Washtenaw county to go digital soon!

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mjh101

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well I've heard that the new communication millage for washtenaw county passed. havent heard when they plan on starting though.
 

diskmonger

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The Ann Arbor news quoted the county as having a Late 2008 start date. Few years out yet.
 

KB8UYC

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In my opionion I think they are going to act fast. Following the counties track record they will. The only way I see this dragging out is if they get the Grant that they applied for which will be enough for several more towers. 1 fire department already has their radios, and the state is programming them now and they will be online before the year is up.

If they have done their homework, things could begin to happen withing 6 months and then some definate answers another 6 months later. So inside a year I think things will be looking up.

If they have not done their homework, we could be just wishing for this to happen, then it would be no better than a M/A Com system.


For everyone that has been involved with this proposal they want this to happen as of last year, so things will be taking off soon.

and YES Washtenaw County is switching to the MPSCS system. It just has not been determined whether or not it will be a Sub-System or a Simulcast System like Monroe and Detroit.

 
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KB8UYC

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What it means is, M/A Com sells technology that does not even exist to these police departments and takes forever in getting them up and running, just look at Oakland County and other states!!

I was not comparing Motorola to M/A com because quite frankly, Motorola blows them out of the water. If washtenaw has not done their homework(ie, tower locations, range etc..) then it will be 2-4 years before this project gets off the ground. However, if they have done their homework then it should not take too long for it to get up and running and get all the paperwork submitted and get their frequencies. This radio system(MPSCS) is a TOP PRIORITY for the county communications. This has and needs to happen ASAP. There have been 13 failures with the current 800 Analong system this year alone and it is only getting worse. So I look for things to start shaping up within the year.




 

Josh

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There have been failures with the system 13 times this year?!?

I've had my radio on pretty much 24/7 since last September (this operation ceased as of the first of this month) and have never heard about failures, from Ypsilanti, it's been working.

-Josh
 

KB8UYC

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You should read the news more often, sorry not trying to be a smart ellic, but yes there have been at least 13 failures. Ann Arbor's police chief(not any more, they have just hired a new one) and Saline's Police chief has made several public admissions of the failures. The system just simply cannot be repaired anymore. The system as of right now is working and at times sounds like it working just fine, but trust me it has its fair share of problems. I use it everyday, and though I have not noticed anything recent, there has been in the past. The system is being held together by a hair and could crash again at ANY MOMENT!!

Here is a clip of part of an article from the ann arbor news:

" Washtenaw County voters are being asked to approve a 0.2 mill levy to pay for an 800 megahertz emergency radio system. The proposed radio system would streamline communications among the county's 30 police and fire departments and Huron Valley Ambulance. The request would raise $32 million over 10 years to replace a system that has had 13 major failures since August 2004. the tax is projected to be about $25 a year for the owner of a home with a $250,000 market value and a $125,000 assessed value."

This was just one instant that I found, there are several more.


 

nsrailfan6130

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Yeah, I read that article recently, Also didn't it also mention something about Manchester having a dead zone in through that area? So regardless of whether WCS goes digital now or 2008 or sometime through there, they will still need to deal with that spot somehow or another.

Jerry
 

KB8UYC

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Yes. There are several dead spots in the County. The most important one is the Chelsea and Manchester area. Thus why Chelsea PD does not use the AATRS for everyday operations anymore. They have retreated back to their VHF system.

Dead spots in my opionion and some others are:

Manchester/Chelsea
Augusta Township
Superior Township
Salem Township

The new system will have to address these issues and hopefully they will use the 4 new towers very very wisely.

 

diskmonger

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The west side of the county is the worse for coverage, West of Saline and into the Manchester area.

There is a low powered repeater in Manchester so the county deputies can monitor and talk on the main dispatch channel. Irronically, I have not heard anything on this freq in awhile and just recently heard activity again. I heard someone say the repeater had been down for awhile. I believe their license has expired for it as well.

With them talking about adding all these new towers, I would expect one to be placed on the west side of the county somewhere.

I just hope within the next few years there is a scanner available that does a better job monitoring these simulcast systems.

Not to bash Motorola, but I'm sure it is not a coincidence they are not offering support on the older analog trunked systems anymore. Discontinuing parts and support is a way to force departments into a new radio system and having to spend money again.

BUT, on the other hand, this technology changes over time and it is necessary for departments to change with it I guess. The MPSCS is a nice system. It's hard to beat a system where you can drive 300 miles north into the UP and still talk to your dispatch center!

Eric is correct, there have been some major crashes and outages in the last year. Nothing really recent I can remember, but I recall listening and hearing the dispatchers using HT's to communicate because their consoles were down.
 
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Gadgetmann

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So I take it then that Ingham's new EDACS does not/will not have technology that works/exists? Even though M/A Com will or is supposed to have better portable coverage than Motorola(MPSCS) has mobile coverage?



SEMTTP said:
What it means is, M/A Com sells technology that does not even exist to these police departments and takes forever in getting them up and running, just look at Oakland County and other states!!

I was not comparing Motorola to M/A com because quite frankly, Motorola blows them out of the water. If washtenaw has not done their homework(ie, tower locations, range etc..) then it will be 2-4 years before this project gets off the ground. However, if they have done their homework then it should not take too long for it to get up and running and get all the paperwork submitted and get their frequencies. This radio system(MPSCS) is a TOP PRIORITY for the county communications. This has and needs to happen ASAP. There have been 13 failures with the current 800 Analong system this year alone and it is only getting worse. So I look for things to start shaping up within the year.






 

KB8UYC

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Gadgetmann said:
So I take it then that Ingham's new EDACS does not/will not have technology that works/exists? Even though M/A Com will or is supposed to have better portable coverage than Motorola(MPSCS) has mobile coverage?

I was not refering to Ingham Counties system, if you can see that I referred to it please point it out!!

I was refering to M/A Com's Digital system that a few other states including Oakland County are using. M/A Com sold oakland county technology that did not exist at the time, and at this point still does not.(till it goes live)

The MPSCS system guarantees 97% mobile coverage. With more towers in the cities and townships handheld coverage gets better. If Oakland county were to switch to Motorola right now, their handheld coverage would be out of this world!!! The county has something like 36 towers!!!!! and with that many towers, M/A Com cannot give oakland county the in building coverage that they are after. I rest my case.

From what I hear, the Ingham county system is a 400mhz system and the portable coverage is great! Rob would be able to cover more on that, but I believe that is why lansing pd and fd are switching to it also...for better coverage than the MPSCS system, currently only use a few towers up there on 800mhz.
 
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