Greetings
Why does Chatam County and Metro Savannah use 4 different type of Systems 800 MHz and 700mhz and also broadcast on UFH and VHF isn't this costly !!!!
The Chatham/Effingham system and SEGARRN are linked together with SmartX because not everyone has been able to afford new radios to switch over the SEGARRN system and there is no Effingham SEGARRN site yet. Leaving it up gives smaller agencies more time to be able to afford the equipment to transition over and allows for interoperability between the two systems. Eventually, the Chatham/Effingham system will be shut down (I have no clue when, though).
For that reason, most of the time I only monitor the SEGARRN system when I'm home in Savannah. I still have the Chatham/Effingham TRS programmed in but only activate if there's something on with Effingham FDs, Thunderbolt FD, or Tybee FD and they don't happen to be showing up on the SEGARRN system. I wrote this on my blog last year, perhaps it might help you decide which system to monitor:
Public Safety Scanning in Savannah – Should I Scan the Chatham-Effingham TRS, SEGARRN or Both? | KF4LMT's Radio Shack
Fire Departments are dispatching over 700/800 and VHF/UHF for paging purposes and backup purposes. Savannah Fire is really the only fully paid department in Chatham County. All of the other FDs depend on volunteers to varying extents, so they dispatch over conventional VHF/UHF for the volunteers' pagers. They also have it as backup in case of system failure, damage due to hurricanes, etc.