LaSalle County moving to P25 system?

[lu81fitter]

A while back, I heard a rumor that LaSalle Co was beginning development of a P25 system, or thinking of moving to an existing P25 system (presumably with the state). This information came from a "friend of a friend" that supposedly worked at a Motorola shop. I have not been able to verify this myself. Does anyone know of LaSalle Co moving in that direction?

 

[N9IIT]

Possibly IVRD is looking at joining StarCom21, considering IVRD just launched last fall there's probably some adjustments and "new ways of doing things" that everyone is still working out.

 

[MikeyC]

A while back, I heard a rumor that LaSalle Co was beginning development of a P25 system, or thinking of moving to an existing P25 system (presumably with the state). This information came from a "friend of a friend" that supposedly worked at a Motorola shop. I have not been able to verify this myself. Does anyone know of LaSalle Co moving in that direction?

LaSalle County looked at joining Starcom a couple of years as a replacement for the analog commercial Type 2 system they were on (ClearTalk). The coverage didn't work out for them (especially in the northern parts of the county). They tried a DMR VHF system for awhile but that seemed to be down more than it was up. They have since moved to the ClearTalk DMR system on 800 MHz and continue to use their VHF analog as a fallback for when there's DMR issues or on the fringe parts of coverage and for the courthouse in downtown Ottawa.

I wouldn't be surprised if they were looking at another radio system Before joining the Cleartalk analog system a number of years ago I believe they had their own trunking system they were flirting with.

 

[lu81fitter]

I know they still used VHF. I still hear them on a couple freqs. I just got my 996p2 a couple weeks ago and was wondering about the rumor of P25. They are the only thing I would listen to on DMR, and the reception would probably be pretty weak where I am, unless I took the radio mobile. Both VHF freqs are weak here. The 800 would probably be worse. I will probably wait a while for the DMR upgrade to see if they make a move.

 

[nick223]

Like Micky said Lasalle county is on Dmr and fall back to their old vhf freq.

As for other depts around like Ottawa they thought about going to SC21 but just went to a conventional digital system a few years ago and they would have to buy all new portables again and with motorola even buying back the radios they still wanted around a million for SC21 and their dispatch consoles arent SC21 compliant so they arent going that route anytime soon.

IVAR i really dont see them switching anytime soon since Oglesby and Spring Valley just got new repeater frequencies so IVAR could communicate with them.

As for the little depts like naplate, wallace, marseilles and grand ridge absolutely not and im sure that includes all the other little towns around the county.

The only department i know of going to SC21 is Seneca they just purchased all new radios and will probably switch over when Grundy county switches.

 

[MikeyC]

Like Micky said Lasalle county is on Dmr and fall back to their old vhf freq.

As for other depts around like Ottawa they thought about going to SC21 but just went to a conventional digital system a few years ago and they would have to buy all new portables again and with motorola even buying back the radios they still wanted around a million for SC21 and their dispatch consoles arent SC21 compliant so they arent going that route anytime soon.

IVAR i really dont see them switching anytime soon since Oglesby and Spring Valley just got new repeater frequencies so IVAR could communicate with them.

As for the little depts like naplate, wallace, marseilles and grand ridge absolutely not and im sure that includes all the other little towns around the county.

The only department i know of going to SC21 is Seneca they just purchased all new radios and will probably switch over when Grundy county switches.

Isn't ValComm (IVAR) still waiting for state funds to build their physical building at IL Valley Community College (IVCC)? I doubt they would have the funds to move all of the member agencies to a completely different radio system.

Seneca was on StarCom for awhile but I think coverage was an issue... I'm sure their move to the 800 MHz analog channel was in order to keep their "new" equipment and will let them use it when Grundy moves and the new tower is built near them.

On a side note it's nice to see that ValComm has been dispatch 3 agencies on different frequencies (LaSalle FD, Peru FD and Utica FD) at the same time to structure fires in LaSalle. I'm sure that cuts down on phone calls and delays in response times.