In Reply to: Motorola Digital Trunks posted by Stephen on August 18, 2000 at 21:22:03:
Hi Stephen. Getting a new trunked system, huh? Well, Good luck, you're going to need it.
Here's some info. that may help.
> The following is from the "ALL OHIO SCANNER CLUB" and any republication should be credited to them. The article was written by Bob Reynolds. What follows is his article.
>
"Pennsylvania: Open Letter to the scanner community from Bob Reynolds:
>
As a reporter I have been involved in research for the last two months concerning PA's plan for it's statewide digital 800 MHZ system. It uses APCO standards and should be on the air this time next year. 22 Commonwealth agencies will use the system. The following is my opinion and NOT the opinion of my employer. I am simply posting this as a form of information:
>
MA/Com the contractor for the system has decided to design and marker digital scanners. According to a spokesman for the company and the project manager for the state: It was decided to make the move after receiving complaints from firefighters and other emergency personnel. They would either have to buy MA/COM radios, which have an average price of $2,000 each or be
"locked out" because as we all know analog scanners will not demodulate digital transmissions.
>
According to the spokesman this receiver WILL be offered for sale to the general public. The state and the contractor believe that any sensitive communications can still be encrypted via DES. The receiver will be field programmable, will automatically find the talkgroups BUT is only compatible with PA's system. It will not have the capability to track other 800 MHZ systems using other formats.
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The cost? According to the company spokesman 400-500 dollars. Of course what's interesting is that MA/COM has found another source of revenue from the sale of receivers. There is nothing wrong with that-it IS the American way! The cost of building the electronic backbone for the system has risen from 179 to 221 million and that doesn't include at least another 19 million to buy the radios. It also brings up speculation that this will begin driving the other scanner manufacturers to begin selling digital receivers. It may be a good idea to pass this on to the scanner manufacturers. Feel free to copy and post this on other reflectors/web sites etc.
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More info on PA's plan and MA/COM can be found at the following sites.
http:www.state.pa.us/PA_Exec/Administration/radio-project/index.html http:www.macom.com
>
Regards, Bob Reynolds"