MOTOTRBO anyone?

[koechler]

I was wondering who considers or is also in progress of switching their analog network to MOTOTRBO. It's much easier to migrate, cheaper than a P25 system and we just don't need the trunking capability. This way we can also just keep our old frequency. For interoperability we could simply use a voip bridge. As of right now just going analog narrowband is fine but what about the 6.25kHz requirement in 2017? Analog won't work anymore. That's why we consider to start buying mototrbo equipment now and to use it in analog only mode until all the old analog models are phased out. I'm just worried that we won't be able to apply for grant money like this.

[LVFD301]

I was wondering who considers or is also in progress of switching their analog network to MOTOTRBO. It's much easier to migrate, cheaper than a P25 system and we just don't need the trunking capability. This way we can also just keep our old frequency. For interoperability we could simply use a voip bridge. As of right now just going analog narrowband is fine but what about the 6.25kHz requirement in 2017? Analog won't work anymore. That's why we consider to start buying mototrbo equipment now and to use it in analog only mode until all the old analog models are phased out. I'm just worried that we won't be able to apply for grant money like this.

Three issues.

#1. You used the term MOTOTRBO. You may want to use DMR. It is only partly the same. Mother is selling a lot of systems that are MOTOTRBO but move away from the standard for things like trunking, encryption, etc. Makes it into a propietary system. True DMR is not. There are LOTS of DMR manufacturers, but only ONE MotoTRBO manufacturer.

#2. DMR is great, but there is a lot of concern about power output and co-channel interference. It is a big issue.

#3. 2017 is a plan. It is never going to make it by then. Just the first phase of narrowbanding took over 15 years to finally get implemented. Plenty of time,.

#4. Grants as you say. AFG grants won't fund anything now but P25. Neither will most other (if not all real soon) public safety grants that evolve from federal funds.

Ok. I said three. I went to 4. There are more issues.

P25 radios can be had for under 1k now. Actually cheaper than the higher end MotoTRBO product.