In article om,
"WSnipes" wrote:

I guess that may be the truth, but since i'm not from W.Falls i
can't totally agree. Our S.O. moved to Astro P-25 to be compliant with
Homeland Security, as we border Canada, and to have an "extended" range
being able to cover the whole state with just one radio system. The
older analog system required many hours of phone time between counties.
Once this new one is all in place, an officer can contact another in a
county that is 500 miles away just by using his two-way and the proper
talk group ID. Plus, during an emergency, all county, state, and
federal agencies(within the state) can communicate w/out having to know
each other's cell numbers. Along with being digitally coded and
encrypted...and yes, it keeps out the rubbernecks as well. For the most
part, there are two reasons for going digital: Secure communications
using encoding(which scanners can now pick up) along with encryption(so
far hasn't been cracked, or atleast this info isn't being shared), and
to extend communication range.

One thing to consider when designing a system like the one above, is that
it depends entirely on common carriers to provide the interconnections
that support that wide area coverage. If you have a big disaster
(earthquake, supervolcano, or the like) that takes out your common
carrier links, by knocking all the microwave dish antennas out of
alignment, your really cool digital system DIES, BIGTIME, and no amount
of support is going to bring it back quickly, untill those links are
fixed. This is a couple of months worth of work for a State wide system.


Me been there, laughed at trying to do that....quickly....