New MECA system - unbelievable audio

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GTO_04

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w8fcc said:
Thats Because the DB may be wrong Motorola and MECA have been testing on 10001 through 10012 and that was listed in the DB as Tac 1-12 but now they start at 10012 in the DB MECA has been calling 10001 S1 T1 so who knows I would hold off labeling anything till they cut over some of the Fire TG listed in the DB are wrong as well. But in the same breath MECA/Motorola called 10012 S1 T6 last night so I dont think that they even know what is going on. Alot of the IMPD radios this week have the wrong Unit Radio ID showing the officers ID number and they have been asking the officers that are wrong ID to take the radios back to MECA sounds like they need more time and not to rush cutover.
If Scott Newman has his way they will wait and maybe start over with a new system hopefuly this time it would be like Safe T. All they have to is go back on Motorola with some good attorneys or a lot of bad press witch they are getting now.

I was under the impression that hybrid systems like SAFE-T would no longer be supported by Motorola and could no longer be purchased, that only P25 9600 baud systems would be available in the future. It seems like no new 3600 baud systems are coming online anywhere. I could be way off base on that.

I hope they don't scrap the whole thing and go with Open Sky! MA Com could come in with a slick sales presentation and do a snow job on the purchasing managers.

GTO_04
 

jerk

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GTO_04 said:
I was under the impression that hybrid systems like SAFE-T would no longer be supported by Motorola and could no longer be purchased, that only P25 9600 baud systems would be available in the future. It seems like no new 3600 baud systems are coming online anywhere. I could be way off base on that.

I hope they don't scrap the whole thing and go with Open Sky! MA Com could come in with a slick sales presentation and do a snow job on the purchasing managers.

GTO_04
I think the only (large trunked) systems Motorola is selling/pushing are P25 systems and their own version of Astro digital systems.

I think everybody just needs to wait on this new MECA system, (to fully come on-line) there is too much speculation and believing the "bad press" currently.

When have the "press" ever got it right concerning radio systems? Do they have some issues here? Yes, but they are being worked on or at least discussed. And what you hear on a scanner may not be what the end user is hearing or experiencing.
 

W9NES

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Playing politics in Marion County again.Here is called"Passing the buck" and being a Marion County taxpayer and property owner for the past 44 years here in the county I feel that once again we are not getting our money's worth.My hope is the Scott Newman former Marion County Prosecutor will look into the matter at hand and will get the matter taken care of and the Firefighters in this county/City of Indianapols will not have to worry about there safety on fire scenes.I hope Scott Newman will also look into this matter and povide his insight into the matter as well for all the Law Enforcement Officers with all the problems they have been having as well with there radios.All in all I think this is money that has been wasted on a junk system from Motorola.Chicago Fire Department was the first one to go on a 800Mhz Trunking sytem and The City Of Chicago Fire Deparmtent was the first one to leave 800Mhz becuase of problems that were casued by Motorola.The City Of Chicago Fire Department is now back on VHF frequencies and have no porblems since they went back to the old system they had in place for years.Maybe Marion County/City of Indianapolis should look at what happened to Chicago and go back to VHFand UHF freqs in the 460Mhz area for IMPD and put the Fire Deparments back on 154Mhz.Seems Funny we were never heard any problems when everytbody was on 154 and 155 mHZ AND 460Mhz for Law Enforcement and 154Mhz for Fire.Everybody could talk to each other with no problems.Channel 8 needs to have a pat of the back from the Marion County/City of Indianapolis taxpayers for bringing this matter to our attetion .Public Safety should never be compermised over a controversial radio system that was not needed in the first place.!
 

kg9qm

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Well, I want to believe Motorola hasn't gone into the crapper, engineering-wise. That would be sad to see them fold, too. But the evidence isn't there, the new system's not performing well (or at least fulfulling all requirements) from many reports.

Good grief, it's not like this is their first installation, so there ought not to be a whole lot of major bugs to iron out... Unless they HAVE gone into the crapper.

But fundamentally, I think this is yet another example of our city government's tradition - pennywise and pound foolish. They hang onto an antique system well beyond a reasonable lifetime for it, under the pretext they are saving us poor taxpayers money. Then one day, we get slapped with a huge bill to pay because they ran out of rubberbands and chewing gum. Just like clinging to the broken-down sewer system until oned ay the sewer rates have to go up 50% for a major overhaul.

