MPSCS Costs vs Results?

[rdale]

Signal strength is the same for encrypted or not. They are still 1's and 0's.

 

[detroit780]

Mpscs

We don't always hear the entire story either. Local governments are sometimes quoted a system with "X" number of towers and when the local governments start looking at dollars the approve the system with "X-Y" towers. It's often local officials that have no clue how radios work and they will never use the system they just control the dollars.

So it could be Motorola oversold it but it could also be the county made a poor decision to cut costs.

No, I don't work for MPSCS, Motorola or any government agency.

Les

My area LE have been with the MPSCS for a few years now and still have issues with reliability in being heard, especially when it comes to portable traffic, despite having installed two additional towers in the County at considerable expense to the local Governments.

I find it amusing that my local agency thought the system was better than sliced bread when a MSP tech and Motorola sales staff took them around with a portable testing all the area’s chronic dead spots and everything seemed to be perfect. Of course there was no mention that the portable was bouncing off a repeater in the MSP unit and wasn’t really reaching the closest tower nearly 15 miles away on its own.

Of course once the expensive switchover was made the officers had problems and were told that you may have to stand next to a window to be heard! Comforting thoughts when you are trying to fight with a suspect who is trying to take your firearm away. A few safety grievances filed and the officers needing to carry a second portable tied to the old system kept them from getting hurt.

I guess I am wondering the thoughts from other members familiar with this system and its strengths and weaknesses, is the system worth the costs? Clearly, the system was never intended to be used in an extreme urban environment where heavy portable traffic is necessary, so why was it pushed on these agencies, because once they sink the huge sums of money into the system they cannot afford to drop it.

 

[drdispatch]

Also, if a county requests grid field tests using a portable, all those tests are conducted outside. So they tell you "Yeah, the portables worked great, you've got 95% coverage" or whatever. Then the officers discover that any time they step inside a building, the radio switches to what we like to call "$5000 paperweight mode".

Like anything else, it's "Let the buyer beware".....

 

[drdispatch]

I recently heard that they have recovered enough radio ID's to program all the radios on the waiting list. The upgrade from 64,000 radio capacity to 128,000 radio capacity is down the road, light at the end of the tunnel, whatever metaphor you want to use.

 

[drdispatch]

I recently heard that they have recovered enough radio ID's to program all the radios on the "waiting list". The upgrade from 64,000 radio capacity to 128,000 radio capacity is in the works, down the road, light at the end of the tunnel, whatever metaphor you want to use.

 

[drdispatch]

Sorry, was having internet problems & didn't realize this posted twice. It's not letting me delete the second one either, maybe a mod or admin can do it.