Ridgewood,NJ:Move to Narrowband Radio System could cost 1.5M
- Thread starter jaymatt1978
- Start date
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Nothing like waiting til the last minute....
bill4long
Member
Ham
Let some smart hams put up a system for them. It will be cheap and work flawlessly.
Let some smart hams put up a system for them. It will be cheap and work flawlessly.
Wait until the governments find out that the mandate is over 15 years old. Someone's gonna have some serious explaining to do.
bill4long
Member
Ain't it the truth
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I hate the "narrowband" requires "digital" sales BS.
I hate the "narrowband" requires "digital" sales BS.
C
comsec1
Guest
After reading the article it sounds as if Kevin Scarpa wants his own "dispatch dynasty" and be in charge of everything and compete with Bergen County's system. Ridgewood is just a town, No need for a fancy system no need for P25 or encryption. All they need to do is to upgrade some of their older infrastructure and retune to 12.5 any radios that are capable, The radios that can't be narrowbanded can be replaced with kenwoods, icoms, or any of the inexpensive conventional replacements. He should also let the taxpayers of ridgewood know what the upkeep costs are for what he wants.
MTS2000des
5B2_BEE00 Czar
You should also beat the daylights of the customers who open their wallets like the proverbial fat rich guy with more money than they have sense.
Don't hate on the salesmen so much who would not be earning their paycheck if they weren't aggressively selling their wares.
Direct your frustration at the public officials who get PAID to make wise purchasing decisions and are supposed to have the proper training and done research before allowing any salesperson to waltz into their office at city hall and write them a blank check.
W2NJS
Member
NOW Scarpa wants a new system? NOW he says his current system is 30 years old and just patched together and works poorly? Where in God's name has this guy been for the past fifteen years or so, asleep under a tree somewhere? Add the fact that the adjoining town/area has a narrowband P5 system and it just makes you wonder all the more why they pay these people to manage their systems when they've apparently ignored what's going on in the world around them. All I can say is that they've got a lot of work to do in the next 146 days or so.
C
comsec1
Guest
I always try to keep in mind to that many towns, counties and states have done away with their in house radio and electronics departments under the guise of saving the taxpayer and relying on a contract vendor to take care of things. The Technicians that were with the agencies retire and take all their real radio repair and maintanence knowledge with them leaving the towns with nobody except the "IT" guy and they try to make him the radio guy. What these towns end up with are part time radio buffs who want their conventional radios to have talk permit tones just so their radios sound cool. The elimination of the inhouse radio tech leaves the town at the mercy of a giant vendor who of course will sell a small town all the bells and whistles and scare the town council about all the doom and gloom that will follow.
As it says in the comments of the article, Glen Rock's radios are narrowband compliant. Glen Rock is dispatched by Ridgewood under the guise of Central Dispatch. So basically they want Glen Rock to kick in and fund their digital dream for them! Most of Ridgewoods radios are narrowband compliant, They have MCS2000s and CDM1250s and HT1250 portables and the FD has PR1500 portables that replaced HT1000s! Only old radios I have seen are GM300 Radius in the Fire Inspectors SUVs. They installed a repeater on their main frequency of 158.7300 only about 5-7 years ago, so at the worst they would just need to maybe add some voters and replace their repeater. My town was involved in Central Dispatches forming in 1994. In 1998 the town sued Ridgewood and left and signed on with a neighboring town who was upgrading to a 7.5khz VHF freq at the time. Good thing we left or they would want us to fund their digital dream!
Last edited:
W2MR
Member
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2004
- Messages
- 136
I'm so happy that I have nothing to do with this anymore!!!
I'm so happy that I have nothing to do with this anymore!!!
I'm so happy that I have nothing to do with this anymore!!!
I'm so happy that I have nothing to do with this anymore!!!
I'm so happy that I have nothing to do with this anymore!!!
I'm so happy that I have nothing to do with this anymore!!!
I'm so happy that I have nothing to do with this anymore!!!
I'm so happy that I have nothing to do with this anymore!!!
I'm so happy that I have nothing to do with this anymore!!!
I'm so happy that I have nothing to do with this anymore!!!
I'm so happy that I have nothing to do with this anymore!!!
I'm so happy that I have nothing to do with this anymore!!!
I'm so happy that I have nothing to do with this anymore!!!
I'm so happy that I have nothing to do with this anymore!!!
I'm so happy that I have nothing to do with this anymore!!!
I'm so happy that I have nothing to do with this anymore!!!
I'm so happy that I have nothing to do with this anymore!!!
I'm so happy that I have nothing to do with this anymore!!!
I'm so happy that I have nothing to do with this anymore!!!
I'm so happy that I have nothing to do with this anymore!!!
I'm so happy that I have nothing to do with this anymore!!!
I'm so happy that I have nothing to do with this anymore!!!
I'm so happy that I have nothing to do with this anymore!!!
Lemme guess you worked on Ridgewood's System?
Bill1957
Member
Ridgewood
Why P-25? Just to spend millions? If they have narrowband capable equiptment why not re-program the radios? Would cost a lot less than P-25 new stuff.Need some new ones?Why not Icom or Kenwood?
HMMMM?
Why P-25? Just to spend millions? If they have narrowband capable equiptment why not re-program the radios? Would cost a lot less than P-25 new stuff.Need some new ones?Why not Icom or Kenwood?
HMMMM?
Feedline
I read articles like this, and I wonder just how long the antenna and coax has been up there.
This is a VHF system. I'll assume, based on when the low band radios around me were replaced with VHF, about 30 years. Has anyone swapped out the feedline since the first base install? If I took down that coax, would it snap like a twig? Is it so old that it leaks RF like a soaker hose? How much of the signal is actually getting out the antenna? Or into the reciever?
Same with the mobiles. Has the DPW been swapping out the same NMO mount and coax from old to new vehicle for the past 20 years. Does that coax got more bends and twist than a Tour 'de France bike route? Are the mechanics crimping PL-259's on with a pair of channel locks? (Don't laugh, seen it done).
There's probably nothing wrong with the handhelds that have such "terrible coverage". Let's face it, they either play or they don't. Same with the mobiles. There's a good chance the issue is just the base, or repeater site, needing a new antenna and feedline.
I read articles like this, and I wonder just how long the antenna and coax has been up there.
This is a VHF system. I'll assume, based on when the low band radios around me were replaced with VHF, about 30 years. Has anyone swapped out the feedline since the first base install? If I took down that coax, would it snap like a twig? Is it so old that it leaks RF like a soaker hose? How much of the signal is actually getting out the antenna? Or into the reciever?
Same with the mobiles. Has the DPW been swapping out the same NMO mount and coax from old to new vehicle for the past 20 years. Does that coax got more bends and twist than a Tour 'de France bike route? Are the mechanics crimping PL-259's on with a pair of channel locks? (Don't laugh, seen it done).
There's probably nothing wrong with the handhelds that have such "terrible coverage". Let's face it, they either play or they don't. Same with the mobiles. There's a good chance the issue is just the base, or repeater site, needing a new antenna and feedline.
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