The Central NY consortium is a shining example of coordination and cooperation between counties. It is led by, and has working for the counties, some very dedicated individuals.
No question they are showing a great example of inter governmental agreements at their best. I wish we had that kind of cooperation where I live.
Remember also, these types of systems (and trunking in general) are also about spectrum efficency. There is not enough spectrum for every user agency/type to have their own frequency on a conventional basis (especially in the same band). But when you trunk the users, you share the resource on a time-domain basis.
This is where I raise a flag. The counties in central New York are hardly highly populated suburban MSA's, most of them are rural in nature. You're telling me for example, St. Lawrence county for example,
needs more than they have now frequency wise? A county of roughly 111K according to the US census 2010-
needs a large expensive to maintain DTRS when they are using a handful of conventional channel pairs now? What happened, did they have a growth explosion overnight? Did I miss something? All your VHF and UHF channel pairs are so scarce in that region? Really? I find that difficult to believe.
I cite them as one of the many counties in the consortium as an example, sure- there is no doubt trunking allows a greater number of people to share fewer resources, but when it comes to interoperability, which is the big selling point of their nicely produced video, it makes it out as a
crisis situation who's
ONLY solution is a costly to implement and maintain digital trunked radio system. That is simply a bunch of bullfish and we all know it.
And I speak from a metro Atlanta county resident who has helped bankroll not one, two but soon to be
THREE 800MHz trunked radio systems which we were told we MUST procure by a certain vendor. Granted, the first analog system went from 1993-2007, but now in just 7 short years after we have just finished paying off the first phase 1 digital system, the vendor has EOL'ed support for the network core and we MUST migrate to phase 2 at another cost of $13 million dollars to implement that forklift upgrade.
We spend $1.2 million a year to
maintain the current county radio system. So, let's look at some rough numbers:
2005 SPLOST paid for our "needed" digital upgrade: $30 million dollars there, system went live in 2006- so, that's 1.2 million x 7 so far= $38.4 million dollars just spent for a 5 site DTRS for 7 years. And it's vendor already says the life cycle is over. Finished. Done. Yesterday's technology full of cobwebs and mothballs.
Now add another $13.1 million (paid for by a 2011 SPLOST) to keep up with the needed Microsoft style upgrade...so, this should be good for another 7, right? So let's see...$38.4 + 13.1 + 1.2 million X 7= $51.5 million dollars.
Of course, pay attention closely to what this video tells you about the radio system you are paying dearly to implement and maintain:
ASTRO® 25 Lifecycle Management: Keep Your System Up-to-date - YouTube
This is the reality of what such a system costs. Our county's system offers no more or less "interoperability" than our old analog Smartnet system, or previous UHF 460MHz conventional system did. Even less, in fact, as there are a limited number of ID's available, programming requires an advanced system key only issued by the county radio administrator (that's great for security but those large incidents you mention, you're back to the good old hand someone a radio or face to face), and not everyone has the $2500-4000 dollar subscriber radios like we do. Back in the days when we were on UHF conventional, these created "crisis" did not exist. Hmmm..wonder what happened?
I love complex radio systems as much as anyone else as a radio nerd. But I am also a taxpayer, and being that this vendor has accelerated the life cycle on these costly radio systems and is putting it out there that "you cannot expect the life cycle of previous generation of systems" means one thing and one thing only for you folks wanting to spend tens or hundreds of millions on a new radio system:
SHOP AROUND
We are paying more and getting less because we allow the vendors to drive the bus. We are getting ROBBED because no one is doing any comparison shopping, competitive bidding, or DEMANDING a better deal.
And you wonder why our country is in the economic shape it is in? It's all about priorities.
I can put up a single site DMR repeater and get better coverage than my county's overpriced and underperforming simulcast DTRS. What does this tell you?
Tells me no one really cares how they are spending OUR money.