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Digital 700-800 Issues RE: Rural Areas
Forgive me if I'm missing a few facts so bare with me. It would appear that my entire county area will be switching to the 800 digital system. I did a tour of the area 911 dispatch center the other day and asked them what preparations were taking place for this change. They weren't aware of any. That left me puzzled. The state patrol in the area already has the system installed but they also carry a vhf rig as well. From discussions with my wildland friends (DNR) it would appear they are definetly NOT switching due to lack of coverage and very limited range hh to hh. USFS I'm not sure of but the people I know there that have used the system were not impressed. I'm assuming you folks on the career urban departments are already on this system but wondering if folks in the rural departments would fill me in on actual performance issues you've had or other related issues with this radio system.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on
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I'm assuming you folks on the career urban departments are already on this system but wondering if folks in the rural departments would fill me in on actual performance issues you've had or other related issues with this radio system.
Yes, we operate on 800 digital and we don't handle rural, but there are many places where the radio system doesn't work well. In some of our bigger buildings, there are many dead spots where the radio *bonks* out and there are areas of the city where we have the same problems. During our past inspection period we had to note those buildings which were a problem so that antennas etc could be installed.
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Permalink Reply by Rusty Mancini on
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The 800 digital is used in our rural area, and yes there are some dead zones to which it doesn't work too well.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Gemberling on
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Hmmm. Not good to hear. In all honesty I don't know how we're going to afford the hardware. And I don't think we have a choice in the matter.
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Is this a lack of towers issue? Terrain related? How about HH to HH or HH to Base?
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Mike, It's both towers and terrain. The location of our towers were not exactly where they needed to be placed[ county didn't do a study before hand] and it affected some low lying areas.
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That's another issue here. Tower sites are limited as the high spots here don't have road access for construction. This should be interesting. I was really surprised dispatch really didn't know anything about this. I'm going to have to dig around some more and find out who's implementing this new change.
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Permalink Reply by Doug on
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The county in which I reside, and my department is located, made the switch a couple years ago. My department, and a couple others, did not make the switch and we are still on VHF, because we could not hit the tower in which county dispatch wanted us to, and they would not erect another one closer to us. We can barely hit the VHF tower we're currently on as it is. And it's in our borough! We were recently awarded a state grant to update our system though, so we'll see how much we get, and what it brings us.
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