So I heard from the Royse City Fire Department that Hunt County will be switching to a P25 System in the near future. I can't find anything on the FCC or on the Hunt County website about this. Does anyone have any info on this?
Hunt County Future P25 System
- Thread starter cgoodban
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Thanks, I'm glad to see them moving forward with this!
City of Greenville is currently building a system, Hunt County is in planning stages.
Awesome! Thanks.
Interesting piece of the article:
The L3Harris proposal would utilize seven towers, which would be able to reach all areas of Hunt County. In the event one or all of the towers were to fail, the communications would still be possible using WiFi, and the county would be linked as part of a regional system, with L3Harris also supplying communications for 25 total towers across Hunt, Rockwall, Kaufman, Van Zandt and Henderson counties.
The L3Harris proposal would utilize seven towers, which would be able to reach all areas of Hunt County. In the event one or all of the towers were to fail, the communications would still be possible using WiFi, and the county would be linked as part of a regional system, with L3Harris also supplying communications for 25 total towers across Hunt, Rockwall, Kaufman, Van Zandt and Henderson counties.
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I've had these in search for a while FCC Callsign WROW277 (L3HARRIS TECHNOLOGIES, INC.) there is no way there are 600 radio users at L3/Harris Majors. I wonder if this will become the Greenville system?
Very interesting. I'll have to start scanning these.
I agree. I wonder how reliable communications using WiFi is?
I know Motorola has "SmartConnect" which can utilize WiFi or LTE. Not sure what the Harris equivalent is.
When it comes down to it, no matter who makes it or perfects it, it will never truly be better than a dedicated LMR system. Using Motorola's SmartConnect side by side with a radio that isn't using it and having them both on the same system, talkgroup and receiving the same audio there is a noticeable delay in RX and TX audio of the LTE/WiFi connected radio. Obviously.
If it's a situation where a Police Officer is chasing somebody on foot in a heavy wooded area and loses LMR connection and the LTE connection seamlessly establishes then that could save a life, allowing the Officer to communicate where as there would normally be zero communication.
It's better than having a brick that screams out of range when you're in the middle of a critical incident but of course should never be fully relied on.
Hopefully as time goes on both Motorola and Harris will be able to share some times it really saved somebody. I'd be interested in that.
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Just the cost of a L3Harris radio is going to set Hunt County back 20 more years. If they are going with the XL Onboard series I hope they buy lots of insurance on each subscriber unit, Fire will destroy them in a week.
Agreed.
HiddenLefty
Member
Why is this the case in most jurisdictions I feel like? They're intelligent people but horrible to the radios.
INDY72
Monitoring since 1982, using radios since 1991.
Bean Counting every time when there is not a "good Ole Boy" factor involved. If they can save money with a system they will in most cases. Even if it costs more later on. Also remember, there is politics involved more than actual radio intelligence. "I saved the county a million bucks, remember that in November okay?"
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Looks like Greenville went Motorola, wonder why Hunt went Harris? July 7 Newscast: Greenville city council approves Motorola bid for communications systems
To answer: I think a lot of it has to do with prior experiences with whatever equipment they're currently using. I'm not sure what Hunt County is currently using but I'd imagine if it's Motorola maybe they haven't had the best time with it, or the Harris sales reps were more convincing. Or it could be the opposite, if they're currently using Harris then it may be they can "trade in" their old equipment for some little discount. Or maybe they've had a great experience and they don't want to differ from using them. It could be any number of things.
Example/me rag chewing: I know one agency went from Motorola to Kenwood because the Motorolas they were using at the time weren't "getting enough range" so they went with Kenwood...They switched from a Motorola analog VHF system to a Kenwood digital 7/800MHz system. I'm sure part of their negative experience was they were using Motorola business series radios for public safety, while all the radios mother M make are great (imo) the agency wasn't using the correct equipment for the purpose they're dedicated to. A radio is a radio, a business radio will do the same job for the most part, transmit and receive, aside lacking the features that PS radios tend to have. (speaking in general here)
Also in this particular agencies case, if range is the issue I'm pretty sure it's not just the equipment it's also the band they're using. VHF in an urban enviroment? Funny. When they got the Kenwood 7/800 system operational they had coverage 10+ miles outside of their city and claimed the Kenwood radios were the best thing ever..... Was it the new Kenwood system or was it the fact they're now using new modern radios dedicated for public safety use on a more appropriate frequency band on a tower that's 150 foot higher compared to the existing 20 foot tower? Was the old VHF system maintained and radios regularly tuned and aligned? When you use equipment 10+ years old that's beat up and not maintained I'd imagine there would be quite a few issues and absolutely anything new given to them would be a noticeable difference. There are so, so many factors we'll never truly know the reason behind Hunt's choice.
I suspect the county went with Harris based on the promised tie-ins (and discounts) to Harris systems in the neighboring counties. They did get a discount for basically combining with Van Zandt.
Went through Van Zandt County commissioners court minutes for the last few months. They started considering a system back in May; in (I believe) August, they hired a communications consultant (based in the Las Colinas area of Irving); then in September agreed to the Harris system, to be "piggybacked with the Hunt County system". (Their words, not mine.)
To me, it would seem that Van Zandt should have considered going with Motorola from the standpoint that it might have been easier to interact with Canton's Moto system. For that matter, a move to TxWARN would have facilitated easier interact with Smith County & Tyler. However, for Van Zandt, all their neighboring counties (except for Smith) either are currently on a Harris system (Kaufman & Henderson) or will be (Hunt County).
Went through Van Zandt County commissioners court minutes for the last few months. They started considering a system back in May; in (I believe) August, they hired a communications consultant (based in the Las Colinas area of Irving); then in September agreed to the Harris system, to be "piggybacked with the Hunt County system". (Their words, not mine.)
To me, it would seem that Van Zandt should have considered going with Motorola from the standpoint that it might have been easier to interact with Canton's Moto system. For that matter, a move to TxWARN would have facilitated easier interact with Smith County & Tyler. However, for Van Zandt, all their neighboring counties (except for Smith) either are currently on a Harris system (Kaufman & Henderson) or will be (Hunt County).
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I have a friend in Coffee City (Henderson Co.) that is a sergeant for the PD, they use portable radios for everything. Pursuits, day to day- everything. The main reason is the cost of a Harris mobile radio. The fire districts in Hunt also struggle with money (don't we all), so I worry the citizens will get the bad side of the stick on this with response time issues and performance issues centered around not being able to purchase the necessary gear due to cost. Hunt Fire districts use a little bit of everything from Motorola to baofengs. I believe their infrastructure is Motorola (At the county level) and Kenwood/Vertex at the local level as many lease from Crossroads Communications.
While Harris is a good brand and a very capable radio system I see a slew of problems coming that I doubt they world have with a Motorola system, but that's just my opinion.
While Harris is a good brand and a very capable radio system I see a slew of problems coming that I doubt they world have with a Motorola system, but that's just my opinion.
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TXWARN IMO would have been the right move. Their neighbors to the south and east are on it, its going to be an interoperable nightmare unless they just encrypt and ignore everyone else. AT&T First Net would have been cheaper in that case.
Unfortunately it takes a disaster of some sort before cities, county's think about interop between different agencies
