State wide P25, goodbye OpenSky

[ocguard]

Channel re-use spacing and adjacent channel desense are REAL problems with VHF systems. PA is remote and widespread but it's not Alaska. A VHF trunking system is going to be a real challenge. I'm interested yet hopeful. Because the VHF band is what state agencies need. I'm curious (and I'm sorry if I word this in a way that makes me sound like a moron), does a VHF narrowband channel able to carry the bandwidth necessary to hold two voice talk paths? VHF-NFM is only 12.5khz wide. I guess it's different with P25, but I'm interested to know if there are any phase 2 P25 systems operating on the VHF band.

 

[popnokick]

Interesting question. The VA STARS system is P25 Phase I and nearly entirely VHF. Don't know if there is any plan to move it to Phase II-
Virginia Statewide Agencies Radio System (STARS) Trunking System, Statewide, Virginia - Scanner Frequencies

 

[Voyager]

Actually, VHF uses 7.5 kHz channel spacing now. Technically, it's not even wide enough for SNFM analog which is 11 kHz wide. But, P25 Phase II would work better than SNFM.

 

[HM1529]

While visiting the Pine Creek Gorge (which, by the way is far less impressive that advertised), we noted low profile RF antenna sites on 25' wooden telephone poles every 3-4 miles. LITERALLY that often. I had to stop and see what they were, so we peeked at one at the visitor's center/scenic overlook entrance. It was a Tyco OpenSky cell site. There had to be 25 of them within the gorge between Jersey Shore and Wellsboro. That's a lot of infrastructure for something that doesn't work.

759+ low profile fill in sites around the state. You can see a map overview here:

http://www.psp.pa.gov/About Us/Pages/pastarnet.aspx

That Allegheny Plateau terrain was a real beast for them to overcome.

 

[ocguard]

759+ low profile fill in sites around the state. You can see a map overview here:

PA-STARNet

That Allegheny Plateau terrain was a real beast for them to overcome.

Man, I wish York County radios had the UTAC overlays programmed into their radios. How nice it would be to be able to talk to PSP on those weird incidents.

 

[dcr_inc]

They did have them.. You also have PSP as an interop talkgroup that gets you on the Opensky radio at DES.. PSP doesn't monitor the talkgroup unless York calls them