Astro 25 shines during the worst time in Catoosa County, GA

[MTS2000des]

For those who aren't around here, yesterday in the Southeast we had some of the worst tornadoes in history. Catoosa county got to put their new radio system to the test during the worst time in recent history. Every cellular system in downtown Ringgold was blown off the air, but the Tennessee Valley Regional Communications System did not fail once. It continued to work through the storm providing life saving communications. At one point, Catoosa 911 had 120 calls for service HOLDING. Thanks to the new Astro 25 DTRS, mutual aid from every county around in both Georgia and Tenn could easily interop. This radio system has SUPERB coverage, and reliability. I don't know if any of the admins are on here, but if you are, you deserve a raise and a THANK YOU from every citizen of Catoosa, Dade and Walker county who used your system to stay on top of the madness and destruction that occurred. I listened from down here in Atlanta and was blown away at how good the system sounded, no digital artifacts- sadly the painful voices of those working this tragedy revealed everything when they found victim after victim.

It goes without saying that when something just works no one really notices. Well I sure did. And even more impressed were the quick and calm response to chaos of Catoosa County SO who faced off black death in the night and came back for more.

Just thought I would share this. Many stories of digital radio systems not performing well have made it way into the news. I wish some media would do a story on how well this system worked during the darkest hour in Catoosa's history. Please keep these people in your thoughts. Not to even make mention of our fellow citizens in Alabama, we got it good compared to them.

[WB4JGI]

I'm one of the techs on this system, other than a lot of site busies like any other system would have during this kind of emergency, I think everything went rather smooth. Now it's time for the cleanup effort.

[MTS2000des]

I wish you could fix our system down here in Cobb. I wish we had performance as good as yours sounded, and keep in mind I was listening to a scanner feed on RadioReference. I imagine with a "real" subscriber radio it would only sound better. You are correct, a long road lies ahead for Ringgold and many other people here in our state- but it pales in comparison to what happened in Alabama. Tuscaloosa looks like a war zone. Over 200 people and counting dead.

[Jim202]

Good reliable systems don't just happen. It takes a bunch of time, skin off the knuckles and a good piece of boiler plate over the lower end of the anatomy. I would be betting that they had some very savy radio people involved with the project design and not letting Motorola steer the boat. Could be wrong on this, but have never seen a big M designed system perform as they say right out of the box.

Those that worked hard to get this system where it is today need to stand up and be praised.

Jim

[WB4JGI]

Good reliable systems don't just happen. It takes a bunch of time, skin off the knuckles and a good piece of boiler plate over the lower end of the anatomy. I would be betting that they had some very savy radio people involved with the project design and not letting Motorola steer the boat. Could be wrong on this, but have never seen a big M designed system perform as they say right out of the box.

Those that worked hard to get this system where it is today need to stand up and be praised.

Jim

That it does Jim. This was actually a design/build system from Motorola. The Project Engineer and ST's on this project are some very knowledgeable people. All 3 of them have been employed at Motorola for 20 years or more each. One of ST's was involved in setting up the 7.x P25 system for the 2010 Winter Olympics and was telling me how that system processed over 1 million voice calls during it's operation.

When I came to work here it was when the system was conditionally accepted and I for one was amazed at how quick the system was put in and how good it continues operate. We are fortunate to have such talented people setup and help us support this system.

[MT2000 man]

It's very good to hear about these new radio systems that work, and work well !

I remember during 9/11 the FDNY had to go back to using thier old radio system because their new XTS3500's didn't do so well in the field.

What mobiles / portables are being used on the new Astro 25 system ? I'd assume all APX portables / mobiles ?

[FireCpt809]

Correct the UHF XTS3500s were not used on 9-11 they were issued with limited tesing on March 14th and were pulled from the field March 21,2001 after a near fatal fire where digital communications were lost. They were using VHF analog 1watt Saber I's at that time.


I wonder how well a O.S. system would have held up to a tornado?

[WB4JGI]

It's very good to hear about these new radio systems that work, and work well !

I remember during 9/11 the FDNY had to go back to using thier old radio system because their new XTS3500's didn't do so well in the field.

What mobiles / portables are being used on the new Astro 25 system ? I'd assume all APX portables / mobiles ?

Man I wish all our subscribers were APX. Unfortunately we have XTS 1500, 2500, 5000, XTL 1500, 2500, 5000 on the system. As far as APX radios we have 9 V/7/800 APX7000's that us techs carry on a daily basis. One of the local FD's just got them a batch of 7000XE models and man that is one cool radio I'd like to have one myself but I'd like it to have a display on the back, but that would probably prove to be a bad idea on a fire scene. As we all know Fire Fighters can break anvils if they so choose.

[MT2000 man]

It's very good to hear about these new radio systems that work, and work well !

I remember during 9/11 the FDNY had to go back to using thier old radio system because their new XTS3500's didn't do so well in the field.

What mobiles / portables are being used on the new Astro 25 system ? I'd assume all APX portables / mobiles ?

Man I wish all our subscribers were APX. Unfortunately we have XTS 1500, 2500, 5000, XTL 1500, 2500, 5000 on the system. As far as APX radios we have 9 V/7/800 APX7000's that us techs carry on a daily basis. One of the local FD's just got them a batch of 7000XE models and man that is one cool radio I'd like to have one myself but I'd like it to have a display on the back, but that would probably prove to be a bad idea on a fire scene. As we all know Fire Fighters can break anvils if they so choose.

Yes, those APX radios are very nice ! No agency here in CT has them (that I know of) yet, and due to recent budget cuts, it might be a LONG time before anyone over here sees one lol. Heck, most agencies haven't even seen an XTS5000 yet and are still using thier old MTS Jedi radios issued in the late 90's.


I still think for most needs, (as long as you don't NEED duel band), an XTS5000 is VERY hard to beat. I LOVE mine