What is Viking16 system voice?

[mmtstc]

My organization is toying with the idea of not being a total Motorola cult and they have been looking at the Viking series radios for the statewide P25P1 system we use in Minnesota. In reviewing the product documentation, along with P25P1 and P25P2, they list Viking16 as a capable system voice on the kenwood products. What is Viking16? Just a branded version of something we are already familiar with or is this something novel? I have tried searching the forums, google and OpenAI to answer this question, but am coming up with nothing more than it being mentioned in broduct brochures, but nothing more descriptive.

 

[KevinC]

My organization is toying with the idea of not being a total Motorola cult and they have been looking at the Viking series radios for the statewide P25P1 system we use in Minnesota. In reviewing the product documentation, along with P25P1 and P25P2, they list Viking16 as a capable system voice on the kenwood products. What is Viking16? Just a branded version of something we are already familiar with or is this something novel? I have tried searching the forums, google and OpenAI to answer this question, but am coming up with nothing more than it being mentioned in broduct brochures, but nothing more descriptive.

Just a WAG...some form of Project 16, maybe EFJ LTR-Multinet?

 

[KevinC]

Looks like it was/is the EFJ version of Motorola 3600 SmartNet/SmartZone...

• Viking16(SmartNet/SmartZone™Compatible)

 

[buddrousa]

Kevin is that the old obsolete APCO-16 or have they renamed it to fit Kenwood EFJ?

 

[AlexC]

Viking 16 is the same as smartzone/smartnet trunking. Motorola licensed it to them long ago so that they had a competitive bid for government contracts. They had to name it that because of the trademarks involved in the names.

 

[buddrousa]

Sounds shady to me.
If my department head ask I would question why APCO-25 Standards where not listed.
I have 3 Fleets of EFJ 5100 and 5300 that fit the current bid.

 

[kayn1n32008]

My organization is toying with the idea of not being a total Motorola cult and they have been looking at the Viking series radios for the statewide P25P1 system we use in Minnesota. In reviewing the product documentation, along with P25P1 and P25P2, they list Viking16 as a capable system voice on the kenwood products. What is Viking16? Just a branded version of something we are already familiar with or is this something novel? I have tried searching the forums, google and OpenAI to answer this question, but am coming up with nothing more than it being mentioned in broduct brochures, but nothing more descriptive.

Viking 16 is the 'trade name' Kenwood uses for Mororola Type 2, 3600baud Smartnet/Smartzone trunking.

Motorola Type 2 trunking was capable of both analogue and digital CAI. It was Motorola's offering/implementation of APCO Project 16. This protocol was discontinued many years ago, although there are still a bunch of Type 2 systems in operation through out North America. That number will dwindle over time as they are replaced with other, modern formats, like APCO Project 25 Phase 1/Phase 2, DMR and NXDN. If it was a public safety user, it is usually replaced with a Project 25 Phase 1/Phase 2 system. If it was a commercial user, it could be P25, DMR or NXDN. Kinda a crap shoot what goes in, DMR is very popular, NXDN, not so much.

EFJohnson received a license from Motorola to manufacture radios that were compliant with Motorola Type 2 trunking protocol.

The other big player in the Project 16 public safety space was EDACS trunking. It was capable of both analogue and digital Provoice. It was GE/Ericsson/Tyco/MaCom/Harris offering/implementation of APCO Project 16. The EDACS(Enhanced Digital Access System) protocol was never licensed to any other manufacturer, and subscribers could only be bought from G/E/T/M/H(The technology was bought and sold a bunch of times before it was finally discontinued by MaCom), although Harris still sold subscribers capable of being used on an existing EDACS system.

L3 Harris now offers APCO Project 25 Phase 1/Phase 2 trunking as a replacement/upgrade to EDACS. Same as Type 2 trunking, there are still some legacy systems in operation, they are going away, and being replaced, mostly with Project 25 Phase 1/Phase 2 systems.

 

[Project25_MASTR]

Sounds shady to me.
If my department head ask I would question why APCO-25 Standards where not listed.
I have 3 Fleets of EFJ 5100 and 5300 that fit the current bid.

Your 5100/5300's will also support Viking 16 though it's not called Viking 16 in their options but SmartNet/SmartZone which can get confusing when you are trying to option those for P25 trunking. The APCO 25 standards were listed, the OP was just questioning what Viking 16 was as EFJ still supports SmartNet with SmartZone just like you can still order the option in Motorola APX radios today not that anyone is really putting a bunch of radios on a SN/SZ system today but keeping feelts running until the P25 migration is the key.

 

[buddrousa]

The State System only allows new users p25 type 2 only so we dumped the efj radios and went standalone dmr cheaper

 

[AlexC]

You would want to get newer EFJ radios anyway. They will be less expensive than Motorola, but, more expensive than DMR radios if you stick with EFJ. Hopefully you stick with analog for interoperability sake, but, I do know there are pockets of the country who do a lot of DMR because of cost only. If you do DMR - make sure you have a plan for a common interop platform when people come to help you out in a disaster. Not many people are showing up with DMR, they are coming with Analog & P25 stations. Also, for grant funding your state would require P25, not DMR, so just be aware of that hurdle if you are using federal grant money (what's left of it).

 

[buddrousa]

Our area FD's are all moving to DMR and 3 of us are running mixed mode DMR/ANALOG with each Departments Systems programmed in user radios.