Dyna has it right on this one! This new (allegedly) communications system is an absolute joke.
They call it new, but the technology used is very dated, and has pretty much been replaced in the commercial world by better digital systems which are smaller, cheaper, faster, and offer much higher performance. Even the manufacturer has stopped offering this system for sale. They only build the units to supply replacements for those already committed to this system. And even some of them are starting to switch to newer systems. Trunked digital systems are a technology dead-end, dying out just like the old operator-assisted car phones did.
Yet Minneapolis is committed to spend millions on this obsolete system. It has just started operation (behind schedule), and is already way over budget. And in a few years, we will junk this entirely and replace it with a better system. Or, more likely, we won't have the money to do that, and so will continue to live with an inadequate system.
Why don't our city officials have enough sense to stop this stupidity while we still have the chance?
Tim Bonham, Ward 12, Standish-Ericsson
Let's see your evidence on this, Tim. What technology are you claiming is superceding that system? Be specific.
What evidence do you have that the manufacturers have stopped making this equipment? Motorola is still selling trunked digital equipment as their primary product line in the portable 2-way radio market.
Carver County just converted from UHF to Motorola's system of that technology last year, with the help of significant federal funds. Although this change may make it hard to communicate with St. Paul's current UHF system, St. Paul will no doubt be updating their system in the near future.
In fact, according to an article in the Star Tribune published August 10, 1999, it's not just Minneapolis that is making this change. Here's the first few paragraphs of that article:
"*Conrad deFiebre* / Star Tribune
Construction is underway on a state-of-the-art $150 million police radio system designed to eventually link all jurisdictions in the Twin Cities area, officials announced Monday.
Currently, most cities and counties have their own communications systems that often can't contact each other. A single metropolitan system has been envisioned by planners for a decade, but high costs and disagreements among the area's 212 government units have slowed progress.
Even now, the system will take at least two more years to begin operation with only five participants: Hennepin County, Minneapolis, the Metropolitan Council, the State Patrol and the Minnesota Department of Transportation.
Those entities are plunking down $65 million for the nation's first digital "trunked" public safety radio system, capable of handling 2,400 conversations at once.
Other cities and counties are expected to buy in within the next eight years as their own radio gear wears out, said David McCauley, chairman of the Metropolitan Radio Board, which planned the system."
So how can the technology be "very dated" if this is the FIRST digital trunked public safety radio system in the nation?
Chris Johnson Fulton
TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.)
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