[TrunkCom] Re: MultiNet

[David T. Stark]

>However, Multi-Net is a far, far distant third to Motorola (Numero Uno)
>and EDACS (Numero Dos). To my knowledge, there are only a few Multi-Net
>systems out there in radio land.

There are three MultiNet systems in New York State, and dozens of Motorola
and EDACS systems.

There appear to be many complaints about the MultiNet systems that are used
in public safety, causing some agencies to refuse to join the system. 
Rensselaer County is a good (bad?) example of this.  Their countywide system
was originally intended to be used by all agencies in the county.  It is
used for fire and EMS only, excluding the two cities (Troy and Rensselaer,
which use their own conventional systems - plus EDACS for Troy PD).  The
sheriff and other law enforcement agencies will not switch over because of
performance issues.

Monitoring this system is a nightmare.  They use 5 of the 10 licensed pairs,
one being the control channel.  You can't scan the control channel because
of the constant "dead carrier" effect from the subaudible datastream, but
they also transmit voice on it.  Another channel always comes up with a dead
carrier whenever the patch to the main conventional dispatch channel is in
use, regardless of which trunked channel is actually carrying the voice
traffic.  During a major incident, the system is almost impossible to
monitor unless you run the channels manually with the scanner and listen
fast.

>LTR is *very* popular for business SMR use. EFJ was way ahead of the
>pack in this, licensing a whole raft of other companies out there
>licensed to make LTR systems and equipment, including Yaesu, Kenwood and
>Uniden. The systems are relatively inexpensive to put on line compared
>to Motorola and EDACS systems, the radios are inexpensive, and the
>systems perform quite well for most business uses. 

The principal advantage of LTR over other trunking formats for the two-way
shop that owns multiple community repeaters is that LTR trunking can coexist
on the same repeaters with conventional traffic.  The SMR provider can offer
the upgrade to trunking to customers as they are ready to acquire new radios
without forcing everyone to spend the money at the same time.

-Dave, NF2G, NYSING-01