Will NYPD ever go digital?

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jcm87jm

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Hard to say with the cost and Motorola being one of the digital front-runners. I remember the city agencies took a dim view to Motorola over tragic flaws.
 

newsnick175

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NYC recently asked for a wavier of the narrow banding FCC mandate. Narrow banding is a gateway to digital ops. I think the cost of a change over is a driving force here. Expect other cities to request wavers if NYC is successful with theirs.
 

Alarms50

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NYC recently asked for a wavier of the narrow banding FCC mandate. Narrow banding is a gateway to digital ops. I think the cost of a change over is a driving force here. Expect other cities to request wavers if NYC is successful with theirs.

How is narrowbanding a "gateway to digital ops"??? Please explain.
 

kg9nn

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How is narrowbanding a "gateway to digital ops"??? Please explain.

"Since you're already replacing all your gear with narrowband capable equipment, why not just add x% to the price and future-proof your investment by going digital? Besides [and this is one part of the salesman's speech that is more or less true] due to the signal to noise ratio of analog narrowband you loose about 3dB (or half) your coverage area. If you go narrowband digital, it's SNR is 6dB better than wideband so you're going to have even better coverage than you do today on wideband, and a whole lot more than you would on narrowband."
 

car55

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Will NYPD ever go digital? Just a simple question!

I sure hope the FD,PD and EMS in city like New York, San Francisco, Boston, Washington, Chicago would never go digital.

The digital radios does not work well in highrise apartments or any highrise building . After reading some bad news articles of miscommunication not sure why anyone would want to use digital unless this problem got fixed.

Also cost is so high that I do not see cities that have over 900,000 people could do this.
 

comspec

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Will they EVER go digital?

I am sure that sooner or later (hopefully later) analog will become obsolete and there will be nothing but digital. Now will that be 5 years, 10 years 20, 50 or 100? Who knows?

Personally, I don't think digital is better as far as audio quality is concerned, but people have been brainwashed into thinking digital is better. It is more efficient, we can't deny that and we get more capacity from digital than analog. It is only a matter of time.

So the question is not, will they EVER go digital. The real question is, how long before they go digital?

While I may not like the audio quality of digital perhaps in 20 years, it will improve so much we couldn't tell the difference. Besides, are we really concerned with digital or with encryption? I do beleive that as encryption technology improves in cost, performance and reliability, the temptation to flip the switch will be too great.

It used to be that only truely sensitive comms were encrypted. Today, more and more police departments are encrypting and I for one do not beleive it has anything to do with catching criminals. They simply don't want us knowing what they are up to good,bad or indifferent. I think it is a mistake to routinely encrypt. Actually, listening to my local PD if find it very reassurring. I at least appear to be getting my money's worth from my taxes. They are very professional and responsive. It fosters a much needed trust between the community and its police. That can be critical when the police need the benefit of our doubt when something ugly happens and they face an accusation.
 
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Alarms50

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"Since you're already replacing all your gear with narrowband capable equipment, why not just add x% to the price and future-proof your investment by going digital? Besides [and this is one part of the salesman's speech that is more or less true] due to the signal to noise ratio of analog narrowband you loose about 3dB (or half) your coverage area. If you go narrowband digital, it's SNR is 6dB better than wideband so you're going to have even better coverage than you do today on wideband, and a whole lot more than you would on narrowband."

All this technical info may be true, but what it comes down to is what you can afford. You state "why not just add x% to the price...". If you can justify to "just add" an additional 280% to each radio to future proof and go digital then check this out (see pricing for Motorola CDM1250 vs Motorola XTL1500 at Motorola Mobile Two Way Radios). This shows you can buy almost three analog radios for the cost of one digital radio.
 

12dbsinad

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"Since you're already replacing all your gear with narrowband capable equipment, why not just add x% to the price and future-proof your investment by going digital? Besides [and this is one part of the salesman's speech that is more or less true] due to the signal to noise ratio of analog narrowband you loose about 3dB (or half) your coverage area. If you go narrowband digital, it's SNR is 6dB better than wideband so you're going to have even better coverage than you do today on wideband, and a whole lot more than you would on narrowband."

If I converted a system to narrowband analog and lost 3db (or half) the coverage area... than I would go home at the end of the day, hang my hat, and find a new profession. Obviously at that point I wouldnt be a radio tech...
 
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newsnick175

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digital future

It's true that digital will improve in time. Even the price may go down, but the thing the cops are counting on is the complacency of the larger public that doesn't care and it wants to be told that every thing is all right.
 
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