Using Personal Radio on Municipal System

[brotherbosco]

I just want to clarify: I do have a radio on a normal day. It's just when the pinkhairs throw their tantrums and the bricks and bottles start flying that you run the risk of not having your own, which also happens to be the worst time for that to happen.

 

[ElroyJetson]

Wouldn't it just be a shame if the local newspaper reporter were to learn that the department doesn't issue out enough radios to ensure officer safety all the time in every situation?

Sometimes when you shine bright lights in dark corners, it changes things for the better.

 

[Outerdog]

I just want to clarify: I do have a radio on a normal day. It's just when the pinkhairs throw their tantrums and the bricks and bottles start flying that you run the risk of not having your own, which also happens to be the worst time for that to happen.

Oops - your bias is showing!

 

[KN4EHX]

So they should just make a FDMA TG so they can hand out the old 5000s and everyone has a radio. Won’t get you on the TDMA stuff but at least it cures the radio problem as long as dispatch has a radio that will set on that TG. Call it Event 1 or something like that.

Whomst are we radio people to think with logic?

Those fancy TDMA 6000s are FDMA capable too sooooo. Does make interop much easier.

 

[KN4EHX]

Oops - your bias is showing!

Alright meow everyone behave. RR is a forum of peace, understanding, and modulation.

 

[brotherbosco]

Wouldn't it just be a shame if the local newspaper reporter were to learn that the department doesn't issue out enough radios to ensure officer safety all the time in every situation?

Sometimes when you shine bright lights in dark corners, it changes things for the better.

In a perfect world, sure. In this city, the papers and local TV news are the propaganda arms of the city government. I know of many people who tried to blow the whistle on different things, and the stories were squashed.

 

[brotherbosco]

Oops - your bias is showing!

Everyone has biases. Not everyone acts on them though.

 

[KK4JUG]

If it was anything but Motorola, the department would have enough money for radios for everyone.

Having said that, Motorola is still good stuff.

 

[N4KVE]

I wonder if the OP’s department has enough vehicles so every officer has one to use at the same time, & if not can officers use their own cars?

 

[brotherbosco]

I wonder if the OP’s department has enough vehicles so every officer has one to use at the same time, & if not can officers use their own cars?

There are enough vehicles for patrol. If there's a shortage for maintenance (or when they're torched during riots), we'll go to two-man cars.

 

[MTS2000des]

If it was anything but Motorola, the department would have enough money for radios for everyone.

Having said that, Motorola is still good stuff.

they're is always L3Harris, EFJVCKenwood, Tait and Relm. Most systems will allow other manufacturers of P25 stuff on the system provided it is on their approved list.

 

[FFPM571]

Not every department can afford to supply each officer a radio assigned to them. Only command staff and some specialty team members may have issued radios because they are being called in from home or part of a task force. Most departments have enough for how many officers are on the street and a FEW spares. When times are different and there is special details or public protest and everyone is out on the street in Pairs yes there will be shortages of radios. Its not an everyday occurrence to not be able to have each and every person their own $6000 radio JUST IN CASE they need one. I would just be happy that they are using up to date radios and not HT1000's

 

[ElroyJetson]

I can't speak for every department, but the county I live in has a policy of keeping enough of "last year's model" radios on hand, which still work fine in the system's current configuration, to equip absolutely everybody with a radio who might need one. They keep this reserve of radios well maintained. We're a Harris county (unforunately....) but while the current issue radios are all P7300s and XG75s for the most part, they've got plenty of P7100s to hand out like candy if they've got to call out everybody. They even made sure to have those radios in the emergency cache upgraded to P25 Phase 1 trunking. This cache of spare radios will remain useful until the county system switches over to Phase II, but even then, I believe the system will be able to accomodate Phase I radios for interoperability purposes.

This seems to me to be a very smart way for an agency to plan for emergencies. Retain enough usable retired equipment to support any emergency.

 

[mmckenna]

This seems to me to be a very smart way for an agency to plan for emergencies. Retain enough usable retired equipment to support any emergency.