I would say there's too much money siphoned off for 'economic development' although there's not even much evidence that our economy has developed. Taxes raised, new taxes added, services reduced. I don't think the model is working - the more they push to bring in that mystery money to the city from these 'developments', the more problems there seem to be with too little money available to fix them.
 

jerk

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W9NES said:
Playing politics in Marion County again.Here is called"Passing the buck" and being a Marion County taxpayer and property owner for the past 44 years here in the county I feel that once again we are not getting our money's worth.My hope is the Scott Newman former Marion County Prosecutor will look into the matter at hand and will get the matter taken care of and the Firefighters in this county/City of Indianapols will not have to worry about there safety on fire scenes.
Scott Newman was and probably still is a politician. I hope he has a good non-biased technical advisor on staff. And Fire dept always have to have safety in mind, with or without a good radio system.
W9NES said:
I hope Scott Newman will also look into this matter and povide his insight into the matter as well for all the Law Enforcement Officers with all the problems they have been having as well with there radios.All in all I think this is money that has been wasted on a junk system from Motorola.
So what problems is Law Enforcement having with the radios? Do tell please.
W9NES said:
Chicago Fire Department was the first one to go on a 800Mhz Trunking sytem and The City Of Chicago Fire Deparmtent was the first one to leave 800Mhz becuase of problems that were casued by Motorola.The City Of Chicago Fire Department is now back on VHF frequencies and have no porblems since they went back to the old system they had in place for years.
Again support this please... The first to go on a trunked system. Not that I'm aware of, so please provide details where I and others can find this information.
W9NES said:
Maybe Marion County/City of Indianapolis should look at what happened to Chicago and go back to VHFand UHF freqs in the 460Mhz area for IMPD and put the Fire Deparments back on 154Mhz.Seems Funny we were never heard any problems when everytbody was on 154 and 155 mHZ AND 460Mhz for Law Enforcement and 154Mhz for Fire.Everybody could talk to each other with no problems.Channel 8 needs to have a pat of the back from the Marion County/City of Indianapolis taxpayers for bringing this matter to our attetion .Public Safety should never be compermised over a controversial radio system that was not needed in the first place.!
Oh you don’t happen to work for Channel 8 do you?
I'm sure there were problems on VHF and UHF frequencies, but that is long in the past, and others using VHF & UHF have problems on VHF and UHF, just a different type of problems. Each band brings its own unique type of problems, and most can be solved, (with time and money), as this one will be.

MECA was praised recently for having interoperability. Who's saying Public Safety is being compromised? The firefighters... they knew this (system) was coming and had channels to address the problem, but apparently did not.

And something new was needed; the old radios no longer had parts available for repair. So something needed to be done... Are you saying they should have bought all new analog radios? That would have been a good workable solution. Being actively involved in Council meetings, writing letters expressing your concern, being aware of what is being bought and bids being sought, all go a long way to making your voice heard. Disliking what you see after it has been bought, and complaining then, is like shutting the barn door after the cow gets out.

None of this was done in a vacuum and without the chance for public comments. And there is still opportunity for public comments to the City Council… have you done so by letter or attending a meeting? Wanting change is a good thing, but this is not the best place for promoting it.
 

SCPD

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By the way the radios MECA has now do Analog and Digital all they needed to do is Add the extra sites for the current system and get the new radios witch would have been cheaper than what they went with and add the in building coverage and if they wanted to use digital they would have the radios already and if they wanted to use digital on another system like Safe T they would have it. They did not need a full digital system and yes the parts for the XTS 821 are no longer available but they are for the XTS 5000 they have now as I said before all they need was the new radios if it was just a parts issues but they had coverage issues as well and that is where the other sites come in.
As for Motorola they still sell mix mode systems the Federal government mandated that all systems had to handle both so I see where they needed the new system but they could have went with mixed mode.
 

SCPD

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As far as Scott Newman he is the new public safty Director for Indianpolis and has a big say so no over what goes on.
 

ten78

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The fire guys are testing today. The audio is horrible. Sounds like they are underwater.
The guys outside sound ok, but the guys inside the bldg. with SCBA are almost completely unable to be understood.
BCD996T
 

kg9qm

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Listening to the brief check ins for IMPD tonight on the digital system, I saw error rates typically around 40-50. By cranking the P25 threshold up to 18 this improved slightly (down to 30-35).

I see around 10 max for SAFE-T.

Do these numbers compare favorably with the rst of you?
 

N9WP

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Last night the new MECA-1 was horrible on my online feed so I turned off that "bank" and turned on the skywarn net instead. 8 for me has been ok with the new MECA system but I didn't play with it last night to see what the error rates were for it. On SAFE-T, it can range with the P25 threshold from 6 to 11. Boone county and Hendricks county I have set at 10 where most other towers I have set at 7. Still haven't updated the firmware yet on my 396 or 996 yet, waiting for the next release, I like being able to control the P25 threshold settings and with the new firmware you can't.
 

FD_1226

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speedway_navigator said:
The analog MECA system went into failsoft 3 or 4 times last night during the storms, only lasted a min or 2 each time.

Not the first nor last. Seems to be a regular event. Also everyone trying to talk doesn't help. There was a lot of bleed over on the fire side.
 
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