New Radios System

[cvrules90]

And the system will cover about 90% of the county. So if it weren't encrypted, that'd probably mean that folks out in the desert would get to hear what's happening in the west end and vice versa. I'm sure this will end up being a simulcast system.

[markb]

I know from the fire side, no one wants to touch the voice side of the system with a 10 foot pole. Some of the reasoning is legit.
The point is that CalFire said "no" to the system (voice side) before buildout even started. If they are out, you can count on everyone else being out with them.

[cvrules90]

I know from the fire side, no one wants to touch the voice side of the system with a 10 foot pole. Some of the reasoning is legit.
The point is that CalFire said "no" to the system (voice side) before buildout even started. If they are out, you can count on everyone else being out with them.

They didn't even join on EDACS. They have two talkgroups on there I think.

[zz0468]

And the system will cover about 90% of the county. So if it weren't encrypted, that'd probably mean that folks out in the desert would get to hear what's happening in the west end and vice versa.

Very unlikely. It's an inefficient use of spectrum to be transmitting traffic into an area where no one needs to be listening to it, so large systems like this are configured to not do that.

I'm sure this will end up being a simulcast system.

Some of it. Not all of it.

[sp1989]

There are a number of talk groups on EDACS that never get used. When they were first pushing the EDACS system , I clearly remember the PR dork that was giving the presentation saying that it would be a 'miracle' radio system, and that someone way west in Belltown could key up and talk to someone standing on the shores of the Colorado River in Blythe. Technically speaking, I guess it may be possible, but I never heard it and I think it was bullshit, just like that no one could ever monitor it with a scanner. It was also interesting that some of the first people to get EDACS radios when that system went on line were JANITORS at the old academy on Castellano Rd. There was a big investigation because some minimum wage county employee stole one because it had a phone patch function and he used it like a cellphone, back when that technology was all futuristic. I remember him getting booked into jail, by the sgt. that was in charge of the EDACS transition team, IIRC. Knowing RSO like I do, I am confident some chief deputy's relative is involved in getting the contract to switch to the new system and making big bucks off it before it is discovered to be a boondoggle and they escape to the Cayman islands with the bucks.

[zz0468]

There are a number of talk groups on EDACS that never get used.

The system itself is capable of a whole lot more than it was ever used for, partially because for most of the life of the EDACS system, dispatch was done almost identically to the way it was on the VHF system.

When they were first pushing the EDACS system , I clearly remember the PR dork that was giving the presentation saying that it would be a 'miracle' radio system, and that someone way west in Belltown could key up and talk to someone standing on the shores of the Colorado River in Blythe. Technically speaking, I guess it may be possible, but I never heard it and I think it was bullshit...

Cross county talk groups can be, and were set up, but they were few and far between. Also, EDACS would allow individual calls across cells, something the Motorola systems of the day would not do.

just like that no one could ever monitor it with a scanner.

When it was first installed, no one would want to. Every transmission was followed by an off-key rendition of the GE jingle... "we bring good things to life!". It made scanner listening painful.

It was also interesting that some of the first people to get EDACS radios when that system went on line were JANITORS at the old academy on Castellano Rd.

Expect the same sort of deployment. It's SOP to give the non-critical people the newer radios so if (when) the system crashes during it's infant mortality phase, no one important is affected.

...Knowing RSO like I do, I am confident some chief deputy's relative is involved in getting the contract to switch to the new system and making big bucks off it before it is discovered to be a boondoggle and they escape to the Cayman islands with the bucks.

See who retires when the project is declared complete. Then see who gets transferred to Blythe. Should be a good way to tell who the winners and losers are.

[cvrules90]

And even the custody officers switched. They probably WERE hoping for a miracle but then noticed that the system was less than great and so started to fill in the gaps with conventional repeaters in hopes of extending coverage as much possible.

[sp1989]

See who retires when the project is declared complete. Then see who gets transferred to Blythe. Should be a good way to tell who the winners and losers are.

Sounds like you have it down to a science

[sp1989]

And even the custody officers switched. They probably WERE hoping for a miracle but then noticed that the system was less than great and so started to fill in the gaps with conventional repeaters in hopes of extending coverage as much possible.

Making corrections switch to the EDACS system was one of the biggest wastes of time, money and equipment imaginable. Jails used to have a perfectly wonderful UHF radio system that used reliable (and cheap) HTs with 6 channels, 3 repeated and 3 simplex. But when the EDACS system came on line, some upper echelon MF decided that everyone was going to use the "new" system by God. The UHF system had local repeaters placed at the jails and had great reception. The EDACS radios however, would rarely, if ever, work inside the jails or RCRMC because they could not "find" the control frequency of the trunked system due to interference from all the metal in the buildings. Besides all that, no one in the jail needed to talk directly to dispatch or patrol stations, or had any use for any of the other features of the EDACS HTs. What they ended up doing was programming the jail EDACS radios into non-trunking radios and placing a repeater on a fixed frequency nearby. So now the jails had HTs with a bunch of fancy features which were programmed out, which did not work as well as the UHF radios they had in the first place. EDACS HTs supposedly cost a couple thousand each, and they could have bought lots of new UHF radios (maybe even reprogrammed some GMRS radios, they are about the same) to the old UHF freq. Talk about waste and fraud....

[cvrules90]

And like one of the other forums says it. There is nothing worse than when a corrections officer puts the HT into Scan mode, forgets, and then tries transmmitting some gibberish only to find out it was heard by one of the patrol stations. Who can't figure out what's what.