Miami_Dade Police Deploying Motorola APX Next Radios on their Harris System

[ed3750]

Attached is an article from the Miami-Dade Police PBA Heat Magazine about MDPD deploying Motorola APX Next Radios on their Harris system. Apparently current radios are "end of life" and will not be supported by Harris in near future.

Also, here is a link to the magazine, if attachment doesn't work. Article is on pages 20 - 21.

file:///C:/Users/edp37/Downloads/MDPD%20Heat%20Radio%20Article%20March-April-2023.pdf

 

[MTS2000des]

What isn't clear is MDPD just replacing subscribers or are they abandoning their L3 Harris VIDA core for an Astro 25 system. Did not Miami-Dade just uplift their EDACS system to VIDA not long ago? Seems like money is free flowing down there. Must be nice.

 

[junior71]

I guess they never got XL’s lol

 

[Echo4Thirty]

It also answers my question of what agency was big enough for them to create a Critical Connect/SmartConnect solution for "foreign" ie Harris systems in APX FW 30.

 

[N4KVE]

What isn't clear is MDPD just replacing subscribers or are they abandoning their L3 Harris VIDA core for an Astro 25 system. Did not Miami-Dade just uplift their EDACS system to VIDA not long ago? Seems like money is free flowing down there. Must be nice.

Business as usual in North Havana.

 

[JimD56]

I'm at Miami-Dade Fire and I now use an APX NEXT dual UHF/800mhz. EDACS is OUT, Gone, Bye Bye. On the PD side, it will just take "some time" to deploy theirs to every cop on the street. Right now just select supervisors and bureaus are utilizing NEXT.

 

[junior71]

I'm at Miami-Dade Fire and I now use an APX NEXT dual UHF/800mhz. EDACS is OUT, Gone, Bye Bye. On the PD side, it will just take "some time" to deploy theirs to every cop on the street. Right now just select supervisors and bureaus are utilizing NEXT.

You mean you guys didn’t go with the XL-400p and 200p for cops?

 

[ElroyJetson]

Miami-Dade awards $165 million contract to Motorola Solutions outside procurement process - Urgent Comms

Members of the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners yesterday voted unanimously to approve a no-bid, $165 million contract to Motorola Solutions for P25 radios and other communications gear, despite concerns about the process and warnings from L3Harris officials that some device features may...

urgentcomm.com

They suspended their own rules because they liked the APX NEXT just that much better.

Not that I blame them...the NEXT is an incredible device. Totally in another league even over and above the Harris XL-200/400 products, which are quite good in their own right. For any radio geek, an all-band NEXT is truly a dream radio.

This is easy to understand when you give up on any notion that your elected representatives and local governments actually have any interest in getting the most rational value for your tax dollars. Because to them it's just free money to spend and that's all the thinking they bother to engage in on the subject.

 

[MTS2000des]

I'm at Miami-Dade Fire and I now use an APX NEXT dual UHF/800mhz. EDACS is OUT, Gone, Bye Bye. On the PD side, it will just take "some time" to deploy theirs to every cop on the street. Right now just select supervisors and bureaus are utilizing NEXT.

So questions:

Did MDFR migrate to something other than analog UHF? Connecting your NEXT to a K-core Astro 25 zone core? Donor radios?
MDPD was VIDA...so they abandoned that system they just upgraded 3 years ago?

Help a poor boy from Georgia out. Just trying to understand the big picture. My ex-boss came from that way and used to work for MDFR radio shop. I remember being told this was coming. Just trying to wrap my head around the entire scope of the project. Both MDFR and MDPD are going to a new system or just new subscribers?

 

[GTR8000]

What isn't clear is MDPD just replacing subscribers or are they abandoning their L3 Harris VIDA core for an Astro 25 system. Did not Miami-Dade just uplift their EDACS system to VIDA not long ago? Seems like money is free flowing down there. Must be nice.

So questions:

Did MDFR migrate to something other than analog UHF? Connecting your NEXT to a K-core Astro 25 zone core? Donor radios?
MDPD was VIDA...so they abandoned that system they just upgraded 3 years ago?

Help a poor boy from Georgia out. Just trying to understand the big picture. My ex-boss came from that way and used to work for MDFR radio shop. I remember being told this was coming. Just trying to wrap my head around the entire scope of the project. Both MDFR and MDPD are going to a new system or just new subscribers?

