Open Sky coming to Palm Beach County cities

[Mozilla]

Several cities including the City of West Palm Beach, Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens and Atlantis have selected M/A Com as the vendor for a new system and chosen OPEN SKY as the system. The estimated time of the system going on line is 12-14 months.
This systems advanatge according to the Municipal Radio Consortium will be its capability to do voice and data. Its should be noted the first 3 cities are currently on a Motorola System, which really just needs an additional site and some infrastructure work. By switching to this system, they will have rely on switches for interoperability, and once the radio travels outside its coverage, they will only have the conventional 800 MHZ mutual aid channels, instead of the Countys mutual aid talkgroups.

 

[n4voxgill]

macom does make dual mode radios that they claim will work on their system and P25 systems. The radio radios may work with the old system.

 

[N4DES]

The PBC TRS is not P25. It is a 3600 cc.

 

[AndreniW]

Remind me - I haven't been around M/A Com - is Open Sky digital and encrypted? Will my PRO-95 pick it up? Is Greenacres on this list?

Palm Beach County's system isn't moving either, right?

 

[N4DES]

The County system isn't going anywhere. Its up to Greenacres if they want to move.

Open Sky cannot be monitored on a scanner as it is not an open protocol.

 

[ctrabs74]

Good luck...

Several cities including the City of West Palm Beach, Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens and Atlantis have selected M/A Com as the vendor for a new system and chosen OPEN SKY as the system. The estimated time of the system going on line is 12-14 months.

Read some of the comments on OpenSky in the Pennsylvania forums, and you'll understand why I'm making this next statement...

Double the time listed above, and that MAY be the more accurate timeline. MA/COM has a less-than-stellar track record AFA OpenSky buildouts...

 

[n4voxgill]

I have never understood the Palm Beach County system. Who is actually in charge of the radio system. Is it Ray Carlson in PBSO or someone in general government.

It is a shame that the county and city couldn't work it out to use similar systems. In Orlando and Orange County both the county and city share the metro channels and it makes it so easy to work on joint projects. I will believe open sky radios will actually work on the normal channels of the county system when I see it. I know what macom says, I just don't think they will be 100$ compatible.

 

[Mozilla]

Palm Beach County System

No Ray manages the Sheriffs office radio/digi shop. PBSO, Fire and other agencies are all users on the group along with city and other agencies. Here is a link.

http://www.pbcgov.com/fdo/ESS/800MHz.htm

As to cities that are in on this, it seems that there is a combination of factors. The consortium is led by the chief of Atlantis PD, Atlantis. You could use CB in this city to talk
Excerpt .The permanent population of Atlantis is 2005, with 1200 residences,ten miles of streets, 43% of the total land area is devoted to recreation and permanent open space, 46.8% residential, and 10.2% commercial/office. JFK Medical Center is located in Atlantis. The Medical Center and the surrounding doctor's offices are the primary commercial industry in the city.
The City boundaries are Lake Worth Drainage District L-14 Canal on the north, Lantana Road on the south, Military Trail on the west, and South Congress Avenue on the east
They have like 13-15 officers with 2 on the road at any time.
For some reason, rather than improve on a system and work on a shared data system, they are seem to be blindly focused on getting something new. Also when the consortium first started they had somewhere in the area of 20 cities interested. Thats down to 4 committed and 3-4 possible, but weak. I personally forsee delays, and coverage issues, along with waiting to see the first chase that goes out of area, to see what happens when the officer loses contact. I do believe they can make the system interoperable, but I think their limited coverage will be their problem.

 

[N4DES]

I run the Palm Beach County 800 System and my website was posted by Mozilla.

 

[n4voxgill]

thanks for the info.

 

[pjbracing]

Unproven System and Vendor

I live in Oakland County Michigan and visit Palm Beach County often. When in Palm Beach, I often listen to the Fire Dept system. It seems to work very well.

Oakland County has been one of the richest in the country and sometimes has money to burn.

A few years ago, with money to burn, Oakland County opted to go with Open Sky instead of the proven State of Michigan P25 800 system. The County continues to pour money into the development of the Open Sky system with continuous delays. We're talking $$ millions of additional cost and years of delay.

Do some research and then lobby to stop the waste of Open Sky in Palm Beach County before it is too late!

 

[N4DES]

I live in Oakland County Michigan and visit Palm Beach County often. When in Palm Beach, I often listen to the Fire Dept system. It seems to work very well.

Oakland County has been one of the richest in the country and sometimes has money to burn.

A few years ago, with money to burn, Oakland County opted to go with Open Sky instead of the proven State of Michigan P25 800 system. The County continues to pour money into the development of the Open Sky system with continuous delays. We're talking $$ millions of additional cost and years of delay.

Do some research and then lobby to stop the waste of Open Sky in Palm Beach County before it is too late!

Don't get this deployment confused with the County's Motorola SmartZone System that has been in service since 2001. The cities of West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Town of Palm Beach are still trying to implement this proprietary Open Sky network with limited "municipal coverage."

Ths County, along with it's almost 70 agency partner list, has zero to do with this system and continues to make notes of the interoperability issues that will begin to occur once the end users switch over.

Also the original date of this thread is 2001 and to date the Open Sky system has not been cut over or accepted while the County system continues to operate for day to day and critical incident operations for the last 8 + years.

 

[N4DES]

Here is an older press releast from 2001...

Tyco Electronics' M/A-COM Unit Selected by Florida Consortium of Municipalities for New Public Safety Communications System

 

[pjbracing]

Don't get this deployment confused with the County's Motorola SmartZone System that has been in service since 2001. The cities of West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Town of Palm Beach are still trying to implement this proprietary Open Sky network with limited "municipal coverage."

Ths County, along with it's almost 70 agency partner list, has zero to do with this system and continues to make notes of the interoperability issues that will begin to occur once the end users switch over.

Also the original date of this thread is 2001 and to date the Open Sky system has not been cut over or accepted while the County system continues to operate for day to day and critical incident operations for the last 8 + years.

Sorry and thanks! Well 2001 isn't all that much different than Oakland County Michigan! Your current system is excellent!