San Antonio

[djmorgan]

I would like to set up an SDR in Bexar County for the main purpose of monitoring the FD activity. I will not be able to get Edacs Pro Voice with my setup - but the P25 stuff will be fine. Can i expect to hear a majority of the County units on this system ?

Anyone have a timeline when San Antonio may switch over to a P25 system ?

Thanks

It will be a very long time, if ever. When SA/Bexar County bought the EDACS system they switched from Motorola (much older analog system) and spent huge amounts of money on what they have. Since all the mobiles and portables would have to be changed and probably most of the site and base equipment and it would require all new testing, tuning and significant training and all with a lot of risk, it doesn't seem likely they would change anytime soon.

You can sometimes hear these talk groups on the SAUA (San Antonio Urban Overlay) but it isn't consistent at all.

 

[tyler3328]

9/23/2021 San Antonio will cut over to new P25 phase II system. This has been in the works. Contract awarded to Dailey and wells communications Inc.

 

[djmorgan]

It will be a very long time, if ever. When SA/Bexar County bought the EDACS system they switched from Motorola (much older analog system) and spent huge amounts of money on what they have. Since all the mobiles and portables would have to be changed and probably most of the site and base equipment and it would require all new testing, tuning and significant training and all with a lot of risk, it doesn't seem likely they would change anytime soon.

You can sometimes hear these talk groups on the SAUA (San Antonio Urban Overlay) but it isn't consistent at all.

Actually, a long time is 2020 or probably 2021 according to contract they signed with Dailey Wells. Not really any details other than it will be P25, which is what they should have done when they got this thing. But SA was hell-bent on getting rid of Motorola at that time. Not clear to me if they will buy moto radios or Harris P25 subscriber equipment but it is going to be gosh awful expensive to do all this. Hope it goes well and that we can monitor it with today's scanners. Good luck SA!

 

[NC5267]

SAPD has been issuing out the Harris XL-200p all band radios to officers slowly over this year. Safe to say that is what the are going with equipment-wise when they switch to P25 Phase II. The new contract for the new system showed that Fire can purchase outside radios. They mentioned APX radios for SAFD. But we shall see.

 

[Firekite]

The plan is to be fully switched over by the end of August, 2021. But we all know how well timelines actually go in the real world.

By the way, it’s over $80M just in up front costs and over $27M in known maintenance over 15 years, for a contract worth $108M. Good lord. How much do they hate Motorola and love Harris?

 

[mostinterestingman]

The plan is to be fully switched over by the end of August, 2021. But we all know how well timelines actually go in the real world.

By the way, it’s over $80M just in up front costs and over $27M in known maintenance over 15 years, for a contract worth $108M. Good lord. How much do they hate Motorola and love Harris?

Money cannot buy happiness, but for 20M over the misrepresented Motorola proposal, it can buy you one isolated radio system, a Texas size donut hole. That $108M doesn't even account for the city & county fire radio's if they have to buy Moto's, nor the astronomical ongoing repair fees the city & county pays for every spontaneously cracked XG-75 housing.

At least with P25 subscribers the officers could switch to LCRA or GATRRS once they get out of range, as long as they don't change channels too fast and cause the XL200's to lock up. But at least removing the battery and putting it back on fixes it, without a trip to the radio shop. (face palm emoji)

In late 2017/early 2018 DWC told council & commissioners court there would be a fire radio in 9 months. Well 18 months later they have a hollow shell of what it might look like, and promise to have it ready by mid 2021... (Face palm emoji)

The noise cancellation feature causes unintelligible audio, which the fix is to disable noise cancellation. (Face palm emoji)

The idiot in charge of PD Communications thinks the 8-TAC's are wide area roaming trunked channels that require UID's to be loaded into other systems across the state. (Face palm emoji)

Other's leading the charge think patching an officer on an out of range system to a system that's in range will somehow magically bring coverage to him on the out of range system. (Face palm emoji)

Better buy lots of popcorn folks, EDACS will be here for a while.

 

[tyler3328]

Money cannot buy happiness, but for 20M over the misrepresented Motorola proposal, it can buy you one isolated radio system, a Texas size donut hole. That $108M doesn't even account for the city & county fire radio's if they have to buy Moto's, nor the astronomical ongoing repair fees the city & county pays for every spontaneously cracked XG-75 housing.

At least with P25 subscribers the officers could switch to LCRA or GATRRS once they get out of range, as long as they don't change channels too fast and cause the XL200's to lock up. But at least removing the battery and putting it back on fixes it, without a trip to the radio shop. (face palm emoji)

In late 2017/early 2018 DWC told council & commissioners court there would be a fire radio in 9 months. Well 18 months later they have a hollow shell of what it might look like, and promise to have it ready by mid 2021... (Face palm emoji)

The noise cancellation feature causes unintelligible audio, which the fix is to disable noise cancellation. (Face palm emoji)

The idiot in charge of PD Communications thinks the 8-TAC's are wide area roaming trunked channels that require UID's to be loaded into other systems across the state. (Face palm emoji)

Other's leading the charge think patching an officer on an out of range system to a system that's in range will somehow magically bring coverage to him on the out of range system. (Face palm emoji)

Better buy lots of popcorn folks, EDACS will be here for a while.

