[TrunkCom] MA/COM and Palm Beach County

[Brian J Cathcart]

Here is the response I received this morning from Mark Filla, the System
Administrator for Palm Beach County's 800-MHz Motorola system regarding
the 4/17/01 press release from MA/COM:

****

Hi Brian,

Well here are the technical facts that I am aware of up to this date:

1.  The MPSCC System is not affiliated with the County or the County's
Motorola System.  There is rumor that the MPSCC is going to request an
extension of the County's ICP Plan, but that has not arrived as of yet. 
The County has many unanswered questions on implementation that have been
asked in many different forums and have not been answered as of this date
and the MPSCC is requesting the distribution of the $12.50 ticket money
which is supposed to go to the Board of County Commissioners sometime
soon.

2. As far as I know the MPSCC (and MA/COMM) have not formally made
application to the FCC to modify any licenses for their system nor have
they secured any tower site leases for their proposed system.

3. The system was approved by the State of Florida as a "mobile only"
system.  My understanding is that  they do not have the approval to
utilize portable radios with the presented system configuration that they
sent to the State for approval.  MPSCC advised that they changed their
system design over the last few months to be a portable friendly system
but the County has not received this information nor have they advised if
they sent the modifications to the State for re-evaluation.

4.  The County is moving along with it's trunking operation.  The County
has signed agreements with a number of municipalities, the State Atty's
Office, Health Care District (Trauma Hawk), and pending approval with the
Federal Game and Fish for their utilization of the County's 800 MHZ
System.  We have set up 16 Common Talk-Groups for any municipality (with
capabilities of programming onto a Motorola System) to have
interoperability with any other agency already programmed on the County
System.  

In closing, the County does not have any issue with the technology of
MA/COMM and will be open to be interoperable with the MPSCC System if it
actually becomes reality.  The County's questions ands issues have only
been with implementation.  I cannot comment on the status of
implementation of the system being the County is not involved in the
project management.

(end quote)
****

With the system "...not affiliated with the County or the County's
Motorola System...", the MA/COM system will NOT be used for Police, Fire,
and Public Works communications.  What the MPSCC will use the system for
is not known, so I will try e-mailing the MPSCC to find out.  Perhaps it
will just be for a private wireless network (which the press release does
talk about), but it will not be used for communications by Police, Fire,
and Public Works units.

PBSO has just completed roll-out on the system, and Fire-Rescue is next. 
Three of the municipalities in the county (Boca Raton, Boynton Beach, and
Delray Beach) are part of the county's new trunked system and just spent
a few million each on equipment to go on it.  West Palm Beach has its own
Motorola system which is also used by Riviera Beach, Palm Beach, and Palm
Beach Gardens.  Several other municipalities have expressed interest in
joining the county trunked system also, and talkgroups have been set
aside for each municipalities' use.

--

The Scanner Dude
Brian J. Cathcart - KE4PMJ
South Florida Trunking Guide - 5th Edition (On CD-ROM too!)
Palm Beach County Frequency Directory - 4th Edition (On CD-ROM too!)