Oakland County Radio System Status site

[imthepcguy]

http://www.co.oakland.mi.us/radio/faq/

The above link is the Counties web site dedicated to help anyone wanting to know the stats and FAQ's of the new radio system that is being built in Oakland County for Oakland County Public Safety users. It will be be updated as work progresses.

 

[Thunderbolt]

Thank you!

 

[KB8UYC]

MPSCS is too expensive for them, but yet they are investing all the taxpayers money into the system yet it still is not working. At least the MPSCS system is up and running and has been for quite some time now!!

I will take MPSCS(Motorola) over M/A COM any day of the week!!!

Eric

 

[mikey60]

Well, it confirms that Detroit will be Zone 7 of the MPSCS. I still don't see how they figure the coverage being different between the two. I can understand the ability to do more transmissions on a single frequency though.

It seems to me though that they could have used those frequencies in an MPSCS zone of their own, and created at least two separate tower subs within that zone. put the bulk of the frequencies in the south end of the county, and a smaller number in the north end.

I don't know about you guys, but I don't hear that much traffic here in the south end of Oakland county where I would think that 20-30 frequencies wouldn't be able to handle most if not all of the radio communications. And, after they reband, PS gets another 80 12.5khz channels to work with as well, so there would be hope for the ability to add more where needed.

Mike

 

[Thunderbolt]

MPSCS is too expensive for them, but yet they are investing all the taxpayers money into the system yet it still is not working.
Eric

It's interesting to note that the M/A-COM system will have 30-32 tower sites across the county, which is far more than Motorola quoted them for 97 percent mobile coverage. Oakland County decided that they wanted as close to 100 percent handheld coverage as possible, and when you think about it, a handheld is the most vital lifeline of any public safety person in the field. However, since this system has yet to get off the ground, many people are asking the question: "can it really fly?"

73's

Ron

 

[pbouc]

Will any digital scanner work for MA/COM Open Sky?

I was told that when Oakland County switches to the new MA/COM Open Sky system, that no digital scanner on the market would be able to work detecting this system. Is this true?

 

[mikey60]

Re: Will any digital scanner work for MA/COM Open Sky?

I was told that when Oakland County switches to the new MA/COM Open Sky system, that no digital scanner on the market would be able to work detecting this system. Is this true?

Yep, this is true. There is no scanner currently available that can monitor OpenSky.

Mike

 

[pbouc]

No Scanner for MA/COM Open Sky???!!!

When Oakland County switches over to MA/COM Open Sky, I understand that local municipalities may also switch over to the system. What are we going to do for scanning public service frequencies!!! I love listening to the Oakland County Sheriff - what will I do now?!

 

[imthepcguy]

Scanning Issue Response

This system is not for Oakland County Sheriff alone it is being built for the Public Safety Agencies in Oakland County (Police/Fire/EMS) this gives them the capability to communicate to each other during an emergnecy.

The lack of ability to scan these agencies is just the inherint part of going to a completely digital system....

 

[Jeffn8wb]

Is there a list of agencies in Oakland County that will be switching over to the new system?

 

[rdale]

"The lack of ability to scan these agencies is just the inherint part of going to a completely digital system...."

It is not a requirement that digital systems can't be scanned... It is because they chose a vendor that uses a proprietary scheme, and has nothing to do with digital.

 

[Thunderbolt]

Is there a list of agencies in Oakland County that will be switching over to the new system?

The only department that I heard won't be switching over to the new system will be the city of Southfield. Since they have a radio shop, their consensus is that it will put too many people out of work by switching over to the new M/A-COM TRS.

I am sure that most fire departments will still use their VHF-High band frequencies for tone outs, but the majority of the two-way radio traffic will be on the 800 MHz system once it's fully operational.

73's

Ron

 

[Jeffn8wb]

I hope that one of the major players in the scanner market decided to come up with a unit that will scan this type of system. I have been toying around with the tought of purchasing the new Uniden when it is released, but I may hold off and see if something else is on the horizon as my Pro-96 works well for what I use it for.

 

[mikey60]

MA/COM has not allowed any scanner manufacturers to license the technology on OpenSky or ProVoice. Likelyhood is that it will be quite some time if ever before any of it will be licensed to scanner manufacturers.

Mike

 

[fnnm1062]

Just as an FYI, not all FD's will be switching over to the new system. Quite a few that I know of will be staying on the current system.