Starnet may be expanding more.....

[txshooter]

OK, I am sure that I will be slammed for posting this, and will be told this is simply not true, but I have verified information confirming that Starnet is planning a major expansion outside of the Houston Area. Now this planned expansion is in Arlington, TX. Yes, you heard it here first. The Starnet System has a high probablility of expanding into the DFW Metroplex.

My theory is that Starnet would like to eventually control a Statewide (or at least Major Metropolitan Areas) trunked radio system. Other states have had Statewide trunked systems, just nowhere near the size of Texas.

Many may consider this a good thing, and while it does have some benifits, there are some serious downfalls to creating a system this large anywhere.

Start watching areas North.

 

[RESCUE4NFD]

Starnet

Are you saying that the City of Arlington,Tx. Police and Fire are going to be on the Starnet System? Do you have a timeline?

 

[txshooter]

Not saying that directly right now, I am not sure of what agencies are on board. It makes sense....... As long as too many egos don't get in the way, the plan will work. Just have verified information that they are coming to an area near you soon as part of a planned expansion.

 

[bpckty1]

Are you certain about that expansion?

If so, it should help Santa safely navigate down IH-45.

 

[mfn002]

Keep in mind what STARNET stands for...SOUTHEAST TEXAS AREA RADIO NETWORK. Last time I checked, Arlington is NOT in Southeast Texas. It appears that the system will only be expanding into the counties that make up the Houston Council of Governments (Austin, Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Jefferson, Liberty, Matagorda, Montgomery, Walker, and Waller Counties). The farthest west that the system will eventually go will be Victoria; the furthest north is Huntsville.

 

[rattlerbb01]

Other reliable info points to a "tie-in" to the Brazos County system and a site on the Grimes CO SO tower in Anderson. Don't have any info as to the specifics though, such as whether Bryan/CS/Brazos CO will be assimilated, or whether Grimes CO will join up. As usual, just keep your ears open, as speculation will not make it come any faster!

 

[red8]

What they really need to do is to tie in the City of Houston. It's a shame that Houston is still on the antiquated 460mhz system. Houston needs to come to the 21st century. That way there would be interop between them and Harris County in the event of a disaster.
Besides just like the Louisiana 800 system it can only handle so many users. Plus you have to make allowances for data (MDTs).

 

[bpckty1]

From previous postings, it appears that the CoH PD will be going 700. I don't know why they need to reinvent the wheel. The city has an 800 system in place, which should be capable of upgrading/assimilated by Borgnet, or they could do like Washington, DC, and, using the same 460s, have a UHF trunked system.

But, when one receives a bunch of $$$$ from Unkle Sugar...

 

[mfn002]

I HIGHLY doubt that Brazos County is going to give up their new, P25 ASTRO system. As for College Station, they won't budge despite pressure to transfer to the county system. So, its pretty remote that even College Station would try to go on STARNET.

 

[mfn002]

Other reliable info points to a "tie-in" to the Brazos County system and a site on the Grimes CO SO tower in Anderson. Don't have any info as to the specifics though, such as whether Bryan/CS/Brazos CO will be assimilated, or whether Grimes CO will join up. As usual, just keep your ears open, as speculation will not make it come any faster!

This is unlikely to happen. For one thing, Bryan's sytem is expensive, and new. There would be no reason for Bryan to give up their P25 ASTRO system and make a step back to analog. As for College Station, they refuse to integrate their system into the county's. So, for such a situation to ocurr is very, very remote.

 

[txshooter]

Analog vs P25

This is unlikely to happen. For one thing, Bryan's sytem is expensive, and new. There would be no reason for Bryan to give up their P25 ASTRO system and make a step back to analog. As for College Station, they refuse to integrate their system into the county's. So, for such a situation to ocurr is very, very remote.

People are tending to think very short term here on the board. Anyone think when rebanding takes place and the equipment that never would have been capable of P25 ASTRO is replaces in Houston that the system may start to make the transition to digital? It would make sense if I were the System Administrator.

As far as points north? Has anyone considered the grand plan of a statewide system? At least covering major metropolitan areas. It has been done before in other states. Is there a system other than Starnet currently capable of assisting in making this kind of transition? NO....

I hate Starnet as much as most of you do, but it is here to stay and is not going anywhere. In fact it is going to get much larger very quickly........

Maybe someone has seen a large amount of equipment @ CTC in Houston Bound for Arlington? Or so a little birdie @ CTC says.......

 

[motorola_otaku]

What they really need to do is to tie in the City of Houston. It's a shame that Houston is still on the antiquated 460mhz system. Houston needs to come to the 21st century. That way there would be interop between them and Harris County in the event of a disaster.

Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York PDs are all still on UHF conventional. Furthermore, Chicago PD has a 800 system, but only uses it for detective/investigation stuff.. their routine patrol ops never left UHF. And LAPD specifically rejected trunking when they made the transition from analog to APCO-25. bpckty1 also made a good point about Washington, DC and their UHF trunk; I've seen it outperform the fire department's 800 system firsthand.

As for Starnet and moving into DFW, I thought Larry Orr and his colossal ego finally retired?

