Putnam County NY

[seagravebuff60]

The other morning, there were 2 serious MVAs (Motor Vehicle Accidents). One in Brewster and One in Patterson. During the MVA in Brewster, units were having horrible radio problems, unable to relay messages to PC911. Then moments later another serious MVA Happened in Patterson. Then the radio problems got even worse. Apparently, when every single unit arrived on the scene they turned on their repeaters. Units kept stepping on each other, PC911 was unable to copy units in the field, Noone could hear PC911, etc. It was a mess, so bad that Putnam county told all units to turn the repeaters off except Command (Fire Cheif) because they were unable to copy the command.

Does anyone have any insight on the status of the new proposed P25 system? Last I've heard it's going to be P25 Phase 1 FDMA. Seems like Motorola won the contract back in Jan of 2020. Seems that they are moving at a crippling slow rate, My guess is it's been delayed because of covid, but that's just an excuse.

 

[ff026]

What the hell kind of repeaters are they using with out “first man out”.

before the 700 system in rockland almost every FD vehicle had a repeater. They all had “first man out” enabled on the repeaters. Never once did this problem occur.

 

[GTR8000]

The original two SY licenses have construction deadlines of mid-2022, a full year from now, so they are still within that window. That being said, the county ran into multiple issues with many of the original planned sites and some of the original frequencies, and had to essentially go back to the drawing board to come up with new sites and find some replacement frequencies.

The revised plan calls for an 11 site, 7 frequency FDMA system, with a slow growth deadline of the end of 2023 (which will likely be extended at least once, as tends to be the pattern with new trunked systems). It appears that they are currently having an issue finding the replacement frequencies. Why they aren't going with a TDMA system is a mystery, as all modern P25 radios are capable of it. Yes, it costs more up front, but it also comes with additional technical benefits beyond the obvious frequency efficiency. They may be forced to rethink that decision if they can't secure replacement frequencies, so we'll have to see how that plays out.

Don't be too dismissive of COVID as a valid reason in some cases as to why things have ground to a halt. Sure, if a system was supposed to be completed by the end of 2019 and COVID is being used as an excuse, that's a garbage excuse. However in some cases funding was cut off completely and redirected to deal with the pandemic, or in other cases personnel that would normally be working on these project were told to stay home. Putnam County has legitimate issues they have to overcome before this system can be constructed, and COVID was not an excuse they were using.