I thought there was a TRBO forum but apparently there isn't so I figured this would be the most appropriate place to ask. There doesn't seem to be a lot of information out there about how Capacity Plus and I have a few questions about how it compares to other types of trunking. First off do they affiliate with a system controller or do they passively monitor the rest channel until they receive a call on the talkgroup or transmit? What is the advantage over Capacity Max or the discontinued Connect Plus systems? Are these systems managed by an admin console with the ability to inhibit other radios like P25 or NXDN? Is using RAS the only way to keep anyone from programming a radio onto a system or do they use a system key to enable trunked programming?
Capacity Plus is a lightweight "trunking" system. It's much easier to implement as is comparable to a modern version of an LTR system.
Cap+ doesn't require FB8 channels like a true trunking system with a controller, it's a distributed architecture and the rest channel rotates through the repeaters. You can have single or multisite Cap+ systems.
Cap+ is cheap and works well, but you don't have the admin features you get with P25, NXDN trunked, maybe CapMax?--I'm not familiar with that product.
I have two three site systems I maintain, it's lightweight and works fantastic for what it is--a replacement for our LTR systems that I can upgrade as customers migrate. I wish there was a way to get competitive radios onto the system, so that Motorola had to be competitive, but that won't happen.
Obviously CapMax does a whole lot more but it's much more expensive, requiring a lot more planning and hardware to implement. Most industries don't need that complexity, usually only large SMRs will use it.
