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LTE 2 way radios will make commercial LMR systems a thing of the past

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kb7gjy

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LTE sounds all well and good. My home state went 700 MHz for the statewide system (Idaho). Many of us in the north part said this wont work and to make it work how many mountaintops would the state like to buy and maintain. It fell on deaf ears. Kootenai County was told 9 sites with (95%/90%} coverage. Last I heard they were at 23 sites and getting close to 80%. LTE is in the same boat. Yes, if your in cell coverage, most likely would work well. But when your not in area or the sites go down, what do you have?

Look at the terrain in Boundary County, Idaho.

For our area, even our state troopers switch to our VHF system when the State 450 system cant provide coverage. 700 MHz, yeah, not used up here. All this applies to LTE up here.
 
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emcom said:
Why is it scary? I need facts to present my case.
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It's not public safety grade equipment or the network. Nothing is under your control. It works great for commercial use (we have hundreds of them out there for our customers) but I'd be leary about putting any public safety on it. Maybe for supplementing public safety; you can bridge these over to your radio system, but I wouldn't make it my only means of immediate communications for public safety.
 
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fwradio said:
It's not public safety grade equipment or the network. Nothing is under your control. It works great for commercial use (we have hundreds of them out there for our customers) but I'd be leary about putting any public safety on it. Maybe for supplementing public safety; you can bridge these over to your radio system, but I wouldn't make it my only means of immediate communications for public safety.
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I get that completely. Thanks for taking the time to reply. Most of our small towns balk at spending so much for a radio on the P25 system that the county requires. They do it, but it is expensive for no more use than we get out of them. We could do just fine on a 1 channel analog and if the tower were in the right location, have decent coverage. We have several dead spots with our 700 MHZ in the shadows of mountains and low lying land that the rest of the county seems fine with letting us contend with. Believe it or not, the cell radios reportedly work better in these areas according to those that tested them. I am not pro-cell radio at all. I would imagine that we would still maintain the existing 700 Mhz radios for interoperability or at a minimum re-install VHF. I fought to have the VHF analog radios in our vehicles since 2012 for backup comms and with the latest round of new vehicles, I lost.
 
12dbsinad

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emcom said:
I get that completely. Thanks for taking the time to reply. Most of our small towns balk at spending so much for a radio on the P25 system that the county requires. They do it, but it is expensive for no more use than we get out of them. We could do just fine on a 1 channel analog and if the tower were in the right location, have decent coverage. We have several dead spots with our 700 MHZ in the shadows of mountains and low lying land that the rest of the county seems fine with letting us contend with. Believe it or not, the cell radios reportedly work better in these areas according to those that tested them. I am not pro-cell radio at all. I would imagine that we would still maintain the existing 700 Mhz radios for interoperability or at a minimum re-install VHF. I fought to have the VHF analog radios in our vehicles since 2012 for backup comms and with the latest round of new vehicles, I lost.
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As stated, cell radios are not intended for primary public safety communications. What happens if the system goes down for whatever reason? Then what? There is no direct mode so you'd be SOL, and here they are trying to save lives. These radios we are discussing here on this thread are business oriented LTE radios.

For the money everyone is spending on expensive 700Mhz equipment that doesn't work well anyway, you should look into a location to set up your own VHF or UHF analog public safety grade repeater. That way YOU have control of it. Subscriber radios can then be had for cheap(er). Not every dept especially rural needs a fancy whiz bang P25 trunked radio system. Analog conventional still works just fine, and is very economical. Good luck!
 
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Kenwood called, and they want their cheap-O microphone back! :p
 
mmckenna

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12dbsinad

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mmckenna said:
Darn right. Got tired of replacing PTT switches on the el-cheap-o Icom LMR mics, and I stopped buying Yaesu due to their annoying microphones.
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Those mics haven't been around for about 15 years (HM100N). The current HM152's damn near last forever, and their heavy duty HM148G.
 
mmckenna

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12dbsinad said:
Those mics haven't been around for about 15 years (HM100N). The current HM152's damn near last forever.
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That's good to hear. I hated those mics. I still have a couple of the little PCB mount buttons some where. I think I bought a bunch of them when I realized it was going to be a common task.
The new mics do seem to be really good. My brother in law has been running the same one for almost 20 years on a VHF radio. I convinced him buy it so I'd not have to keep fixing it for him.
 
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