I understand what you are saying David but a couple things need to be said:
1) although we throw the term VIPER around in reference to the Wake County part of the system do understand
there is interoperability between Wake County and Johnston County just like there is interoperability between Harnett County and Wake County...it is accomplished by using ACU 1000's to patch Comms between Wake->Johnston and Wake->Harnett....the following Talkgroups are used:
Is it perfect? Nope...but patching is used more than you know on the Wake County system...
2) Just remember that money is the main issue when these systems are setup in the first place...I admit I am as much of a Moto fanboy as you will find around these parts but years ago when Johnston Co setup their system Wake County being on 800Mhz was not ever a serious consideration...Johnston County went with the vendor that gave them the best deal...I am sure there are parts of the system the county does not like (no system is perfect) but apparently it has served them well over the last few years because they have stuck by it....
I guess overall what I am saying is VIPER does not equal Motorola....you can have an EDACS or LTR system or 2 tin cans and a string and as long as you have an interoperability plan through whatever means (ACU 1000's etc) you can be a part of VIPER...hopefully my rambling has made sense here
Happy Monitoring!
Marshall KE4ZNR