Philadelphia Police Radio System

[Skypilot007]

It crashed again last night. Motorola is taking some heavy heat from the Police and Fire departments and their respective unions to get it fixed. The police commisioner is in favor of scraping the hole system!

Being a regular listener of the system I was wondering what all of the other regular listeners of the system thoughts are. I personally liked the old UHF system much better as I could hear it much farther away from the city than I can with the new system. Even when I'm in the city there are a lot of dead areas where I lose the control channel. Never had this problem with the old system.

I sure hope they don't switch to something we cannot monitor. With $52 million invested into this system something tells me they will probably try to fix what they have, or sue Motorola for supplying an inferior radio system that fails on a regular basis.

 

[fineshot1]

With $52 million invested into this system something tells me they will probably try to fix what they have, or sue Motorola for supplying an inferior radio system that fails on a regular basis.

Don't you think you are a bit premature in hanging motorola? In the past most of this systems problems were brought on by the way the city went about operating the system and also some external system problems such as a verizon T1 line that ties point A to point B. Granted its not a perfect system but what is these days? This system has a history on this RR web site - do some search's here and perhaps google to bring yourself up to speed on the issues.

 

[policefreak]

I do know that the city has had the option of paying some more money to motorola to get more towers within the city to improve coverage and have failed to do so. It is very true what people have said about the various dead spots and poor audio of the system, particularly closer to city limits. Yet, I believe what sparked last nights failure was a malfunction of the main tower. What the city should have done to prepare for such an event was to keep some of the old UHF frequencies as backup. I do have to wonder, if this reaches a boiling point, will the city consider upgrading to a M/A Com P-25 system, or something else. I mean, I have heard that Motorola Smartnet system equipment and radios are becoming less available, as companies push more toward true Project 25 systems.

 

[fineshot1]

I do know that the city has had the option of paying some more money to motorola to get more towers within the city to improve coverage and have failed to do so. It is very true what people have said about the various dead spots and poor audio of the system, particularly closer to city limits.

That may be true, but it is a separate issue.

Yet, I believe what sparked last nights failure was a malfunction of the main tower.

When the city official spoke to the press he stated no exact details as to what the cause was and was
very unclear in many of his statements. I think we will need to hear more from those that are knowledgeable in this matter before passing off an opinion in a public forum such as this.

What the city should have done to prepare for such an event was to keep some of the old UHF frequencies as backup. I do have to wonder, if this reaches a boiling point, will the city consider upgrading to a M/A Com P-25 system, or something else. I mean, I have heard that Motorola Smartnet system equipment and radios are becoming less available, as companies push more toward true Project 25 systems.

That is shear speculation. I do not think that the city after spending millions of tax payer dollars will abandon this trunk system. Again - we must wait for more details regarding this incident.

 

[philacop26]

philadelphia radio system

the system is not a bad system it's just that damn verizon t1 line it is a piece of **** and they need to re-route the system to another company that is what I think about this whole mess in my area of the city which is the N.E I hear my scanner perfectly with a little jibber jabber every now and then

 

[philacop26]

Jeffstat

I have been hearing Jeffstat choppers on the edacs system quiet recently I work @ jefferson and u hear them better when you are right in a close reach of them i spoke to 1 of the pilots of the Jeffstat 2 and he told me they use nextel for most of the transmissions of patient transfers the reason is because of HIPPA and patient confidentiality so they don't want to get sued for breaching that law they use the radio for letting lifecom and jefferson dispatch of their approach and decent to hospitals and the pad down at delaware ave

 

[Q-ball]

it is said that the toer whcih cariies police radio signal sis in the roxborough area, grouped with the ones highly visible from the schuylkill expsy,,,but does anyone know which of those 6-7 towers it is?..cause i know the radio stations and the tv and most everything in the area operates off those ones in roxborough.

 

[Gumbo]

The commisioner was on the morning news and mentioned that both the main system and backup system both failed for 45 minutes.

Also he said he had officers pair up for their safety and used Nextel for their comms.

That must've been a nightmare!

The talking heads also said it was a $62 million project.

They asked the commisioner what went wrong and he said, he wasn't technically savvy so he couldn't say. You'd think he'd be more clued in!??

I can pick it up from Media, PA (about 12 miles, LOS) but it sounds pretty phase-shifted.

Andy

 

[ctrabs74]

The commisioner was on the morning news and mentioned that both the main system and backup system both failed for 45 minutes.

The report in the Daily News indicated that the Commissioner and his driver had rolled up on a fight in progress in North Philly. That's not the best time for a system crash (but, I'd suspect there never really is).

Also he said he had officers pair up for their safety and used Nextel for their comms.

That must've been a nightmare!

The talking heads also said it was a $62 million project.

They asked the commisioner what went wrong and he said, he wasn't technically savvy so he couldn't say. You'd think he'd be more clued in!??

Yes and no. The Police Commissioner of any large city (New York, Philly, LA, etc) probably has more issues on his plate than the technical specifics of the departments communications system - that's why there's an Inspector/Deputy Commissioner delegated for that responsibility.

 

[fineshot1]

Yes and no. The Police Commissioner of any large city (New York, Philly, LA, etc) probably has more issues on his plate than the technical specifics of the departments communications system - that's why there's an Inspector/Deputy Commissioner delegated for that responsibility.

Good observation - I wonder why we have not heard any info or comments from this person.

Any idea on who that may be?

 

[Gumbo]

Good observation - I wonder why we have not heard any info or comments from this person.

Any idea on who that may be?

I'm in agreement to a point. The commissioner should be dragging this person by the earlobe into his office for a full explanation of what happened.

The public is, imho, getting paid lip service from the top down, I fear, since it's fell back into silence already.

Andy