Unfortunately most of the ones in charge don’t know a damn thing about the radio system or what the units need. The county units that have apx love them and hate the Harris. It’s a matter of time before gatrrs takes over. Comal county is jumping on. I think their go live is spring 2020. I have my apx on gatrrs and i haven’t had any issues. People on the LCRA that have held my APX are astonished at the performance and physical characteristics versus their xg100. Myself and others thought there was a conflict of interest since DWC was making contributions to the city before the quotes were drawn up. I got my popcorn ready to watch the monkey f*** the football We will see how many switch to the p25 overlay system or edacs until the other “bugs” worked out

 

[Firekite]

Better buy lots of popcorn folks, EDACS will be here for a while.

Unfortunately most of the ones in charge don’t know a damn thing about the radio system or what the units need.

It would be nice if they came to terms with that and recognized it and let some actual third party radio geeks have some input for consideration. I’m moving back to San Antonio later this year, and I’m just counting it a blessing that my 436HP can handle EDACS PV and that it’s not encrypted. Rubber ducky does fine, but I may throw a discone in the attic anyway

 

[mostinterestingman]

It would be nice if they came to terms with that and recognized it and let some actual third party radio geeks have some input for consideration. I’m moving back to San Antonio later this year, and I’m just counting it a blessing that my 436HP can handle EDACS PV and that it’s not encrypted. Rubber ducky does fine, but I may throw a discone in the attic anyway
[/QUOTE]


There were plenty of 3rd party local, regional and statewide EXPERTS that provided guidance the entire step of the way. This was all explained in public and private meetings, to the media, everyone. It was a very well informed governing body from top to bottom that made their bed, now they get to lay in it, and the only ones affected in the long run will be the first responders answering the calls, while the decision makers sleep well at night.

 

[tyler3328]

It would be nice if they came to terms with that and recognized it and let some actual third party radio geeks have some input for consideration. I’m moving back to San Antonio later this year, and I’m just counting it a blessing that my 436HP can handle EDACS PV and that it’s not encrypted. Rubber ducky does fine, but I may throw a discone in the attic anyway

There were plenty of 3rd party local, regional and statewide EXPERTS that provided guidance the entire step of the way. This was all explained in public and private meetings, to the media, everyone. It was a very well informed governing body from top to bottom that made their bed, now they get to lay in it, and the only ones affected in the long run will be the first responders answering the calls, while the decision makers sleep well at night.
[/QUOTE]


Yes sir. I have friends with strac and other companies and they all agreed moto should have been who they went with. We shall see what happens

 

[jason51]

City leaders should check with Wichita Falls and Carrollton, they can tell them all about how a Harris system works. Lots of missed transmissions on those systems.

 

[mostinterestingman]

City leaders should check with Wichita Falls and Carrollton, they can tell them all about how a Harris system works. Lots of missed transmissions on those systems.

They visited much larger Harris systems and were clearly informed of the problems plaguing them. And that was just phase 1 simulcasts. They couldn't even visit a comparable P2 system because there isn't one

 

[KevinC]

Asking for a friend...

Is Harris P25 trunking really that bad?

 

[mostinterestingman]

Asking for a friend...

Is Harris P25 trunking really that bad?

They just don't have many successful TDMA deployments out here, especially of the complexity that's proposed for SA. It will be one hell of an experiment. They do have San Antonio's inability to move a project forward on time, in their favor, so hopefully they can make it work. In the mean time everyone has to keep buying EDACS capable radios, so the longer it takes, the better for Harris.

 

[otter9309]

I've never seen a successful deployment of a Harris phase 2. Lubbock was in phase 1 for a long time after deployment. Farmer's Branch was/is a disaster.
I'll put it to you this way. San Antonio couldn't visit another city to see a working instance of the technology DWC sold them.

 

[BCSO-Insider]

What's crazy is that the SAFD is planning to use XG-75s until Harris can develop a XL-200 fire radio version to evaluate before making a decision to stay with Harris gear or enter the real world and buy Motorola gear. Harris has had more than 15 years to develop a fire radio and has failed to do so. Let's say they actually do it; do you really want to be the experiment?!

 

[tyler3328]

What's crazy is that the SAFD is planning to use XG-75s until Harris can develop a XL-200 fire radio version to evaluate before making a decision to stay with Harris gear or enter the real world and buy Motorola gear. Harris has had more than 15 years to develop a fire radio and has failed to do so. Let's say they actually do it; do you really want to be the experiment?!

I know bexar county fire doesn't. they are wanting the APX 7k or 8k. Some of them are already running APX on the overlay and they love them. It sucks that the city wanted the cheaper option.

 

[blantonl]

The new VIA system is up and running and running Phase II TDMA - maybe DWC is using this as a test bed for their ultimate SA deployment

 

[otter9309]

I know bexar county fire doesn't. they are wanting the APX 7k or 8k. Some of them are already running APX on the overlay and they love them. It sucks that the city wanted the cheaper option.

The Harris option was NOT cheaper.

 

[tkowalik]

The SAUA system has been VERY active lately. Particularly the AH site.