Police: Ma/Com radios=trash?

[brey1234]

Union representatives for state peace officers say Nevada s new $10 million
statewide radio system is a failure and called on the state to fix it or scrap
it.
:shock:
http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2004/10/06/82138.php?sp1=rgj&sp2=News&

 

[N_Jay]

Union representatives for state peace officers say Nevada s new $10 million
statewide radio system is a failure and called on the state to fix it or scrap
it.
:shock:
http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2004/10/06/82138.php?sp1=rgj&sp2=News&

http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewforum&f=55

 

[SteveS]

Obviously, in the LV area thre are some small technical issues bogging down the system changeover. Anyone who had been in telecom for more than a week can tell you that any large cutover of services (wired or wireless) is going to have it problems. Competant people are working on it and just like it is working smoothly in the northern part of the state, I am sure it will be working just fine in Clark County.

Calling M/A-COM radios trash based on 1 small article is unprofessional, juvenile, and ignorant. If it was another manufacturer's radio system having cutover issues, I imagine we would find you very quiet.

 

[brey1234]

Steve:

You obviously did NOT read the entire article. The POLICE called it
trash---not me :roll:

 

[RFGUY]

After 35 years working on Radio Systems including EDACS systems I agree with the article that EDACS is "TRASH".
Do a little research on EDACS systems and you may agree after all is said and done.
Overpriced,unreliable and just to damn complicated to operate efficientely.
All of this combined with ignorant Telecommunications Managers and Politicians fall into the hands of the slick talking salesmen who sell the junk.
They fail to say that more and more equipment will be required to make the system operate as stated in their overview of the system.
But this is all O.K. since the taxpayers will foot the bill for the fiasco.
It's easy to make something look good on paper but when in operation it fails badly.
Do some homework and see for yourself!

 

[wwhitby]

The EDACS system in Montgomery, Alabama has talkgroups that are digital but will suddenly go analog. The last time I heard, the radio techs still hadn't figured that one out.

 

[INDY72]

Now thats one for the HUH!??? Columns lol.

 

[SteveS]

Latest on Nevada Shared System:

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/Nov-13-Sat-2004/news/25252343.html

 

[MASTRTECH]

EDACS TRASH ?

I guess It all boils down to who maintains the system. I operate a Provoice simulcast system and it works well. Over 1700 users to date and never a failure. Ya, a PA or two has failed but, no major problems. Preventative maintenance is the key. Don't trash all EDACS systems just because one in Nevada does'nt work

MASTRTECH

 

[Stephen]

Not many people realize that the City of Dallas and Fort Worth were once EDACS systems but they to found out the truth and dumped it. The City of Dallas never really was able to ever get theirs to stay on line but they did at one time house the repeaters and began testing but that is about as far as it got. The City of Forth Worth used their's for a few years but then later found out that there are better brands out there. cough couch motorola cough cough

 

[SteveS]

And the City of Denver was EDACS, switched to Moto, and is now switching back.... there is a story for everyone and everything so get off your high horse there buddy.

 

[MASTRTECH]

Steven, Are you sure your name is'nt


MOTOROLA!!!!

 

[qoatzecotl]

Steuben County, Indiana
Parma, Ohio
Linndale, Ohio
Brooklyn, Ohio
Auburn, Indiana

are all places that I personally know of that have used EDACS for YEARS without any real problems. I don't know that either Motorola OR EDACS is better than the other. They both seem about equal to me...

 

[mr_hankey]

hey Stephen, while i'm not taking sides, isn't DART still using their EDACS system?

last i remember, they were even using some of the more advanced features of EDACS for signalling, etc.

Dallas Area Rapid Transit.

