[Scan-DC] WaPo -- New Radios Letting Metro Police Down

[Chas Armstrong]

Today I can say that the 800 above ground coverage is comparable to Delaware
- not so good, at least from Bladensburg Rd. to Capitol Hill.  No wonder the
line WMATA officers are complaining.

CA
Annapolis



-----Original Message-----
From: scan-dc-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:scan-dc-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of David Schoenberger
Sent: Friday, July 07, 2006 12:35 PM
To: scan-dc at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Scan-DC] WaPo -- New Radios Letting Metro Police Down


Interesting article.  In riding Metro quite a bit, and listening to the 490
MHz system, I've noticed that the signal is very strong in some places, and
considerably weaker in other places.  But the signal always seems to be
present, even between stations in the tunnels.

The Metro buses seem to be fully transitioned to the system (article says
1500 buses--I think that's the whole fleet).  Metrorail isn't using the
system at all, with the possible exception of maintenance personnel.  Metro
transit police have an analog talkgroup (2224), and one or two digital
talkgroups (all used for the main dispatch channel).  I've always wondered
why they sometimes use two digital talkgroups which broadcast the same
dispatch channel (49168 and 57296).

As an aside, the DC Fire 800 MHz system seems to have excellent coverage
underground at all the stations and tunnels in DC.  (The 460 MHz MPD system
does not have coverage underground, but I assume a 460 MHz radio would
affiliate to the 800 MHz system, if used
underground...?)  Arlington has one or two conventional 800 MHz repeaters
that they use in stations in their county.

Dave

On 7/7/06, Dan Brown <brown at brauhaus.org> wrote:
>
>
> Saw this in WaPo this morning -- URL via google news which should 
> prevent needing a login:
>
> http://news.google.com/news?as_q=new+radios+metro&svnum=10&as_scoring=
> r&hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_ns
> rc=Washington+Post&as_nloc=&as_occt=any&as_drrb=q&as_qdr=&as_mind=7&as
> _minm=6&as_maxd=7&as_maxm=7
>
> Or
>
> http://tinyurl.com/fcpcp
>
>
> "Persistent problems with a $60 million radio system that Metro bought 
> six years ago have forced transit police to rely on their old radios 
> underground, raising questions about the transit authority's ability 
> to respond to emergencies at a time of heightened concern nationwide 
> about the safety of public transportation. "
>
>
> --
> Dan Brown
> brown at brauhausdc.org
>
> _______________________________________________
> Scan-DC mailing list
> Scan-DC at mailman.qth.net 
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/scan-dc
>
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