Motorola Offers Kaval Solutions

[motisking]

Now that Motorola is offering Kaval's coverage solutions, I was interested in getting feedback on their products and support in preparation for upcoming training?
Product line includes...

Linknet
In-Hancer
OFR Repeaters

http://www.kaval.com/index2.htm
--------------------------------------------

Link to article on poll topic.

http://www.crepartners.com/FeatureArtKaval3-2-04.htm

[Cam]

Who would be paying for that? Seems like a lot of money for the taxpayer to be putting into buildings. I guess the city should think about that when buying a system.

[MSS-Dave]

Who would be paying for that? Seems like a lot of money for the taxpayer to be putting into buildings. I guess the city should think about that when buying a system.

The couple that I've been involved in had the building owner (or prime contractor) responsible for the equipment and installation. 1 was very simple, 800 MHz BDA and 2 omni sticks inside (county required), the other a major resort area with 800 SMR and 800/1900 cellular. The owner decided to provide public safety coverage inside the building when the inspectors came to do finals and couldn't talk anywhere in the building. This was voluntary on his part as the ordinances aren't in place in this county yet. Cell coverage was added as a service to the guests in the hotels and convention areas. I believe there is a ordinance in Broward and Palm Beach county, maybe even Dade about in-building coverage. KS4VT.....comments???

Dave

[wavetar]

We installed an In-hancer series 'backpack' model for a customer a couple of years ago. The original plan was to have at least 3 antennas inside the building, with the single donor yagi antenna on the outside. We performed an initial test with a single centrally located antenna on the inside. It worked so well, we didn't have to run the other two antennas. The customer was very happy, as they went from having radios barely work out in the parking lot and not at all in the building, to full in-building coverage. The average RSSI readings on their XTS3000's anywhere in the building went from 'xx' (nothing), to high 80's.

I think they are great for this particular application, indoor sites where the radio cannot access the trunked system directly. I'm not sure what would happen if it were an area where the radio would both access the system directly, and also be going through the Kaval unit. I'm thinking there would be conflicts. I know the city of Saint John, New Brunswick has issues, since they are using BDA's (pretty sure they're Kaval) to help with outdoor coverage.

There is also a Kaval unit installed at our local airport. We did not install it, so I am only repeating what users have told me. The coverage seems fine when radio are used in clear mode, but there seem to be issues with using encryption. Apparently a lot of intermittant system access (bonks) when using encryption. Not sure why there would be problems with one as opposed to the other, since it's all IMBE digital.

Todd