Hmmm...intresting here, as my hometown is up there in Douglas County, just kinda curious, ya happen to know if they were going to use WISCOM for just EOC/EM stuff, or were they thinking on going to that for ALL of their comms stuff, both EM and regular PD/FD traffic too?
the only thing they have going for `em is coverage, there`s not a place around there (at least around where my folks live anyway), that i can`t pick up at least one of the DCSO sites (i get ether Gordon or Maple equally well from my folks` place) so i could see a real advantage in moving to the WISCOM system, only other bit would be having to get new radios...a rather costly bit too for that matter, but even with all that, it could see the benefits of switching to WISCOM for (as far as i`m concerned anyway) ALL of their day-to-day operations. Like i`ve said before, should be really fun to watch, just to see what crops up. N9NRA P.S. Just to give you some compairison here, i can hit the 2 meter repeater we have up there from my folks` with two watts outta an HT, and recieve it as well as i can get the Sheriff sites in ether of Gordon or Maple, and frankly i think the repeater i chat on sounds WAAAY better than the DCSO system. Now THAT`s sayin` somethin`
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This is in the early stages so there isn't a lot of firm plans, but it would be all communications. Currently the county is paying approx. $22,000 - $25,000 per year for maintenance on their current system, compared to ~$4,000 in fees if they were to switch. The change wouldn't be quite that good because the fire repeaters would be maintained for paging, and I imagine would then be programmed as a backup system, but pretty drastic anyway.
They want to move to WISCOM, but they don't want to give up the coverage they currently have. Hence they engineering study. Once they know what towers of theirs they would like WISCOM sites on then they can go to the State to see if they will pay for them and such.
To my knowledge it seems as if no one knows yet how such a project would happen on WISCOM. I'm not too familiar with ARMER but I believe the State of Minnesota pays for the entire system infrastructure. I'm more familiar with the MPSCS in Michigan where the agencies pay for the sites.
For example if Douglas was in Michigan the County would pay for the infrastructure, then pretty much turn the sites over to the MPSCS who would integrate them into the system then manage and maintain them. In return the County gets discounted use of the system with quite possibly great portable coverage. Bear in mind this is full integration where those sites become part of the system, not just a link between two separate systems.
As far as radios, the county already has capable radios installed. All that would need to be done is to re-flash with trunking firmware and program. The problem lies in the fire departments throughout the county who have radios ranging from wide-band analog only to P25 trunking capable to trunking ready through the latest grants.
The law system is actually a really nice system. As pointed out, great coverage. Since it's voted it also has the advantage that whether or not you can receive the site for the channel you have selected the Comm Center can still hear you, so good for officer safety. But that's also the problem. The link levels and voter happen to not be maintained the greatest so it tends to not be the greatest sounding system.
