Apr
It appears that someone somewhere decided to look for the cause of the degradation of the City of Portsmouth 800 Mhz Trunked Radio System and they might have found it. From what I have been able to learn the City has done some work on the antenna’s at the main radio site. It appears to have had significant improvements in the operation of the system especially in the Churchland area. I can attest to it first hand. I am actually impressed, their are still some issues but this is definitely a step in the right direction.
Hats off to whoever decided to do some troubleshooting before the city went forward with a multi-million dollar simulcast site in Churchland. I understand the city’s financial issues and as someone who has a contract on a house in Portsmouth and a future resident I don’t want the City of Portsmouth to needlessly waste money. Especially money they don’t have. I think improvements in the operation of the main site are a great step forward but the coverage from the backup site at the Jail also need to be addressed. If the main site goes down because of equipment failure or for maintenance the backup site will be put into service. I have significant concerns with the current radio architecture.
The City of Portsmouth really needs a “Radio System Engineer” to management and address these types of problems. Someone who is an expert in radio telecommunications and system architectures. Currently the radio system is managed by a computer professional. I don’t know if he has any radio telecommunications background or not. He is an IT (Information Technology) professional and I suspect he has no radio background. A computer professional (IT specialist) might be the best IT specialist on the planet but radio systems and computer systems have computers in common but if you have no background in radio telecommunications you are not going to be able to effectively manage a radio telecommunications system. Especially one as complex as a city wide Motorola 800Mhz Trunked Radio system. It took Virginia Beach a number of years to realize this fact and they now have a Radio Engineer dedicated to managing there 800Mhz Motorola Smartnet Simulcast Trunked Radio System.
A step in the right direction. Lets keep it up ..
