Oswego, NY - New E-911 Radio System Releases Video

[MTS2000des]

I think ThunderKnight and esfd283 hit the nail, so to speak. No offence to MTS2000des, but the CNYICC has done alot for the counties it serves. Your not from the area, so you didnt know the lack of interoperablity between departments and counties prior to CNYICC. Different counties were on differend bands, and if there was a multi county/jurisdictional incident...most of the work fell on dispatchers to call the other counties, and wait to hear back and so on. as far as a IC talking to the Highways Department, happens all the time in the winter. Usualy at a Structure Fire, the Scene Commander will summon a Sander, to keep the roadway clear.

You're right, I'm not from that area. I am from an area that loves to spend money on radio systems like these and has for years, so much so that we are now broke from the constant forklift upgrades and games the vendors play. We love to blow millions on the latest greatest toys that get peddled, but seldom do we get anything that really is worth the tremendous expenditure that goes on for YEARS as a result.

I just hope once the "new car" smell wears off and the bills start coming due, you guys don't start raising taxes or cutting services to keep your high end high tier trunking system going 5-7 years from now.

Good luck, I really do hope it goes well. I'll check back in 5 years and see if the sentiment is still the same.

 

[Thunderknight]

All your VHF and UHF channel pairs are so scarce in that region? Really? I find that difficult to believe.

Yup. Canada has many of them in use.
Upstate NY borders Canada, including the metro areas of Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. Any VHF/UHF applications to the FCC above Line A goes to Canada for review. If Canada is using them (which may be public safety or commercial users as their band plans are different), the US application gets rejected. Often it takes several rounds of re-engineering and re-submission before they might get approved (including the use of directional antennas, low ERPs, etc).
In 700 and 800 MHz, the pool of channels is pre-defined for the first 100km from the border. The US gets roughly (approximation) 1/3 of the total number of channels available to work with due to the population distribution.

So yes, spectrum is HARD to get in border areas of upstate NY.

 

[jeepsandradios]

I think unless your from the area we are and involved in public safety in this area you really dont know what the new system has helped with. Until the new system went live Onondaga County operated on Lowband, VHF, UHF, 800 Mhz Edacs. Oswego County had people on Lowband, VHF, UHF and 800 Mhz Multi-Net. Madison and Cayuga both had very similar systems in place. All these systems couldn't talk to anyone, nor was agencies spendning money to update stuff. As a radio installer you have no idea how many GE Master II and GE PE portables I installed in $500,000 fire trucks. Yes some agencies bought newer radios, but many flipped pancakes to buy a new truck !

Frequencies in the UHF band are non existant for public safety. I worked with Apco for over 2 years and have only found 1 UHF pair out of the 3 I applied for. VHF is even harder. Canada is a nightmare and is half of the issue.

Im sure all the counties spent alot of funds on this new system, but as an end user as long as i key the mic and someone hears me I dont care. We need it to do the job and we didn't always have this in the past. We have simplex channels, interop channels and trunking channels so we have lots of options.

Im sure its not perfect in everyones opinion, but I feel alot safer going in a burning building with my XTS than i did in the past.....

Lastly I think the counties involved are someone people should be watching. All of you know the state wide system fell apart, mostly for technical issues but also wasn;t really "sold" to the counties. These counties looked at what happened and started as a small group that is continuing to grow a good project to all the providers of the region. I know fire departments 2 miles apart that can't agree on stuff so to have this many counites supporting this system is amazing.

 

[AuntEnvy]

Just to be clear

if it matters...

I know MTS said "for example" but St. Lawrence is not part of the system, and they aren't considered CNY, they are North Country.

I'm not sure if they would be joining the CNY system or not but maybe the Utica/Oneida JPL system, or perhaps a brand new system once Motorola and the politicians get a hold of them.

 

[KD2DXF]

I think I'ts funny, you always hear about the (newer) systems that fail or go wrong, but hardly hear of the systems that counties/agencies are actually happy with, and go right.

 

[AuntEnvy]

I'm guessing

I think I'ts funny, you always hear about the (newer) systems that fail or go wrong, but hardly hear of the systems that counties/agencies are actually happy with, and go right.

It's because of the gigantic taxpayer-paid outlay of millions of dollars that we can hardly afford.

That equals a LOT more scrutiny.

 

[radionerd13669]

if it matters...

I know MTS said "for example" but St. Lawrence is not part of the system, and they aren't considered CNY, they are North Country.

I'm not sure if they would be joining the CNY system or not but maybe the Utica/Oneida JPL system, or perhaps a brand new system once Motorola and the politicians get a hold of them.

Being in the north country has nothing to do with being part of the system. Jefferson,Lewis and St.Lawrence are members. This is part of the reason they just received a combined total of $14.7 million in grants last month.

 

[AuntEnvy]

They are part of the system?

Being in the north country has nothing to do with being part of the system. Jefferson,Lewis and St.Lawrence are members. This is part of the reason they just received a combined total of $14.7 million in grants last month.

Or it's proposed they will join? True that the name is just a name, so I apologize for that.

But $14 million combined? That doesn't sound like they're gonna get much. One county alone was close to $18 mil!

 

[radionerd13669]

I can confirm SLC has joined the CNY Group,ADK and a local working group

 

[AuntEnvy]

Very well then

I can confirm SLC has joined the CNY Group,ADK and a local working group

I appreciate the info.

So the other two counties you mentioned are still being proposed I assume?

It would certainly make sense for Jeff co to join since they are sandwiched betwixt but who knows?

Not familiar with the ADK or local working group you mentioned. What is that about?

 

[radionerd13669]

Yes Jefferson is part of the CNY group and I am unsure of what lewis is doing

 

[KD2DXF]

P25 UHF Trunking from what ive been told.