDACS system online as well as the new P25 system. Keeping the EDACS system online would be like still using Windows 95 in 2022 when you have Windows 10 and 11 available.