[Scan-DC] Analog/Digital (cellphones/radios)

[oldsdoug at hotmail.com]

A friend of mine and I often have this same rhetorical discussion, coupled with:  Why such high frequencies?

I've been scanning since just after Montgomery went to VHF high band in the late 1960s... and my buddy before that... the old low-band radios seemed to work better than anything that followed them... and there were no Modats and MDCs to bugger off!

I'm with you, David!

DK

> From: lloydde at comcast.net
> To: Scan-DC at mailman.qth.net
> Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 22:45:04 -0500
> CC:
> Subject: [Scan-DC] Analog/Digital (cellphones/radios)
>
> The recent discussion on analog/digital communications really has me
> thinking. Why DIGITAL? Maybe I'm naive, but I REALLY haven't ever been
> impressed with digital. I bought a Uniden 396T scanner a year ago - I still
> don't know how it works.. and I'm a nerd!! The only benefit I see with
> digital is that you can do more with less.
>
> The reason why I bring this up is that I spent an afternoon reading the
> Loudoun County firefighter Line of Duty Death report and was I was really
> disturbed with all the squawks and beeps and unintelligible audio on the
> radio. In my years in the fire department, I experienced the switch between
> analog radios that worked great (okay, decent - there were still coverage
> problems), to digital that worked terribly for the aforementioned reasons.
> (Everytime I got on an elevator I got "BEEEEEEEEEP" no signal!) I guess
> this why more towers are necessary (ie: DC) and why MoCo is now using
> repeaters on vehicles. It's been a few years since I have been in the
> service--I'm wondering if that changed anything.
>
> Just for grins, I took my radio to Skyline Drive two years ago. The
> Montgomery County digital signal - D E A D. The 154 UHF was perfect.
>
> Sorry if this seems more like a rant than a question, I guess it's just my
> fustration with the whole Public Safety initiative in the Washington area to
> "improve things".. but it's certainly making things more difficult for all
> parties invovled. Just my observations, being old-fashioned and hating
> the digital transmissions.. what next? Computer voice dispatching?
>
>
> David
>
>
>
>
>
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