Paducah and McCracken County 911 Communication System Upgrades

kytnradios

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The McCracken County Fiscal Court and Paducah City Commission have agreed to pay $33,985 each to Federal Engineering to retain their services to begin the Request for Proposal process to upgrade the current 911 communications system.

Estimated costs for the system overhaul have been placed between 10 to 12 million dollars. The difference in cost would be how many new towers need to be installed.

McCracken County Public Safety and Paducah Public Safety currently use Motorola Type II Smartnet TRS.
 

19-685

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Any update on the planned upgrades to the McCracken County and Paducah Motorola systems?

The original Paducah system is approximately 30 years old....
 

Thunderbolt

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According to my cousin, his brother-in-law works for the McCracken County Sheriff's Office. He told my cousin that they are looking at replacing their two trunking systems in the county, with P25 Phase II equipment by 2025. Apparently, Paducah is now onboard as well. The question is whether to build a stand-alone system, or join the new Commonweath TRS. Ironically, the tornado that tore through Mayfield and nearby areas has them convinced it's better to belong to a statewide system than being a stand-alone island.

73's

Ron
 

kib669

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They have selected Communications International about a month ago to do the system upgrade. They were chosen over Motorola (to my surprise). Not sure if CI will be using Harris or Tait equipment.

 

Thunderbolt

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They have selected Communications International about a month ago to do the system upgrade. They were chosen over Motorola (to my surprise). Not sure if CI will be using Harris or Tait equipment.


CI works with very closely with L3 Harris Technologies, so this tells me right here it's going to be a Harris built TRS.

73's

Ron
 

FD101

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About 12 minutes is where the E-911 discussion begins

 

kib669

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CI works with very closely with L3 Harris Technologies, so this tells me right here it's going to be a Harris built TRS.

73's

Ron
They also are a big dealer for Tait as well and have sold several of those systems. Does sound like it will be Harris after listening to the council meeting.
 

kib669

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About 12 minutes is where the E-911 discussion begins

Fun to watch the big M guys grovel for re-consideration after they were not selected. Bet they thought they would never loose since they have had the business for decades.
Funny response by L3H guy about them Moto having the business for years yet not be able to provide a bid that met the community's needs.
 

Thunderbolt

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L3 Harris Technologies trunking systems only use AES-256 encryption, and they usually like to encrypt all law enforcement talkgroups. Was encryption a big topic in the proposal presented to city council?

73's

Ron
 

kytnradios

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I wonder if the acquisition of Jackson Purchase Two-Way Radio by Mobile Communications America a few years ago had anything to do with it. In other words, maybe there's some thinking that Jackson Purchase Two-Way isn't "local" anymore. Of course, headquartered in Florida, neither is Communications International (CI). However, I guess the CI bid was better.
 

kytnradios

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Paducah City Commissioners have approved a measure that was voted on yesterday (Monday 12/11/23) by the McCracken County Fiscal Court to upgrade the 911 system for Paducah and McCracken County.

The upgrade will cost the city just over $10 million, with about $8 million for the "backbone" of towers and repeaters that would be shared by the city and county. The remaining $2 million will be for radios and "subscriber fees" for the city. The county would also cover the cost of its own radios and "subscriber fees".

The city and county are looking for a method to fund the project.
 
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