(i sure wish WE were still "Motorola Country" - at least i'd have something to listen to right now)

 

[brey1234]

More Ma/Com woes

My guess: The system used is Open Sky the same system that is being deployed in Pa. Open Sky is propriety and will not function with anything else---unless you buy Ma/Com equipment or buy "patch boxes" from Ma/Com to allow the systems to "talk" to each other.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Made by MA-COM and designed for the 800 MHz frequency range, the system is not compatible with Motorola radios used by the Vigo County Sheriff and by the Indiana State Police without additional equipment
http://www.tribstar.com/articles/2004/11/18/news/news02.txt

 

[qoatzecotl]

Re: More Ma/Com woes

My guess: The system used is Open Sky the same system that is being deployed in Pa. Open Sky is propriety and will not function with anything else---unless you buy Ma/Com equipment or buy "patch boxes" from Ma/Com to allow the systems to "talk" to each other.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Made by MA-COM and designed for the 800 MHz frequency range, the system is not compatible with Motorola radios used by the Vigo County Sheriff and by the Indiana State Police without additional equipment
http://www.tribstar.com/articles/2004/11/18/news/news02.txt

It's EDACS Encrypted with ProVoice. State Police is Moto Digital, in the clear...

 

[k0pwo]

Just to clarify the above statement about denver. Denver bought a single site edacs system probably 12 years ago now and never abandoned it to go back to motorola. Since switching to the edacs system they have been on it ever since. In fact there are three completely seperate edacs systems in use by the city and county of Denver. The public safety system, the public works system and the system at denver international airport. All of these systems have proven reliable for the entire time. Sure there have been a couple of failures, but all systems trunked or conventional have failures.

The cities of Aurora, Lakewood, Arvada and Westminster all of which are surrounds suburbs of Denver are also on edacs systems and have been for many years with the exception of Aurora which dumped there motorola analog type IIi 800mhz system about 1 year ago for the provoice system.

As for motorola systems being so grand. I would need an excel spreadsheet to count all the glitches, outages and problems that I have witnessed, heard about and read about concerning the statewide motorola apco 25 system here in colorado and all the other motorola systems that are currently operating in colorado.

Dave

 

[ElroyJetson]

I have been an EDACS user since 1998.

I have used a variety of radios which were all my own personal property, including EDACS Rangr mobiles, M-PDs, M-PAs, LPE-200s, and Jaguar/700Ps.

The local systems all suffer from problems that are not acknowledged to exist, formally. I've monitored the same group on different radios and quite often, one radio will unmute on a received transmission but deliver no audio, while another radio will deliver the audio. From the affected radio, it sounds like a dead key transmission. All types of radios suffer from this occasional failure to properly decode the audio from time to time.

It's bull**** and will get somebody killed.

It took almost ten years for the county to get the system tweaked and tuned to the point that it finally meets the original contract specifications.

After years of work, it now ALMOST works as well as the SmartNet systems that are installed in all but one of the adjoining counties, and those systems met their specs the day they were first turned on.


Let's review the history of EDACS just for fun.

GE enters a partnership with Ericsson. Ericsson/GE introduces the EDACS version 1.0, System 16 Plus trunking.

After a few years, GE pulls out, leaving Ericsson holding the bag.

Comm-Net Critical Radio Systems joins up with Ericsson and Comm-Net/Ericsson continues to offer and improve EDACS for a few years.

Ericsson pulls out, leaving Comm-Net to hold the bag now.

Tyco Electronics, MA/COM division, buys out Comm-Net's interest and now holds the rights.


In about 12 years, the "valuable, hot property" of the EDACS format has been under at least five different ownerships, with three companies selling it off willingly.

What TOP QUALITY, commercially desirable product has EVER been bought and sold once every three years or so?

If everybody who buys into it looks to sell it before too long, it paints a picture and it's not a good one for the product.

If it's so good, why are all of its owners in such a big hurry to sell it off to some other rube?



I'm really surprised that EDACS even still exists.

I'm even more surprised that Motorola hasn't bought out the company completely and just buried it. Perhaps they're barred from doing so due to the Sherman Antitrust Laws or an SEC rule.

Elroy

 

[iceman47]

You spoke a large amount of truth Elroy!
GE would have never dropped it had it been worth keeping.

 

[N_Jay]

You spoke a large amount of truth Elroy!
GE would have never dropped it had it been worth keeping.

Remember, they got out of Land Mobile during the edict;
"Be first or a strong second, or don't be in the market!"

GEMR was so small (in GE terms) it only made the annual report one year out of 3.

Erricsion bought them to get into US Cellular (the market not the company). The LMR stuff just came along with the deal.

So don't be so fast to assign all the ownership transfers to just the EDACS line.