Macon County Switch

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srt_08

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Hey guys Im new to the site, live in Decatur and heard that the county is switching over to a digital system this fall...I believe. Anyone heard about this? Anyone from decatur have any insight into consistently used dpd or sheriff's channels or anything? Thanks guys
 

N9JIG

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srt_08 said:
Hey guys Im new to the site, live in Decatur and heard that the county is switching over to a digital system this fall...I believe. Anyone heard about this? Anyone from decatur have any insight into consistently used dpd or sheriff's channels or anything? Thanks guys
The last I heard was that Macon County was applying for a grant to switch to the StarCom21 digital trunked system. If this goes thru then it is likely that the current 800 MHz. Macon County trunked system will be dismantled and the frequencies recycled into StarCom21.

Depending on local coverage they may need to add a site or two, I don't know if the current StarCom21 sites are sufficient.

See the CARMA StarCom21 Profile at http://www.carmachicago.com/profiles or the RadioReference database for more info about StarCom21.
 

zman9119

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Jun 30, 2003
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IL
All agencies except the county fire departments will be switching to StarCom this fall. They already received the grant (early this spring). The main reason why county fire isn't switching is due to cost of the radios, they are afraid of trunked systems, and there isn't a MABAS directive on switching to non-VHF radios. The county fire departments did apply for a grant to get new radios, pagers, and base stations if departments wanted them and to add a PL to county fire dispatch.

We already have 3 StarCom tower sites in the county and coverage, from when I've used it, is good.
 

scannerbum

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Springfield...

Timmer - I have been wondering the samething. I did hear a couple weeks ago, DNR talking to Sangamon county on 155.535. Though I did not have the 2096 on at the time so I dont know what they were tx on or how they did it. As far as Springfield goes I hope they do just for the sake of audio, analog hurts my ears after I started listing to digital.
 

timmer

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Interesting. I'll bet eventually they will. It seems to take springfield forever to do anything without the city councel's approval, and the fact that the city seems to be broke, but i imagine they will at some point.
 
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