Ottawa County Updates

[jgarber311]

So, most of the departments in the center of the county that have been holding out on UHF for decades are actively looking to move to MARCS. They decided on MARCS instead of the county's P25 system.

Those who will be affected:
Oak Harbor Police
Oak Harbor Fire/ EMS/ Police Dispatch
Portage Fire District
Mid County EMS
Carroll Twp Police/ Fire/ EMS
Carroll Twp Maintenance

They have received grants and should be migrating within the year.

No word on what Rocky Ridge, Erie Twp, Bay Twp will do.

Stakeholders cite the aging UHF equipment with no fixes for problems and claim the county P25 system is not a good fit for them.

W8CEN

 

[rcid1971]

Wow, that seems like a ridiculously expensive choice.

 

[wmlovell]

Wow, that seems like a ridiculously expensive choice.

...Probably cheaper than going with the County P-25 System and gives them ability to communicate with some adjacent counties.

 

[rcid1971]

...Probably cheaper than going with the County P-25 System and gives them ability to communicate with some adjacent counties.

MARCS is $20/per radio per month
Cleveland’s system is just under $8, I don’t know Ottawa’s rate structure, but I find it hard to believe they’re above MARCS, especially considering most of the $14.5M install was paid for by the Sprint/Nextel spectrum swap & grants.

 

[wa8pyr]

MARCS is $20/per radio per month
Cleveland’s system is just under $8, I don’t know Ottawa’s rate structure, but I find it hard to believe they’re above MARCS, especially considering most of the $14.5M install was paid for by the Sprint/Nextel spectrum swap & grants.

Actually MARCS is now $25 per month....

 

[jgarber311]

From my understanding, some departments in the county are not happy with the county P25 system. Lots of dead spots. That's why Danbury went to UHF. But just overheard in conversation, I don't have personal experience with the system.

 

[wd8chl]

Problem with MARCS is there is only one site, near Davis-Besse. They might get some coverage on the far eastern end from Castalia-maybe. Central may get a tiny bit from Fremont, but I doubt it.

 

[jgarber311]

From my use of a MARCS radio for my employer, and my own dabbling with the SDS 100, coverage is pretty stellar throughout their service area. The Fremont site and the Toledo site boom into the area with lots of signal strength. It would appear to be well covered by those 3 sites (the one by DBNPS, Fremont, and Toledo).

Problem with MARCS is there is only one site, near Davis-Besse. They might get some coverage on the far eastern end from Castalia-maybe. Central may get a tiny bit from Fremont, but I doubt it.

 

[wa8pyr]

From my use of a MARCS radio for my employer, and my own dabbling with the SDS 100, coverage is pretty stellar throughout their service area. The Fremont site and the Toledo site boom into the area with lots of signal strength. It would appear to be well covered by those 3 sites (the one by DBNPS, Fremont, and Toledo).

You might be able to hear Toledo and Fremont (and Davis-Besse) pretty well, but the issue is how well they would hear transmissions from radios within Ottawa County. I wouldn't rely on them to receive transmissions adequately throughout the county, especially from portable radios. The one at Davis-Besse would be fine in the northern end of the county, but farther east/west and south it would be an issue.

 

[wd8chl]

You might be able to hear Toledo and Fremont (and Davis-Besse) pretty well, but the issue is how well they would hear transmissions from radios within Ottawa County. I wouldn't rely on them to receive transmissions adequately throughout the county, especially from portable radios. The one at Davis-Besse would be fine in the northern end of the county, but farther east/west and south it would be an issue.

Right. I used to work on the Ottawa Co system when it was still EDACS about 10-15 years ago. They had some coverage issues on the far east end of Marblehead, even with a full site in Bayview, because of terrain. They had more trouble with coverage around Elmore because the Clay Center site was rx only, and it was tough to hear the Oak Harbor tx there, again, terrain. They did fix that finally (after us telling them to do it for probably 25 years) when it went P25. Oh, they could have used a site at the SO in Port Clinton too, another oversight, never got fixed.
Getting coverage from the one site near DB isn't gonna happen. Period. Oh, that's a shorter tower than the main Oak Harbor tower for the county system, btw. Much shorter. By maybe 150-200 feet. We had downtilt antennas at OH too. Lots of engineering went into that to improve coverage over the years. It was pretty good as 800 Mhz goes. I could bring it up with a 2 watt portable from Lorain routinely. Broken, but there.
MARCS is not gonna cut it. Not without at least 2 or 3 more sites.

 

[bucknut937]

I listen to the Ottawa County P25 system when I'm in the area and I get stellar coverage with my G5. Bettsville to Sandusky I've been in range!
I have noticed that Put-In-Bay uses the P25 system sometimes

 

[W8UU]

So, out of curiosity, what should I monitor when we vacation on Middle Bass Island?

I believe that's considered part of Ottawa County.

 

[612345]

So, out of curiosity, what should I monitor when we vacation on Middle Bass Island?

I believe that's considered part of Ottawa County.

Middle Bass is part of Ottawa County.

Middle Bass Island is served by Put in Bay P.D. and Fire Department

158.835 for the police department.

156.240 for fire and EMS.

They have a low power repeater system, so you must be on the Islands, Marblehead or Catawba to hear them.