Thinking of applying...

sounds like a local vendor talking to me.

maybe a little better service and less patching crap built with crap would make everyone want to keep the business local.

the equipment companies did not come to the bosses and tell them it was time to buy new, the bosses went to the companies and said we have to change, then asked what the options were.

maybe if the "local vendors/repairmen" would have informed the bosses that the mandate was coming in 2004 when is was passed, then maybe a little more local would be an option, but a half a$$ job as usual is what they got.

just patch up the tin cans and string and do business as usual or try to advance into the future.

I do not know what happened at the meeting with the city and county a couple of weeks ago, but at least there are discussions about the upcoming radio change.

I do know that it is scary as hell to key up your radio when you need help and you can't even talk to anyone in Perry when standing in Perry. When you have to use the radios every day then you can have an opinion, but when your sole interest in financial then you opinion is not worth 2 cents. Safety should be first, not your need to sell radios to the people that need them.

A trunked system for a county with so few users and fewer dollars is going to drain the budget. The elected officials will be bombarded with opposition to such an unnecessary expense. It will take an independent study from a neutral party to evaluate the needs of the local agencies and make a recommendation to the spending boards not a meeting with a vendor who will stop at nothing to sell more equipment.

Your complaint of dead spots with portable radios is a know fact for the current systems but has never be properly addressed. No one wants to spend the money. The main transmitter being located at Boyd is a long haul for a portable radio in Perry especially from inside a building. Two fixes come to mind. First, equip all mobile radios with mobile repeaters that takes the signal from the portable and retransmits through the mobile. This is good for your patrol units but does not solve other issues with court bailiffs, office staff and investigators who may not use mobile radios. Your deputies would see the greatest return on this upgrade. Second, install remote voting receivers around the city and county that receive the transmissions, determine which receiver is hearing the loudest signal and (vote) send it to the Boyd site by phone line or microwave to be transmitted back out. Voting receivers could also be placed at Keaton Beach, Salem and Steinhatchee to work with the south repeater in Hines. Madison County uses these in their system which was upgraded by Motorola a few years back. This would be the most cost effective fix for your problem. You still have the issue with upgrading to narrowband equipment.

Here's a cost saving tip from a motorola web site, "Lake County Florida has migrated from a single-site VHF system; to a mixed-mode ASTRO® 25 VHF 6 site simulcast
system; and recently contracted with Motorola for an 18-site 12 channel, ASTRO 25 system with Integrated Voice and Data (IV&D), microwave, and over-the-air programming. Although Lake County would soon have a new radio system, it would still be surrounded by legacy 800MHz Motorola systems."

Did you see VHF? that means they are taking their P25 narrowband VHF system out of service, which is less than 6 years old, and going 800 Mhz. They didn't mention price for the new one but theres a deal in here somewhere for the city or county to pick up hundreds of radios and repeaters for pennies on the dollar and still use VHF frequencies. Of course, this is not a plug and play system like you have now. This is the top of the line digital VHF from Motorola. You'll have to pay them to set it up. Maybe your local vendor can be trained on this stuff and keep it running.

Baker and Levy counties have joined the state of Florida SLERS 800 system and is paying a monthly fee to use it. Police, Fire and EMS use it. Ask them for a cost and if they are pleased with the system performance. I can tell you that the Highway Patrol is using the system and can hardly use their portable radios in the rural counties in north Florida. Depending on what kinda deal the county or city swings with Macom, they normally charge $30 a month per radio. The agency has to buy the equipment first and only encrypted models are allowed on the state system. Price tag for those, between 3800 and 4500 each depending on the features and options. The optional maintenance agreement from Macom to keep them repaired is $104 each per year. Sorry but your local vendor cannot touch these. Upside, full blown security and no more scanner eavesdropping. Boy, that would be great! You'll still have dead spots with this system but you could negotiate with macom to turn over the use 800 frequencies pool slotted for Taylor County and the City of Perry to add sites for more coverage. The state system has ran out of 800 frequencies that will allow them to build it larger thats why they are moving it to a 800/700 dual band system in the future.

Again, problems with 800 megs will be dead spots that cannot be covered without adding tower sites and big money for each. The main reason for agencies going 800/700 trunked is channel overloading and channel management. That is not the case for your local agencies. If the city wants to put up a single site 4 channel trunked system for all city agencies to share, you will have little problem and the cost will be bearable. If the county jumps into the mix, it will never work without breaking the bank.

Encourage your leaders to look at all the options and have an independent study before buying more string an tin cans.