Me too...I agree with you and N4FTN 100%+
Being from California they had CLEMARS for years and more importantly used it as a matter of course. Don't know if they still do but they did. Everyone would hop on it for an incident. Usually vehicle and foot pursuits.
They also had a fire MA channel that could be used statewide. I believe it was 154.280. They also had medical statewide channels such as HEARS.
Out here I've been shocked by the lack of it. SIRS in some places but not everywhere it seems. Several years ago I heard an FBI unit calling repeatedly on SIRS for Alleghany county. No answer. I called into their dispatch center to tell them FBI was calling over and over again.
Their response?
"Oh we don't keep that radio on"
Seriously?
Plus I don't know what the training requirements are out here but I've been absolutely shocked with how horrible the dispatchers are out here. It boggles the mind.
After living for thirty years in LA and hearing real dispatchers do the job including relaying rapidly and accurately seeing what is here is frankly a complete joke.
If you doubt me take one example. An emergency alarm on a radio went off and there was dead silence. A Sgt. asked if dispatch had heard the alarm and the reply was "Yeah" When the Sgt. asked who it was the dispatcher replied "How in the hell am I supposed to know"
I can tell you of lots of incidents that would blow your mind. They don't even know standard phonetic alphabet either common or military for crying out loud.
I think its dispatchers that have a lot to do with how well things work. They have to know how to do it though to make it work and you have to teach the officers how to make use of interoperability capabilities.
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First as most of us RR Virginia members are taxpayers who have paid and continue to pay for either installations and/or maintenance of this trunked statewide radio system, we have just as much an invested indirect oversight interest via our comments in the STARS radio system as does the Virginia General Assembly and the STARS management.
We now are entering "sacred cow" territory regarding commenting on statewide STARS VSP and other STARS and non-STARS user's comms. My finishing comment will be first. In my opinion, listening to STARS comms regularly for the last 15+ years, I concluded on balance, although acceptable for basic comms, and having a few additional new features, it missed a lot of interop comms potential. From that perspective it has been somewhat disappointing for what it could have been. Conversely, it was the latest state of this art trs technology and the STARS did have its' share of technical problems. Maybe I expected too much when I would see most VSP talkgroups in Division 1 rarely, if every used, with the understanding some talkgroups are for emergency or special event use situations only. Having said that I look at most silent MCALL1, LEINOP1, MUTUAL 1 and COMLINC 1 talkgroups. They are silent because relatively few non-STARS users in VSP Division 1. But I think general the same is true for all VSP divisions statewide.
During the initial phases of STARS sites installations began and completed non-VSP STARS users began to appear. Certain state entities decided there was an immediate need for a $3-4,000 STARS radio for its' authorized STARS users. Some examples were: State Gaming Commission(defunct...DACS subsequently was issued their previously scheduled "for delivery" radios....close but no winner), DJJ (defunct also) and Fire Training Programs (currently active..somewhere in VA...maybe voice comms via cellphones only were not acceptable); and last but not least...(Dept. of Military Justice..after 10 years... still waiting for a decision on that one). The state STARS plan, in part, was to continue support of VSP analog comms and when a site was completed switch over to P25 P1 STARS comms.
One really good STARS feature enhancement done was allowing the Tazewell Co. SO and Grundy, PD to use the STARS system as a cost effective alternative for a separate P25 P1 trs There are a number of other smaller VA cities and counties which possibly could be STARS LE system users.
I also have heard pursuit calls from county SOs needing VSP and other counties help. The last example I recall was a Sussex Co. Deputy was chasing a speeding vehicle headed west on Rt. 40 (very dangerous two lane road popular with deer for browsing road salt) at 90-100 mph. The Surry Co. dispatcher attempted to contact a VSP unit on SIRS..no luck. She had to call the VSP Div 5 dispatcher and have her ask for any available unit's assistance all of which subsequently were out of position. Dinwiddie Co. SO had been also notified and gave chase with by now a VSP unit was in position. The car finally wrecked about 45 minutes later.....almost at the Nottoway Co, the next adjoining county.
After that chase I remember thinking at the time if Sussex Co.SO had COMLINC 5 installed, at least 10 minutes of phone calling would have been avoided. The very few COMLINC 1 comms I have heard...sorry to say at least half sounded awful poor audio quality...over/under modulated audio. My federal civil service job required me to be transferred to Ft. Lee, VA from Ft. Hood, TX, in 1974, over 43 years ago. At that time the TX county I lived in, 43 years ago, was one of a three adjacent counties LE interop user only repeater on a 154 mhz. frequency which I now forget.
VSP has approximately 175 tac and/or tac related frequencies for statewide 7divisions use. Some are dedicated for Drug Intervention Surveillance and other special purpose uses, but there are a few VSP division each STARS LE talkgroups and non-STARS interop comms for selected for city/county interop capable(i.e, for Div 1 only, MCALL 1, INTEROP 1, MUTUAL 1 and COMLINC !) talkgroups, available but currently in Div 1some are rarely if ever used. Perhaps they could have been used if the target SO or PD had the talkgroup(s) capability.
Again, the answer always bottom lines out to not having the monies. I recommend STARS management to begin making the case to the VA General Assembly to take a monetary percentage portion from some unnecessary "feel good" social engineering budget projects, a percentage of VSP confiscated drug bust assets/and from unnecessary budgeted "fact finding" political junkets. Concurrently the STARS management needs to create a timeline schedule for COMLINC installations for selected city/county LE installations statewide to be completed by the end of 2027.
Time will tell what, if any, more significant COMLINC installations in ALL VSP Divisions for STARS non-STARS LE users change.
A passing comment regarding SIRS. Unfortunately, for much of urban Virginia LE licensed radio users SIRS is not used or possibly even responded to by a few urban PDs. SIRS definitely desired and appreciated more in the rural sections of the state. This is not a new subject. For example, Richmond City years ago was only one of a number of city PDs and urban located county SOs who did not monitor SIRS. I don't about now.
I remember when Hopewell PD was operating P25 P1 on the old defunct federal dual vhf/uhf (400/800 mhz.) Motorloa trs along with Ft. Lee, etc., Hopewell PD refused to also monitor SIRS. Their solution was simple. Just flip a switch and bye bye 39.54 mhz. signals. Problem solved. Their "justification" for not monitoring or responding to SIRS comms was something similar to "SIRS comms additionally were disruptive when attempting to have comms with their own radio system's users." Anyway, Prince George Co.,Petersburg and Colonial Heights PDs were close by. But Hopewell PD today with its' "new" 800 mhz. trs does monitor SIRS. But it is a via a separate 39.54 mhz. T/R radio.
The STARS statewide trs today is what it is to each monitor.
John
W4UVV