Pa Senate:The failed statewide radio project

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WB3DYE

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Some Pa State senators call the current State Police Open Sky radio system a waste of up to a billion dollars.

Fast forward to this year and the issues are still not resolved. State officials in the early 2000's decided against a project which works with all systems, Project 25 "modulation". Instead they picked the Open Sky system which only work with equipment supplied by one company. No possible way to have other radio companies bid on the replacement radios.

Interesting testimony on 1 hour and 30 minutes and again at one hour and 50 minutes.

Click the link and page for State police.

Pennsylvania Senate Republicans | Budget Hearings Summary
 

jiminpgh

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O-Pinsky Failure

Bob, you were right all along. It is stunning and disturbing to hear our state senators saying that we wasted a billion dollars on Open Sky. I'm not very impressed with the commonwealth lately. Turnpike tolls compounding yearly, and the highest gas tax in the nation.

Where are all of the wizards of smart on the PA 800 yahoo group that gave you a hard time? Allan Tilles comes to mind, but I don't see him in the recent trade press. There were others as well. What a long strange trip it has been. I forget the name of the consultant firm, but they went bankrupt several years ago. It is now part of Black and Veatch.

Take a victory lap Bob, all the things you said were wrong with the system, proprietary system, 800Mhz in Pennsylvania were correct. The old VHF system was well designed, worked really well and I miss it. They tried 800 trunking in Pittsburgh in the 80's. It failed so badly that I don't think public safety trunking will ever come to Pittsburgh.

I just have to wonder if they will encrypt the new system after the super secure, encrypted end to end opinsky system that even the users can't listen to.

Take another victory lap, and post this to the PA-800 yahoo group.
 

ocguard

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New York State Police also dumped OpenSky a few years back. And Lancaster County, obviously.

I'm really surprised about Pittsburgh. It seems like it would be a pretty easy city to cover. If it's true that they tried TRS in the 80s, that's hardly a fair shake. But if what they've got works, more power to them. Pretty hard pill to swallow that in 2017, their firefighters have to have an active watch on the radio around the clock, though. And no real expansion for multiple fires. Pretty barbaric.
 

scnrfrq

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They're working on it. P25 phase 2 system is in testing phase this year in NW PA and will be rolled out NW to SW to SC to SE, etc over the next five years.

I'm in Erie waiting for the testing to start. Last I heard it might be late summer. The frequencies to be used have been listed elsewhere in a forum. I've heard the five year plan before. Seems like a long time to implement this.
 

RFI-EMI-GUY

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Some Pa State senators call the current State Police Open Sky radio system a waste of up to a billion dollars.

Fast forward to this year and the issues are still not resolved. State officials in the early 2000's decided against a project which works with all systems, Project 25 "modulation". Instead they picked the Open Sky system which only work with equipment supplied by one company. No possible way to have other radio companies bid on the replacement radios.

Interesting testimony on 1 hour and 30 minutes and again at one hour and 50 minutes.

Click the link and page for State police.

Pennsylvania Senate Republicans | Budget Hearings Summary
In the early 2000s they would have also been stuck with one vendor.

Sent from my SM-T350 using Tapatalk
 

ekim223

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With this fantastic OPEN SKY system that is supposed to carry both voice communications for agencies that are critical to citizens life's, then why is PennDot embarking on this Data plan with cell phone companies to carry data from the PennDot plow trucks for the 511 site.
The following is taken from the 511 site:
“The unit cost per truck is $1,200, with an average monthly cellular plan of roughly $35 per month. “
(link: http://www.511pa.com/pdfs/PlowTruckReportsFAQ.pdf).
I would have though with the Commonwealth of PA is such desperate financial condition, the powers to be would be looking to SAVE $$$. That would include using existing sources such as OPEN SKY to carry the data. If it is good enough for PennDot voice communications then why is it not good enough for data too? Or is it just not good enough as what the powers to be want you to believe?
 

scnrfrq

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That's what I thought. Our County will also be implementing a brand new Phase II system later this year. I'm still using scanners back to the Pro-2004 and Cobra SR-15. Looks like I'll be spending some big bucks on new scanners this year!
 

rrbum

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Looks like I'll be spending some big bucks on new scanners this year!

You may want to hold off on any purchase until more information is available about what systems you intend to monitor. Don't forget that encryption is very popular these days. It would be a real drag to shell out hard earned money only to find out that you cannot listen when all is said and done.
Do your research and see which radio would be the best for the type of systems you are interested in, and you will be ready to make a smart purchase if indeed your systems are monitorable.
Also, I'm betting that more choices will be on the market for P25 phase 2 in the next couple/few years.
That's the way I look at it.
 

radio3353

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You may want to hold off on any purchase until more information is available about what systems you intend to monitor. Don't forget that encryption is very popular these days. It would be a real drag to shell out hard earned money only to find out that you cannot listen when all is said and done.
Do your research and see which radio would be the best for the type of systems you are interested in, and you will be ready to make a smart purchase if indeed your systems are monitorable.
Also, I'm betting that more choices will be on the market for P25 phase 2 in the next couple/few years.
That's the way I look at it.

Also, if that P25 phase 2 system is simulcast, you will more than likely find today's consumer scanners are completely inadequate. Be sure you have a return option.
 

GTR8000

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scnrfrq

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Also, if that P25 phase 2 system is simulcast, you will more than likely find today's consumer scanners are completely inadequate. Be sure you have a return option.

Here's an article on the Erie County system I mentioned. It does say "simulcast". Will I have trouble using the best Uniden scanners for this? Our whole county will be on this system for all agencies - pretty important that I can monitor it.
Erie County chooses EFJohnson to provide ATLAS® P25 Phase 2 public safety communication system
 

RadioDitch

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Incorrect. Motorola ASTRO 25 systems can be purchased as Phase I FDMA-only if desired. Phase II TDMA is an option that must be purchased at both the system core level, as well as for each G Series repeater/comparator and other affected infrastructure hardware.

Unless your Motorola rep hasn't met their numbers for the quarter, then they'll tell you that you have to buy TDMA. Happened around here several times.
 
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