STARCOM simulcast system advantages?

[lu81fitter]

So I understand that simulcast systems provide "portable" coverage to their respective areas. But with the advantage of repeaters in police squad units, why are broad area simulcast systems so popular? Are simulcast systems that much cheaper than in car repeaters? It appears to me that simulcast has a smaller footprint then a "regular" STARCOM tower. Wouldn't a vehicle repeater achieve equal or better coverage?
I'm sure someone with greater knowledge on this subject could enlighten me. Or maybe this is just a dumb question......

 

[JD21960]

Here's their promo site explaining all.
Illinois - P25 Trunked Radio Systems - Motorola Solutions

 

[lu81fitter]

The promo site is enlightening. But it is just $$ in MOTO eyes. I was looking for a more logistical standpoint for simulcast vs. in-car repeaters...
Maybe the vehicular repeaters are not cost effective. It may cost the end user more in the long run. I do not know.

 

[N9JIG]

An in-car system does allow for better coverage as long as the car itself is in range of the users equipped with radios for it. A user that is not assigned a vehicular radio equipped vehicle would not be able to use it.

Simulcast sites are usually built in metro areas (Chicago, Peoria, Metro East) but not more rural areas. These provide better coverage for portable use without vehicular repeaters. Vehicular repeaters are most often used in more rural areas where simulcast systems are less practical.

 

[usswood]

The Big plus for simulcast is only a hand full of freqs are needed to complete a system build out... depending on how many towers there are in an area, you might need 20+ freqs...ie 4 per tower on 5 towers, or 5 for a tower on 4 towers... Simulcast lets a system only need 5 - 7 freqs to use for all towers, so it is saving freq allocation in certain areas also

 

[zerg901]

Combining repeaters in vehicles (MO3) with simulcast base repeaters (FB2) might give everyone the best coverage. But there still probably will be dead spots in basements, gullies, caves, manholes, silos. Maybe someone will invent a system to daisy chain portable radios. Portable radio in farm silo >> feeds portable radio outside silo >> that feeds MO3 in vehicle. Something like that. Or maybe someone will invent an antenna for portable radios that always maintains a vertical orientation.

 

[lu81fitter]

The local sheriff's department here uses vehicular repeaters. It is only an analog system, but one officer will say to another when pulling up to a scene, "I've got my repeater on". Then both officers run off of one repeater at that scene. I would think that it is logical for multiple portables to be able to access a single vehicular repeater in this manner, regardless of the system configuration.
I'm hearing that Kankakee County is building a simulcast system for the entire county. A lot of cornfields there if you ask me. The coverage for STARCOM is already good there. This is a scenario where I think a vehicular repeater would be ideal. I'm sure it would be much cheaper as well.

 

[usswood]

some systems allow for building amplifiers to be used for the basement scenario and such also... we use a few here (Terre Haute) for the safe T system

 

[VASCAR2]

Vehicle Repeaters in the 700/800 band required an additional user fee on Starcom 21 just like a mobile, portable or base station. When ISP purchased the APX series of portables they reverted back VHF high band repeater linked to the Starcom APX series mobile.

The advantage of the dual band portable is interoperability with smaller agencies still on VHF or a back up if SC21 is down. There is no associated user fee with the VHF High Band vehicular repeater. Due to the cost and monthly subscription fee only road Troopers and Sergeants cars were issued vehicular repeaters. In metro areas where there was better portable coverage vehicular repeaters were not issued.

There are disadvantages to vehicle repeaters especially on 700/800 SC21 system. One disadvantage is the time lag between switching the portable from vehicle repeater to another talk group utilizing the portable to transmit. With the Motorola 700/800 Vehicle Repeaters the user was required to change his mobile/portable radio to a different zone to access the proper TG for the repeater if the Trooper was in a different district/geographical area. Many Troopers rarely used the radio template to navigate to different programmed zones/banks to access different Talk Groups or interoperable inter agency TG’s. Only certain 700/800 vehicle repeaters TG worked in districts. If you were out of your area/District you had to change the repeater/portable/mobile to the correct geographic area/district.

Many Troopers assigned vehicle repeaters didn’t want the hassle of using the repeater or didn’t use it enough to know how it worked. Many Public Safety Personnel are not interested in radios and just want to know how to turn the radio on and off, adjust the volume and find the microphone.

In theory vehicular repeaters are a solution to poor coverage areas but there can be pitfalls in using vehicular repeaters especially if the hand held portable-vehicle repeater and mobile are in the same band. There are also issues where only one repeater is active if several units are within close proximity. With vehicle repeaters it is important to turn on your vehicular repeater to set off a tone to disable all other repeaters or leave your repeater off and use the active repeater on scene. Many times Officers patrol with the vehicle repeater continually active. This creates situations where more than one mobile transmits at the same time or turns off another users vehicle repeater without his knowledge. In my experience vehicular repeaters are not very reliable and require more attention to keep them working especially after vehicles get 5 to 10 years old.

A Pyramid Repeater cost more than some mobile radios and if equipping several vehicles the idea of more receiver sites voted into the Base Repeater system to enhance mobile and portable coverage becomes cost effective. Every user benefits from the enhanced coverage area regardless whether a repeater equipped vehicle is onscene.

Another option is a X10DR wireless mic extender but this requires carrying an additional piece of communications equipment. I believe Wisconsin State Police are using the X10DR but given the choice as a Police Officer I’d rather have a portable hand held on the same band as my mobile or dual band portable and vehicle repeater.