 

[rattlerbb01]

I HIGHLY doubt that Brazos County is going to give up their new, P25 ASTRO system. As for College Station, they won't budge despite pressure to transfer to the county system. So, its pretty remote that even College Station would try to go on STARNET.

As I said, I did not have the nitty gritty details. All I've heard was that STARNET wanted to "tie-in" to Brazos County for interoperability. Look for a tower in Anderson. Bryan/Brazos/CS would have to undergo a complete talkgroup restructuring to be assimilated, and they are too proud to do so anyhow. Most of CS still has the MTS-2000 handhelds too, and STARNET requires 9600 P25 capable radios as it is. As I said before, just keep your ears open. Anything that happens will happen when it happens!

 

[txshooter]

What they really need to do is to tie in the City of Houston. It's a shame that Houston is still on the antiquated 460mhz system. Houston needs to come to the 21st century. That way there would be interop between them and Harris County in the event of a disaster.
Besides just like the Louisiana 800 system it can only handle so many users. Plus you have to make allowances for data (MDTs).

There is nothing wrong with the UHF System the city of Houston has in place. In fact, in a disaster it is probably a better system overall than Starnet. What people fail to remember is that on 9/11 part of NY Emergency Services were on a 800mhz trunked system and were digital as well. Digital in my opinion is not good for firegroung transmissions. Analog is much better. Also, for fireground you really want to be using simplex channels. Certainly not be on a trunked system. NY lost both main sites during the 9/11 tragedy and that caused a collaspe of their trunked system. It most likely would have miserably failed anyway on that day from serious system overloading.

Now with that out of the way, other reliable sources have said the city of Houston Police Department is buying no more new radios, new part's, or new accesories (other than batteries.) The City has had a trunked system for many years for public works which is being swallowed up into Startnet. This is giving Starnet much needed additional frequencies in the Downtown area. They are also gaining the city users. The City plans on moving to Starnet at some point in the future, and that point should be reasonably close with the City buying no new parts to repair the failing Spectra's.

This will happen soon and probably will not be good for the system. Users will begin to see themselves recieving the dreaded system busy tone much more often. This is something a frontline Police Officer / Firefighter / EMT should never have to hear.

Imagine needing to call for help and getting the dreaded system busy tone......

Not a good feeling....trust me on this one.

 

[rattlerbb01]

mfn002, I sent you a PM.

 

[mfn002]

mfn002, I sent you a PM.

Got it, THANKS!!!

 

[txshooter]

Rebanding

As I said, I did not have the nitty gritty details. All I've heard was that STARNET wanted to "tie-in" to Brazos County for interoperability. Look for a tower in Anderson. Bryan/Brazos/CS would have to undergo a complete talkgroup restructuring to be assimilated, and they are too proud to do so anyhow. Most of CS still has the MTS-2000 handhelds too, and STARNET requires 9600 P25 capable radios as it is. As I said before, just keep your ears open. Anything that happens will happen when it happens!

Just for informational purposes,. Starnet has thousands of MCS2000's and MTS2000's on the system currently and just assimilated League City who has....MCS2000's and MTS2000's. That is not a stumbling black right now. Also, with rebanding coming there will be a lot of equipment upgrades taking place.

 

[rattlerbb01]

Yeah, I think that the requirement is only for new agencies that aren't providing the infrastructure during assimilation, such as LC and Galveston County did. Walker and Waller CO deputies have 9600 baud capable radios.

 

[skipgoulet]

I've been reading with interest your comments about the StarNet system,etc., even though I'm out here in West Texas.

I simply don't know why everyone has gone "flocking" to these trunk systems. From what I've seen out here, the trunks are not all that efficient. Midland went to an EDACS system about 10 years or so ago and they've had nothing but trouble with blanks spots,etc. Odessa's is a Motroloa Type II trunk and it has seemed to work out well with a few minor flaws. The big drawback with both of these trunking systems is that there is little or no inter-agency traffic because of the opposing systems. A couple of years ago, Midland got Odessa's permission to put a radio in their dispatch center on which Midland can now talk to Odessa. But the other agencies can't communicate with Midland or Odessa P.D., because they are all still VHF. Midland S.O. has gone digital on their primary channel, but analog on the others; Ector S.O. is still vhf analog. DPS is now digital, but they will come back to analog when they have to broadcast bulletins on the VHF Intercity channels. As I have noted elsewhere, Odessa's trunk is going digital sometime in January. Odessa's city officials have already informed the media that their new system will be incapable of being monitored and that's got the media in an uproar. It's going to be interesting to see just how "unmonitorable" this system will be.

Personally, I wouldn't be surprised to see all the major systems back on VHF or UHF before it's all over.

 

[rattlerbb01]

As I have noted elsewhere, Odessa's trunk is going digital sometime in January. Odessa's city officials have already informed the media that their new system will be incapable of being monitored and that's got the media in an uproar. It's going to be interesting to see just how "unmonitorable" this system will be.

We'll see, scannists with time on their hands will monitor anything they want, provided it is not encrypted.