Curious if anyone knows if Santa Barbara County, California (cities in the county, Santa Barbara County Sheriff, Fire, etc) will be changing radio systems soon to Digital Phase I or 2, or any other mode besides the analog they are now using. Curious for future scanner purchase.
Santa Barbara County, Calif.
- Thread starter barryman
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Please see this other thread…
forums.radioreference.com
Santa Barbara County goes with EF Johnson
https://tylerpaper.com/news/texas/county-of-santa-barbara-chooses-atlas-p25-from-efjohnson-for-its-next-generation-public-safety/article_fa29a82d-5a7f-5d7d-ae41-1bcc3e6184d2.html Is this a 7-800 system, or vhf ? The post talks about multi-band interoperability
ko6jw_2
Member
The story is that they are going to spend $28M on a new system. First of all I would have done it for half that amount. Seriously, I have no doubt that they will ultimately try to implement a 700/800MHz digital trunked system. Given the terrain in SB County this will require an exponential increase in the number of repeater sites to get good coverage. The cost will escalate and in the mean time communications will suffer.
For those of us who have been around a long time we can look back to when the sheriff moved from low band to UHF in the late 1970's. They thought they could cover the county from La Cumbre Peak. Wrong. Look at the number of sites now in use to see what the reality was. Now consider the difference in propagation at 700/800MHz. However, they will not be deterred.
Back in the late 70's I was asked by a county fire battalion chief what they could do to improve their coverage. I told him that LA City Fire had just vacated their 33MHz channels and that they should grab some of those. He was incredulous. I asked him why he thought that the CHP stayed on low band. Can't beat it for range in broken country. Oh well. Of course it didn't happen, but they have (so far) stayed on VHF at least.
I predict they will try it sooner rather than later. Law enforcement will be encrypted almost certainly. Fire will have even worse coverage than now and will still need VHF radios for mutual aid.
Your tax dollars at work. Scanners for law enforcement will be useless.
For those of us who have been around a long time we can look back to when the sheriff moved from low band to UHF in the late 1970's. They thought they could cover the county from La Cumbre Peak. Wrong. Look at the number of sites now in use to see what the reality was. Now consider the difference in propagation at 700/800MHz. However, they will not be deterred.
Back in the late 70's I was asked by a county fire battalion chief what they could do to improve their coverage. I told him that LA City Fire had just vacated their 33MHz channels and that they should grab some of those. He was incredulous. I asked him why he thought that the CHP stayed on low band. Can't beat it for range in broken country. Oh well. Of course it didn't happen, but they have (so far) stayed on VHF at least.
I predict they will try it sooner rather than later. Law enforcement will be encrypted almost certainly. Fire will have even worse coverage than now and will still need VHF radios for mutual aid.
Your tax dollars at work. Scanners for law enforcement will be useless.
I remember seeing the August 2021 posts in RR about this subject. Now, from the replies, it sounds like it is still up in the air as to what they are going to do for sure. Guess we will just have to wait and see. Thanks for the info.
Let's assume SB itself stays with present technology (unlikely). Is that all you want to monitor? There is the new statewide system being built out. Many state and national agencies have deployed P25 channels. It's highly likely you'll want a receiver capable of Phase II, DMR or some other type in the future. If you're purchasing something totally new, why not "future proof" yourself as much as reasonably possible?
Yes, I agree. I have digital Phase I capabilities, which I do use for a couple of systems. I got a Uniden 396T when they first came out, but it doesn't cover Phase II, so that is why I am curious as to what is coming. "Future proof" myself is what I'm looking at. Thanks.
But... if all you want to monitor is Santa Barbara County, then you're probably good to go with what you have for now. The fire department(s) will likely remain conventional analog high band VHF, the sheriff's department will likely use a trunked UHF Phase II system, that I bet will be encrypted (so you won't be able to monitor it anyway). But... if you want to monitor general county government services like Parks, Roads etc. it looks like they will be Phase II conventional 800, so then you would need to upgrade. And, it will probably be three and a half years before this is fully implemented.
ko6jw_2
Member
The 800MHz frequencies were originally intended to be trunked, but that was never implemented. Our ARES group works with the health department and their 800 coverage is very poor. During a drill they were amazed at how well our 2 meter and 220 systems worked compared to theirs. Due to rebanding the 800MHz frequencies were moved a few years ago. RR database was not updated, but is now current (I think).
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