Ottawa Co TRS

[FireDawgEMT22]

The official word...Ottawa County is going to P25. They are not using a Motorola P25, but using a Harris P25 system. At the end they will keep 3 of their current 800Mhz frequencies and add 2 new frequencies being released by Sprint Nextel. To have a total of 4 voice channels and 1 control channel.

The radios will be the Harris P7100 and P7200's. The radios are scheduled to be rolled out end of this year time frame, but will be programmed for both the current analog EDACS and the P25. Once all the hardware county wide is in place and programmed they will operate on the P25 system, scheduled around August 2013, and the radios will have the analog EDACS programming removed as the regular scheduled maintenance is performed on the radios after the go live date.

They are going to upgrade the two current TX/RX towers in Oak Harbor and Lakeside, and upgrade the RX only tower in Allen Clay area to a TX/RX tower also. Totaling 3 simulcast sites in the county.

The system will be a Phase I P25, with no plans to go to Phase II at anytime, however all the hardware (except the P7100 radios) are Phase II TDMA compatible.

The radios are also MARCS compatible, with plans in the works to put a link in place with the City of Parma and the State of Ohio MARCS system to all the radios to roam state wide on the MARCS towers. Also, they are in talks to get the radios to roam onto and work with perfect interoperability on the Lucas County system.

The system will have 7 frequencies during the testing and installation period (5 current and the 2 additional from Sprint) to be allocated between the EDACS and P25 until P25 goes completely online.

Interesting fact I found out, Harris developed a way to activate the county sirens over the P25 system. Not sure how they accomplished this, because I know Motorola has the problem with tones on the P25 system, but they are doing it.

I hope this information is useful for everyone, and I think I covered all the basic info.

 

[HOLEBILLY]

thank you for the great info

 

[Thunderbolt]

Thank God they are going Project 25. I would have fell out of my chair if they would had gone with OpenSky technology. This sounds like they are making a wise choice.

73's

Ron

 

[rdale]

They probably are activating the siren controller digitally, not with tones.

Any idea if they'll consolidate the VHF/UHF paging into one band when that happens? Or why it even is that way to begin with?

 

[FireDawgEMT22]

It is VHF/UHF split because years ago some departments were having issues with the 800 system in their area, so they branched out to the UHF system on their own. As far as merging VHF anf UHF, who knows. I havent heard anything about it.

I am surprised they went with the Harris system instead of a Motorola system. With Lucas County and Wood County right next door on the Motorola system, I would think the interoperability would be easier to accomplish if they were already both on the same system.

As far as the siren controller, we were told that the ability to do it had not existed until Harris developed it for this purpose. So I do not know how or what they are doing for it.

 

[ctpd845]

The VHF/UHF split on fire was because the middle of the county did not want to join the EDACS system when it was built in the late 80's The police and fire in the central part of the county went conventional uhf.

This isn't going to change because those that do not use the EDACS system will not be using the new P25 system.

They are going with Harris because of the company that currently maintains the EDACS system is Cleveland Communications. The county wants to continue working with Cleveland Communications and they do not deal with Motorola

Cleveland Communications also takes care of the 154.1000 fire paging frequency.

Rays Electronics maintains the UHF police and fire frequencies.

 

[rdale]

Thanks. Since P25 is P25 there shouldn't be any interop concerns.

Other than with the VHF users

 

[FireDawgEMT22]

According to the EMA, the UHF holdouts have been convinced to go onto the P25 and are going to use it.

And yes P25 is P25, but with the other communities, they use the same frequencies and same talkgroups...so thats where I see the possible problems

 

[FireDawgEMT22]

According to the EMA, the UHF holdouts have been convinced to go onto the P25 and are going to use it.

And yes P25 is P25, but with the other communities, they use the same frequencies and same talkgroups...so thats where I see the possible problems

 

[rdale]

Well the point is that since they have P25 radios it is no big deal to add on another system, and/or link TGs between systems. Thanks for the update!

 

[ctpd845]

According to the EMA, the UHF holdouts have been convinced to go onto the P25 and are going to use it.

And yes P25 is P25, but with the other communities, they use the same frequencies and same talkgroups...so thats where I see the possible problems

I've heard that before. About 4 or 5 years ago Carroll Twp PD was given brand new EDACS portables and mobiles because they were going to join the system. As we all know that never happened

 

[rdale]

It's possible there is a little more "stick" than "carrot" at this point... If their radios are that old, they probably are not narrowband-capable. So they can spend a few grand on radio & repeater upgrades, or be assimilated (just a guess though.)

 

[rdale]

"Commissioners look at radio collaborations"

http://www.portclintonnewsherald.co...aborations?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

 

[stpd438]

Getting ALL public safety users in the county on one radio system for day-to-day operations will be the greatest magic trick ever pulled off. I hate to sound pessimistic, but I don't see it happening. There are three major obstacles:

1. The current UHF users don't want to give up control of "their" radio system. They don't trust the county 800-mhz users group to consider their wants/needs. This viewpoint has been publicly stated in open government meetings throughout the past several years. I know, I was there.

2. The current UHF users don't want to pay a couple thousand dollars for each P25 radio, when they only have to pay a couple hundred dollars for each radio now. It's hard to try to justify such a cost difference to bean-counters who have no idea how their current radio system works, let alone a P25 trunked system.

3. There's also the "it's worked this way for 20 years, why do we have to change it now?" and the "why in world would I need to talk on my radio on the other end of the state, that's what a cell phone is for?" mentalities.

If the EMA is saying they've convinced everyone to be on the P25 system, they are probably referring to a continuation of the current arrangement. Right now, every police/fire/EMS department in the county has at least a couple of EDACS portables in their possession for interop purposes. I have YET to see the UHF users actually use them, even for training scenarios. Their day-to-day radio traffic remains on the UHF band, and they have no interest in utilizing the EDACS system.

Since the county only wants to deal with Harris, I'm wondering how the radios will be MARCS compatible, since (unless you live in Cuyahoga County) it is still a Motorola SmartZone system, and currently only Motorola and EF Johnson radios will work on the system. I understand that MARCS will eventually go to full P25, but how many times has that been postponed already?

Don't get me wrong, nothing would make me happier than seeing the entire county on one radio system. However, it will take a major change in the mindset of the powers at be for it to happen.

Any talk of the schools switching to the new P25 system also? Since right now they're on the EDACS system, and if the new system is to have the same number of voice frequencies, my concern would be that they would bog down the system during peak times, as they do now.

 

[rdale]

I checked the RRDB and 31 of the public safety / public sector freq's are not listed as narrowband. Roughly saying $5000 per repeater and $300 per radio, that's a healthy chunk of money that would have to be spent to upgrade to narrowband and since the EMA holds the grant fund purse, he may have control of the carrot/stick?