Will NH be all digital?

[nhscannerman]

A question of heated debates has drawn a massive concern as to either NH will all be digital. As far as from what I heard this debate started from some conventional scanner users. Some have barked about that the price for a digital scanner is way too expoensive.


Here is what I dislike about the conventional.

The problem with conventionals is that there are times when you hear static bursts. Some times their repeaters maybe down for updates or a routine inspection. Plus the signal gets weaker & weaker as the signal gets farther away. Nashua, PD & Hudson PD had gone digital because of the audio from the cruisers were very hard to hear. Digital helps improve sound so if NH does go digital, at least we will know ahead of time.

 

[ecps92]

Yes it gets weaker and weaker in Analog, but you can still hear it.
In Digital, when you "run out of string" you drop entirely, not even a weak signal back to HQ who could atleast send help/search for you.

Your comments, are hard to digest.

Conventional uses Rptrs
Digital Uses Rptrs
both types could be down for Maint.

Are you comparing Trunking vs Conventional ? Your original subject was Analog vs Digital [apples and oranges vs bannanas and grapes]

The problem with conventionals is that there are times when you hear static bursts. Some times their repeaters maybe down for updates or a routine inspection. Plus the signal gets weaker & weaker as the signal gets farther away. Nashua, PD & Hudson PD had gone digital because of the audio from the cruisers were very hard to hear. Digital helps improve sound so if NH does go digital, at least we will know ahead of time.

 

[geoff5093]

You are getting terms mixed up, conventional refers to trunked vs conventional, and digital vs analog (which is what I think you mean).

I have to disagree with your comments however, with analog you usually can still hear stations that are very weak if you listen in carefully. However with digital, it's basically an all or nothing deal. When you have decent to full signal, the audio is crystal clear. However when the stations are too far away all you will get is garbled transmissions, there is no way to open the squelch and turn up the volume to hear them.

As for everyone in NH going digital, most police departments are already digital. It's the fire departments who are having a hard time since most of the NH departments cover wide areas, they can't have good enough coverage in all the areas for digital to work properly. Not to mention a lot of departments are volunteer, so the cost of getting new pagers and radios would be way more then it's worth.

 

[nhscannerman]

yup your right I was tired when I posted this

 

[ddemers8678]

Drugs are a terrible thing. Just say NO!

 

[geoff5093]

Drugs are a terrible thing. Just say NO!

Haha!

 

[jmarcel66]

I currently use P25 voice at my part-time job and I like analog better. Analog audio quality is better w/analog. Distance is also better because the analog will accept white noise when the P25 drops out or "goes digital" (donald duck).

Nashua PD went digital as par of a bigger move to 800Mhz trunking. Also they were originally under the impression scanners couldn't monitor digital. Hudson went because 1) It got them on the same band as the majority of NH (UHF to VHF-High). And 2) they originally wanted encryption, which had a significant backlash. Last I knew they were mostly non-encrypted P25 now.

NH Law Enforcement first went digital w/NHSP Troop-A in the early to mid-90's. Since then, I'd say 90% or more of NH Law Enforcement is P25. Most have had limited success, usually because NH terrain is unforgiving and digital simply doesn't cover the same geography; regardless of what experts say.

NH Fire Service hasn't jumped on mainly because they use toning and there weren't P25 pagers available. Another big reason is they've seen how Law Enforcement's success has been w/their systems and aren't convinced there's benefit to going digital.

A question of heated debates has drawn a massive concern as to either NH will all be digital. As f
ar as from what I heard this debate started from some conventional scanner users. Some have barked about that the price for a digital scanner is way too expoensive.


Here is what I dislike about the conventional.

The problem with conventionals is that there are times when you hear static bursts. Some times their repeaters maybe down for updates or a routine inspection. Plus the signal gets weaker & weaker as the signal gets farther away. Nashua, PD & Hudson PD had gone digital because of the audio from the cruisers were very hard to hear. Digital helps improve sound so if NH does go digital, at least we will know ahead of time.

 

[geoff5093]

John, although at times it would be nice if Capital Area Fire used a repeater setup like most PD's.

 

[ecps92]

Looks like your close enough, why not listen to the UHF Links for Capital Area...

Works wonders, and for me when I was in Bristol helped with Lakes Region, NHSP and Twin State to hear much much more than the VHF Low and VHF Hi

John, although at times it would be nice if Capital Area Fire used a repeater setup like most PD's.

 

[geoff5093]

Looks like your close enough, why not listen to the UHF Links for Capital Area...

Works wonders, and for me when I was in Bristol helped with Lakes Region, NHSP and Twin State to hear much much more than the VHF Low and VHF Hi

I do, I listen to Fort, Wolfe, Kearsarge, and the downlink in Concord. However a repeater setup would be a lot more ideal.

Not just for me, but for units who use portables and/or aren't in range of other stations, because quite often units will talk over each other.

 

[ecps92]

Sounds like that would be a training issue, if units walk on each other.

PS, they do that on Rptrs too jmho

I do, I listen to Fort, Wolfe, Kearsarge, and the downlink in Concord. However a repeater setup would be a lot more ideal.

Not just for me, but for units who use portables and/or aren't in range of other stations, because quite often units will talk over each other.

 

[geoff5093]

Sounds like that would be a training issue, if units walk on each other.

PS, they do that on Rptrs too jmho

It has nothing to do with training when units are too far apart to hear each other.

 

[02intlbluebird]

I would have to say it all depends on what you use to listen to the radio traffic. I have a Radioshack Pro-106 digital scanner. I monitor only Rock. county and get certain channels stronger than others. I have several dead zones in my house. I can barely get car radios on the sherrif dispatch but all other towns I can get everything as long as I have reception. Now if I had a base or mobile radio I would be able to get more I assume with a stronger antenna. I also have an analog VHF Kenwood that monitors the only two analog PD channels I can get and the rest is FD. The last two days I have been getting Chester FD dispatch only which is 40 mins away. I can get mostly static on the fire officers that sign on for Seacoast. A lot of the times I can't pick up my town's FD portables with my mobile radio.

I also monitor and have dispatched on a Kenwood VHF channel and their mobile radios go dead on certain towns that surround us. The dispatch has a large white 15 foot tall antenna and all the mobile radios can hear but the problem is getting the signal back. A lot of times the signal it too bad that relaying is the only other cause. It's hard because 40 mins. away can be picked up but there are two surrounding towns that get no signal from the mobiles.


I strongly suggest digital because the signals get out farther than listening to static. My downfall is how expensive it is and I can't get PD in my vehicle unless I switch over. Weak signals with digital is just like Donald Duck and analog is tons of static. I blame the trees!