Batboard

I am kind of concerned.

I do not know how existing Public Safety Systems will migrate to a system supporting TDMA, and I do not know what I means for radio shops does it mean we will all need to invest in 50 or 60 thousand dollar service monitors?

How do we migrate?

How we service?

RailroadTech wrote:I am kind of concerned.

I do not know how existing Public Safety Systems will migrate to a system supporting TDMA, and I do not know what I means for radio shops does it mean we will all need to invest in 50 or 60 thousand dollar service monitors?

How do we migrate?

How we service?

I'm not sure from your post whether you are posting from the perspective of an end-user of radios, or from the perspective of a service shop, so if I am not addressing your concerns please say so.

First of all, you are a little high on the equipment price - you're looking at about $40K for the test equipment (Aeroflex 3900 with appropriate options: full disclosure, I am one of the designers on the 3900 project). That's quite a bit less than $60K. Also, that's pretty much all the equipment you're going to need, so if you are starting your own shop that's all you're going to need to buy for service (exclusive of whatever service software you need from the radio manufacturer). Yes, if you are an existing service shop you will already have a bunch of equipment that will be redundant with the features of the service monitor.

Second of all, in most cases smaller users will NOT need to have their own service shop. They may need to do their own programming, but they can outsource their service to service shop supporting multiple users. A modern radio doesn't need the level of servicing older, all-analog radios did - the parts of the radio that used to be drifty are now done in software, and bits in a EEPROM don't drift. As a result, you are looking at checking a radio once a year or so, not every month.

Personally, I'd be MUCH more concerned about the costs of infrastructure - the cost of a P25 Base Radio (repeater site) + the costs of the mobile radios dwarf the costs of a service monitor.

First yes from both customer and service .....

I am Canadian so I do know how much a fully loaded Aeroflex monitor costs in Canada, but I guess you answered my question about service equipment it will need to be replaced for new future products.

Somebody that has thousands of XTL5000s, and XTS5000s, and hundreds of Quantars will be expected sometime in the future to scrap everything?

I can not see any of these radios doing TDMA but I wonder if we are talking about MOTOturbo type of TDMA. Using the TDMA to maximise channel capacity not give an illusion of full duplex like iDen.

I am really confused I thought we went to Astro in North America to give our large customers migration paths from Analog to Digital. I guess North America should of went to Tetra afterall.

Buy the way ... this thread I think should of been in the Astro Section but I swear I did not see the Astro Section when I opened the thread.

Good question for the MTUG meeting next month