We've done the same thing, but fortunately we're still VHF analog/conventional, so I think there's still some HT1000's sitting the cache.

When we migrate to P25, we'll lose some of that capability, although I'll probably keep a VHF analog repeater on line.

One issue when agencies migrate to regional 700MHz P25 networks is that a lot of times their old cache radios are no longer useable, and buying a bunch of spare radios and having them active on the network can be kind of expensive. Through time, the spare radios will get built up, but not usually fast enough.

 

[ElroyJetson]

Another possibility is to set up a cross-band repeater link into the new system which will allow limited interoperability.

My local county has that set up for handling on-the-water emergencies. Marine channel 16 is linked into the system via a cross band gateway, but it's only turned on when there's a need for it. Otherwise every boater who's asking for the drawbridge to open would be on the 800 MHz system. There is a talkgroup dedicated for Marine 16 interoperability.

 

[KK4JUG]

In our mobile command post, we have a JPS modular interoperability system gateway. It allows us to inter-connect various types of radios. It can connect our air radio, marine radio and 800 mHz system, for instance. Those radios would be able to talk to each other. We used it at Katrina and at things like hazmat situations and tornados. It's a little pricey but it works. Once the radios are wired in, they can be connected using, in our case, a little Acer netbook with Windows 7.

Ours is a Raytheon but they're JPS now.

 

[ElroyJetson]

I've worked with one of those units in the past. Very versatile system, and it just works.

 

[Project25_MASTR]

I can't speak for every department, but the county I live in has a policy of keeping enough of "last year's model" radios on hand, which still work fine in the system's current configuration, to equip absolutely everybody with a radio who might need one. They keep this reserve of radios well maintained. We're a Harris county (unforunately....) but while the current issue radios are all P7300s and XG75s for the most part, they've got plenty of P7100s to hand out like candy if they've got to call out everybody. They even made sure to have those radios in the emergency cache upgraded to P25 Phase 1 trunking. This cache of spare radios will remain useful until the county system switches over to Phase II, but even then, I believe the system will be able to accomodate Phase I radios for interoperability purposes.

This seems to me to be a very smart way for an agency to plan for emergencies. Retain enough usable retired equipment to support any emergency.

Very similar to what I've been seeing in Texas. Older XTS's get replaced with APXs and they'll hire a local radio shop to Frankenstein the the XTS's into a cache of functional radios programmed, batteries with a storage charge and freshly aligned. So when events pop up (either planned or unplanned) they have radios to handout to volunteers on assignment from neighboring counties in the COG (as there are several multiband systems and the VHF radios may not have adequate coverage in 800-land and vise versa).

Interestingly, it also proves the importance of interop talk groups as well. I know the departments that work Cowboy's and Ranger's games in Arlington are often from neighboring agencies. It helps when they all have common event talk groups.

 

[ElroyJetson]

Every agency and every radio manufacturer and sales rep all beat the "interoperability" drum as hard as they can, but then the sales rep all but tries to force the customer at gunpoint into adopting encryption and/or proprietary features that work against the principle of interoperability. It'd be funny if it wasn't so absurd.

 

[Project25_MASTR]

Every agency and every radio manufacturer and sales rep all beat the "interoperability" drum as hard as they can, but then the sales rep all but tries to force the customer at gunpoint into adopting encryption and/or proprietary features that work against the principle of interoperability. It'd be funny if it wasn't so absurd.

It honestly doesn't really matter if it's planned out. So a small town PD went with ADP (prior to ADP being supported by more than Motorola). That's why we talk about interoperability. In many cases, there is an interoperability plan and procedure in place with neighboring agencies. In large systems you get something very similar. Who cares that one agency took their talk groups encrypted...that's why there is a policy in place for interop talkgroups to be in the clear (and also why many system admins are very controlling when it comes to codeplugs so they can ensure the interoperability plans). Agency A doesn't need Agency B's talk groups/channel info and encryption keys and vise versa as long as there is a way to meetup on common ground of some form that has similar coverage.