New Fond du Lac County radio system??

[otrebla]

I was reading the Sheboygan County Radio System Committee minutes, and it was mentioned that surrounding counties, Fond du Lac and Washington were moving toward new radio systems that could affect interoperability communications depending on system type.

I heard about Washington County's new radio system, but Fond du Lac County's new radio system is news to me.

Does anyone have any info on the new Fond du Lac County radio system?

 

[SCPD]

I was reading the Sheboygan County Radio System Committee minutes, and it was mentioned that surrounding counties, Fond du Lac and Washington were moving toward new radio systems that could affect interoperability communications depending on system type.

It's funny that Sheboygan County is complaining about interoperability between them and Fond du Lac or Washington county. They were the ones who went to a 800Mhz system. Washington will still be on VHF with their new system and Fondy will stay VHF. Nothing will change between Sheboygen and the other counties.

Here is info on Fondy's "new" system. They are just adding more towers, going narrowband with digital capabilities and simulcasting.

From Fondy county minutes
"The Radio Communications and Interoperability Project, under the direction of Ellen Sorensen, is advancing significantly in 2008. The project will continue until its completion by the end of March next year. The system includes six new radio towers and will feature a microwave back up system in order for the system to be completely redundant in the event of a telephone line failure. The system will have a digital interoperable channel so that emergency departments, whether local, state, or federal will be able to communicate with one another in the event of a major emergency within Fond du Lac County. It will have a simulcast feature that will transmit signals from all six towers simultaneously, therefore eliminating the redundant paging for the fire departments that can be disruptive and annoying for fire and EMS personnel. This project was undertaken due to the change in federal standards in response to the 911 disaster in New York which will require the implementation of narrow banding by the end of 2013. The County’s radio communication system is not sufficient to handle narrow banding and in fact has been a substandard system for many years. The new system will also meet the latest radio communication standards of clear communications in 95 percent of the area 95 percent of the time."

 

[triryche]

It's funny that Sheboygan County is complaining about interoperability between them and Fond du Lac or Washington county. They were the ones who went to a 800Mhz system. Washington will still be on VHF with their new system and Fondy will stay VHF. Nothing will change between Sheboygen and the other counties.

It's not neccesarily complaining but more so addressing an important issue. The state very wisely is implementing statewide interop standards and each county knows quite well the importance. Many of these interop issues are not addressed yet and have been handled by individual depts up to this point. Agencies in the SW area of Sheboygan Co. have maintained VHF equipment to communicate with Washington Co. as they so often need to. Other dept's basically loan 800 portables to outside agencies or vise versa at the time of need which obviously isn't a real concrete method. The only real solid Interop happening with Sheboygan Co. is with Ozaukee via the trunked system cross-patches. Done by landline or microwave and not by radio but still more foolproof than others.

They didn't HAVE to make a move to 800 MHz but basically got stuck into the web of what Motorola was pushing at the time much like many counties in the mid to late 90's did. What they have could be better sure. Remember the FCC also made a huge push to get more public safety into the 800 band. Unfortunately much of what we see today for communications use was done so by political and/or business priority reasons rather than for the good of the public.

 

[SCPD]

They didn't HAVE to make a move to 800 MHz but basically got stuck into the web of what Motorola was pushing at the time much like many counties in the mid to late 90's did. What they have could be better sure. Remember the FCC also made a huge push to get more public safety into the 800 band. Unfortunately much of what we see today for communications use was done so by political and/or business priority reasons rather than for the good of the public.

I know that they were fooled my big M into getting this system. Were did I say that they HAD to move to this system. They were foolish enough to listen to Moto and buy it.
The same issue will still exist if Washington and Fond keep their same systems or get the new systems they want. Washington will be P25 trunking and Fond will be capable of IMBE conv. The same issues will be there, maybe Sheboygen can patch VHF Mutual Aid into their system and Wash will have patches for the 800mhz mutual aid channels.
I don't see why sheboygen county is now complaining about interop issues with these two counties. They went to their 800Mhz trunking system five years ago and it took them this longer to figure out that they will have interop problems.
This reminds me of Watertown Fire chief complaining to the state that his department didn't have VHF radios to communicate to other fire departments who responded to Watertown for a tire yard fire a couple years ago.

 

[izz]

About three years ago Sheboygan Co purchased two cross band repeaters that can be patched directly into the trunking system. Over the last year I've heard Fond du Lac Co, Manitowoc Co and the Coast Guard on the trunking system.