Middlesex County TRS Upgrade

[W2SJW]

Guys,

Heard some extremely bad news today - it looks like the Middlesex County TRS upgrade to 700MHz is going to be OpenScam, not P25IP.

The emission designator on those new licenses is 20K0F9W - and the give-away on that is the F9W suffix.

What an absolute & utter waste of taxpayer money. I guess the county only feels it needs to be interoperable with itself...

 

[GM]

About a week or so ago, I thought I heard one of the radio techs talking about Open Sky mode (and possibly encryption on a few TG's) on a ProVoice channel that I was monitoring (some type of TG that they are using to test coverage areas). Looks like it is quite possibly true. If this is the case, is their a way to monitor Open Sky, provided a compatible radio is bought and programmed for receive only, similiar to what some do to monitor ProVoice mode? Or is Open Sky like TETRA and fully encrypted? Looks like I may have to ask Santa Claus for a new toy down the line if this is monitorable with the proper equipment (Harris P7200 series, etc.).

 

[RadioDitch]

Guys,

Heard some extremely bad news today - it looks like the Middlesex County TRS upgrade to 700MHz is going to be OpenScam, not P25IP.

The emission designator on those new licenses is 20K0F9W - and the give-away on that is the F9W suffix.

What an absolute & utter waste of taxpayer money. I guess the county only feels it needs to be interoperable with itself...

With an emphasis on waste of taxpayer money. Look at the problems that Pennsylvania and Aurora, Illinois have had with OpenSky. With how much they've spent just to keep patching up their systems with every nearly weekly failure (especially PA), they probably could almost have bought entire Moto systems twice by now.

I don't believe OpenSky is forcibly encrypted. However, if I remember correctly how it was explained to me, it is totally IP based, and it cannot be transmitted or received without each radio unit's ID/IP being in the control system. So...don't think so.

 

[Raccon]

Or is Open Sky like TETRA and fully encrypted?

Who says TETRA is (always) fully encrypted? It's optional.

 

[KC2zZe]

Look at the problems that Pennsylvania and Aurora, Illinois have had with OpenSky.

Don't forget New York State. We dodged a bullet a couple of years ago when OS was being considered for statewide implementation and was subsequently rejected due to all the failures out in the far western counties during the testing phase. Good luck to Middlesex County; they are going to need it.