Thursday, January 29, 2009

Decreasing Half-Lives For KC-MO Radio Systems

In the early 1960's- KC-MO had a VHF (Very High Frequency) radio system for it's police- fire and other city departments.


That radio system was reliable but 30 years later by the early 1990's- it was reported that parts for the VHF system were getting hard to find and that the city's radio system needed an upgrade.


In the early to mid 1990's- Kansas City-MO spent nearly $50-million on a new- 800mhz-trunk radio system including new radios for every cop and firefighter.


MAST-EMS was not included in the upgrade.


After numerous technical delays- including re-placement of transmitting and receiving towers- the new trunked system came on-line in the mid-90's. The system continued to suffer sporatic technical problems through the turn of the century.


At one time- the city was going to sue the radio system's installer- Ericsson. It's unknown what ever became of any settlement.


Now KC-MO wants a NEW radio system- and the claim is lack of availability of parts (software) and occasional failures (software- ill-placed towers) of this $50-million system- according to this story TODAY from The KANSAS CITY STAR..


The old system lasted about 30 years- the new system at around $50-million lasts (according to city officials) about 15 years- so we can extrapolate any NEW system to last what- 7 years?


The present radio system works just fine- I know- I listen to it enough.


If the Federal government wants people shifted off a certain radio spectrum- the Feds can PAY for those conversions out of the money made selling those radio spectrums to private corporations.


Kansas City-MO can't afford to replace $50-million radio systems every decade!

_____________

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Those VHF radios were CRAP. The new trunked system works really well, I agree. Coverage is fantastic compared to the older system.

I know because I use it every day. I wish we had digital transmission and more encrypted channels, though. P25 would be nice. But as pure radio traffic goes, it's good.

Tornado Strikes Monroe LA With Confirmed Injuries

The tornado struck around noon on Easter Sunday. There is considerable damage repo rted in that northeastern Louisiana city of around 5000...