We have two awards to make today. The first is to Mr. John North, General Manager of the Kenwood General Systems group for his comments made in a recent on-line article published by Radio Resource Media Group. Click here for a copy of that article. In this article he stated that ”the recent update to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Safecom guide for federal grant programs can be interpreted as requiring P25 deployment for public safety”. “But if you read closely, the door is cracked open for an agency with a compelling story to tell,”
In other words, Mr. North is ignoring the P25 federal interoperability standard and the basis for grant funding to fire departments in order to promote a non-compliant alternative offered by his company. Apparently Mr. North is either unaware of the SAFECOM guidance on this subject or chooses to ignore the facts. For the REAL facts on P25, just click here.
The second is the sales manager for a large Alabama Motorola dealership who was invited to speak before a public safety user group on the subject of a suggested plan for narrow banding. His plan was not to embrace the national P25 standard, but instead to select an alternate technology using TWO new repeater stations – one for handling analog radios and another for handling his non-P25 offering.
Apparently, you make more money selling two repeater stations than you do selling one reasonably priced repeater that can handle both analog and digital. To be fair, this “expert” offered a second alternative of buying a single narrow band analog base station that could later be converted to digital. The conversion plan was to purchase non-P25 capable digital radios and operate them in the analog mode until all old radios could be replaced with digital. He did not comment as to how these users would continue to communicate with adjoining agencies that use P25 standard equipment or even analog systems. What a plan! But, it must be a pretty good plan as we have two fire departments in my own county that have embraced this high tech solution to narrow banding.
Congratulations guys. You have WON the Doofus award for today!
Let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream. – Amos 5:24