From the APX R30 release notes:

SmartConnect Device on Foreign P25 System Support	New Features
SmartConnect Device on Foreign P25 System with Emergency Cancel Support	New Features

VIDA core, APX subscribers.

 

[MTS2000des]

I read the notes when installing R30 on a few of our subscribers.

So, Miami Dade keeps VIDA system for PD, so ASSuming FD stays conventional UHF?

 

[ElroyJetson]

Got any info on what Miami-Dade is doing with their surplus Harris radios? They've probably got a few newer radios that would be worth chasing at auction....or buying at The County Store if they're going there.

 

[N4KVE]

Got any info on what Miami-Dade is doing with their surplus Harris radios? They've probably got a few newer radios that would be worth chasing at auction....or buying at The County Store if they're going there.

I remember going to that county store decades ago & seeing pallets of brand new STX gang chargers. Allan Leonard, if you know him took me there.

 

[ElroyJetson]

I knew Allan, in fact I bought my first (used) iphone from him, which had previously been his daughter's.
Yes I know that Allan is gone now. I'd guess that most of the old school radio crew is by now. Remember RV Chuck who always had a few of Moto's latest and greatest portable radios? I never could afford them until they were no longer the latest and greatest.

I'd like to visit the County Store again and see what they've got in radios today.

Back in the day, I once bought a 24 channel MX340 that was still live on the PD's system.(UHF) from the County Store. I wasn't about to transmit on it but it made for some interesting listening on the drive home until I was out of range of the system. Of course I just happened to have an antenna and charged MX battery with me.

 

[N4KVE]

Didn’t Allan move to Hawaii with his daughter? Or has he passed? I was at his house when the FBI grabbed him up, but when the FBI came in the front door, I ran out the back door. But at the time I wasn’t working, so I helped him with installs at the mortuary. Nice guy, & an AMAZING cook. And Chuck we referred to as “Doggy Doo Doo Chuck” because he had phony doo doo on his table.

 

[ElroyJetson]

I don't even remember what the trouble was that Allan got into or how that turned out. I speculate it involved Motorola's copyrights, trademarks, and software licenses if any part of my memory is working at all.

Funny thing...I can't recall that anything like that has ever transpired on the GE side of the aisle....

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

Attached is an article from the Miami-Dade Police PBA Heat Magazine about MDPD deploying Motorola APX Next Radios on their Harris system. Apparently current radios are "end of life" and will not be supported by Harris in near future.

Also, here is a link to the magazine, if attachment doesn't work. Article is on pages 20 - 21.

file:///C:/Users/edp37/Downloads/MDPD%20Heat%20Radio%20Article%20March-April-2023.pdf

Well it took nearly 30 years for Motorola to get back into MDPD. The article reads like a paid advertisement.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

I remember going to that county store decades ago & seeing pallets of brand new STX gang chargers. Allan Leonard, if you know him took me there.

Those were probably chargers for the radios deployed as part of an 800 MHz conventional system in the Metro Dade Northeast sector. I had a bit part in that demo.

 

[N4KVE]

Those were probably chargers for the radios deployed as part of an 800 MHz conventional system in the Metro Dade Northeast sector. I had a bit part in that demo.

Yes. I remember those radios well. At that time I was working for Jeff Crippen Old’s at Biscayne, & 125th.

I don't even remember what the trouble was that Allan got into or how that turned out. I speculate it involved Motorola's copyrights, trademarks, and software licenses if any part of my memory is working at all.

It was. Allan, Chuck, Jerry, & his buddy Carter were all under M’s microscope. Allan would put type 1 trunking radios in customer’s cars, & stick them on unused TG’s for his customers to use. Nextel killed all that when their iDEN system.

 

[ElroyJetson]

P25 interoperability is making the game interesting. Miami-Dade may be the biggest fence jumper I've heard of, having a Harris system but going with Moto subscriber units, but it's not the only fence jumper I've heard of. I have heard unconfirmed reports, but from a generally reliable source, that Volusia County is trialing Moto gear on their Harris system and liking it.

I'm also hoping that other Harris zones like Brevard end up also doing the same thing. But to be clear about it, I would be happy for them to be buying and using radios from both manufacturers where it makes sense. I'm no longer the Moto exclusive fanboi that I once was. At this moment I'm more connected into the Harris environment, and I think my XL185P is nice. Wish it was a 200, though.