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Excuse me, but the Orange Co. "deciders" not so many years ago, chose DMR (MOTOTRBO) as the emission mode of choice which would solve their comm needs plus afford privacy from those "pesky" scanner monitors. It was their "end of the rainbow" radio system. If I were an Orange Co. tax paying resident I would make sure they heard my opinion loud and clear which would be "Tango Sierra"--you spent millions of our taxpayer dollars on a radio system which now doesn't have this or that or whatever. That's just too d----ed bad. We bought it for you and now you can live with it until we the taxpayers decide otherwise.
APCO P25 Phase 1 trs existed at that time. The "deciders" chose a different radio system emission mode for whatever reasons. "Buyers Remorse" is not a valid reason for another multi-million dollar expenditure for a radio system with more bells and whistles. Live with your interoperability issues. You should have considered that subject years ago and if so decided it was not a "game changer".
John
W4UVV
So good or bad if that was the case PD was the only people to do this. I suspect the only reason they went this way is the radio vendor of the area doesn't know any different and the idea of cheap digital seems to be the fix for a vendor that doesn't really engineer a system. Fire still deals with lack of coverage and multiple repeaters and now cannot Interop with Law unless the have a vehicle on scene with a TRBO Radio.
With that said I am of the mindset if you can make a small system work do so. a well designed conventional (P25 or Analog) system will work well for both agencies. Many counties have worked for years with 1 dispatch channel for Fire/EMS and LAW then. On Scene communications can be simplex. Yes P25 trunking is nice, but putting a well designed analog system in for FIRE/EMS and a P25 system for Law is a good economical way to do this. Trunking is fine for counties or towns/city's with thousands of users but in rural area's I don't understand the need.
The issue is getting a vendor that understands that concept and administrators that understand what they need or dont need.