I was in Sitka on July 20, 2008
Notice the Sitka Police was P25 encrypted on the 155.655 - NAC 293
Must have got some good
Department of Homeland Security grant money for the small city for the police go encrypted!
I heard FIRE responding on
154.445 136.5 (Engine 7) going to a call at Sandy Beach? in Sitka.
Sitka DB page.
http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?ctid=86
Thanks for all the info you've gathered.
Yeah, it seems like such a waste of funds for such small communities to even have the latest and greatest digital equipment, nevermind encrypted too!
By my "rough" calculations, having the added encryption for about 28 units (according to the FCC license for that frequency), would be about:
Encryption module: approx. $700 ea. x 28 = $19,600
The additional programming/maintenance, features like OTAR, KVL, etc. approx. $200 ea. x 28 = $5,600
So far that's about $25,000+ going by estimates which might be higher as of late. That money could've been used for other gear the PD probably needs, I'm sure. To add to the non-sense, the FCC mandate they keep using to justify all these expenses only requires to go to 'narrow-band' radios/frequencies. Digital (P25) and especially encryption is not mandated.
As the Homeland Security "frenzy" continues to die down and the cost of living keeps going up with the current state of the economy, I sure hope they have plans for the future about how to afford the upkeep and subsequent upgrades/updates that are imminent with today's technologies.
