Batboard

My county is activally pursuing a new radio system. we have been licenced on about 50 UHF frequencies. It has been pretty much determined UHF Trunking is what we will get. They also have mentioned Digital alot. I am very familiar with LTR and Passport, but not to up on Digital trunking. Would this be Astro ? also what portable should I be looking at if this is the way they are going ? I'd like to play with one for a while.

JAS

My town recently went 500MHz Digital trunking. We use XTS5000 Astro Digital radios. We only have a 5 frequency system which will eventually be used for police, EMS, and Public Works. Sounds like a pretty big system with 25 channels on yours.

Our mobiles I believe are Astro Spectras, it has no identifying information on it, and I'm not one of the lucky ones who has access to any other info

Hope this little bit kinda helps.

You would be in a much better position to ask these questions if you knew just what the system was going to be. You could end up with what is normally called a "P25" digital system. This is a control channel with a data rate of 9600 baud rather than the 3600 rate you normally run into.

There are a number of companies that have user radios for this type of trunking system. Naturally Motorola, EF Johnson, MA-COM, Daniels Electronics, Kenwood and others.

Problem is that the "P25" type digital system will set you back several thousand (more like $3K to $6K) per radio. They are not cheap. Then you would also need the programming software and the interface cable and maybe even an interface box to do the programming. Motorla is kind of a real pain in the lower rear to obtain the software from. If you are able to get a license for it, the software cost will run some place around $350.

You also have the possibility that they may end up with a MA-COM system. If so, then you will have either an EDACS or an OPEN SKY system. These are not available from any other vendor but MA-COM. Again the radios are not cheap.

Jim

jsikora wrote:My county is activally pursuing a new radio system. we have been licenced on about 50 UHF frequencies. It has been pretty much determined UHF Trunking is what we will get. They also have mentioned Digital alot. I am very familiar with LTR and Passport, but not to up on Digital trunking. Would this be Astro ? also what portable should I be looking at if this is the way they are going ? I'd like to play with one for a while.

JAS