No. As in the past, the system is Phase II capable, but not Phase II ready. It would require a considerable amount of firmware and feature upgrades, not to mention the cost to most customers to upgrade their radios to add the capability (or replace the radios; there are still a large number of radios on the system which are not Phase II capable at all).
Columbus PD still has Astro Spectra radios in their cruisers. There's probably a number of other users using those still. Until P25 Auth becomes 100% next year but even then I'm guessing Columbus can still not force P25 Auth since they're a type 4 integration. Just a guess. I do know they're pushing for it.
It's LLA, link layer authentication. It requires a key (beyond the system key) to register on the system. https://project25.org/index.php/files/10016/White-Papers/41/P25-Authentication-LLA-for-PTIG-v6.pdf
They are using XTL5000s with W7 heads.
Radio requires authorization key that matches what is requested on the system.
Yes the 8000 supports LLA, the whole APX series does as does the XTS/XTL.
A Motorola feature, not compatible with Motorola radios, being used on a Motorola system? Anyone who believes that is daft.
Newer Harris radios work (XG, XL) work just fine with Link Layer. Older ones like P7100, M7100 do not.
MARCS is actually a good part of if not completely the reason why LLA was added as a feature to the Astro25 series (XTS/XTL) so late in life. They can be updated to work just fine and APX of course can be without issue. I've heard this firsthand from MARCS partner system techs.
This is the old Brookfield Air Force Station site, later the Trumbull County Home. The county has a tower there already at one of the old base buildings, which happens to be an old AT&T Long Lines building as the base was connected to feed it's radar data to Oakdale AFS in the Pittsburgh area for command and control related to the Nike missile sites. A new tower and shelter was being built for MARCS not too far away.
architecturalafterlife.com
I was relieved by that decision, there are still thousands of the XTS/XTL series radios on the system. MARCS would have faced subscriber anger of earthquake proportions had they insisted that the Astro25 series be retired; I'm willing to bet quite a few customers would have given them the one-finger salute and gone back to their old systems.
