Shelton, CT PD Radio issues on WTNH tonight

[IzzyEng4 427]

Shelton, CT PD has been having some major issues with their radio system for the past several years. WTNH at 11pm tonight is airing an investigation about the problem. Hopefully this will show the public the major problem they are having and make people more aware that this is a major safety issued for Shelton's officers. Many of us in the valley know some of the Shelton officers and heard the complaints from them that the radios in certain areas of the city don't pick up the transmissions from the repeater, ect.

Shelton operates on a repeated 800 MHz conventional system for those who are not familiar with the city.

for those who don't get WTNH Channel 8, their website is WTNH.COM.

[T. John 21]

Looking forward to seeing the clip. Are there any plans to replace the system with something more functional (I am sure I will find out tonight, but curious in the mean time)?

[IzzyEng4 427]

I think that is what they have been trying to do but it was hard to get the funding. Mainly I think its about alerting the public that a major upgrade is needed. I know the city and the PD have been working on it for quite sometime but its a money issue.

[T. John 21]

Here is the full story:

http://www.wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?S=8220828

[unleashedff248 3]

This push to 800mHz scares me. The reason everything was low band "back in the day" is because it's propagation around hills, obstructions, and through buildings is excellent. In Westchester we used a simplex system for countywide comms. Of course, there were a number of towers and some dead spots, but overall the operation of the radios worked excellent.

Now, as you move up the frequency band, generally building and obstacle penetration degrades. However, by adding towers and repeater sites you can fix this. For example, the Massachusetts Statewide 800mHz Motorola SmartZone system achieves excellent mobile and portable coverage. Now, that's not to say that there aren't some dead spots (especially out west, where they still use low band as a secondary), but mobile coverage can be expected at or around 97%. Portable coverage is slightly less.

Conventional systems on 800mHz generally aren't popular, hence the issue with parts and equipment. Another issue becomes interference. The 800mHz band is very crowded due to the explosion of cell phone popularity. Nextel is the worst offender. Some of their sites have been found to be so out of "tune" that they were transmitting over public safety systems. Other issues arise just simply from proximity to the tower. Go near a nextel tower with a MSP radio and you'll watch your signal drop to zero. Now, I don't know if this is affecting things in Shelton, but I know it is in Massachusetts. The FCC and Nextel have come to a preliminary resolution called rebanding, which will help eliminate the interference but will also require reprogramming of systems and relicensure of both public safety and cell phone 800mHz systems.

From what I've seen and my knowledge of radio systems, they should keep the 800 frequency, license some more (2-3), and make a small SmartZone trunked system. Now, this may exceed the $600,000 budget depending on the size of the area and other logistics. I'm not sure about pricing. However, Stamford (EDACS) and Greenwich (SmartZone) have these systems and make them work. Who knows, maybe they could get on the state police system? I know Massachusetts has allowed other agencies on theirs.

[IzzyEng4 427]

The problem with the whole 800 MHz spectrum was that the public saftey section was split (mobile / base frequencies) in between public communications just when cell phones were a "luxury" item rather than everyone having them now. Since then and especially with Nextel with the IDEN technology, cell phone started to interfere with the public saftey allocation because their handset / base frequencies were right next to the mobile / base of publics saftey's allocations! The re-banding of the 800 MHz is definately going to improve a lot more and get rid of the majority of interference from cell phone carriers. Unfortunately there are other types of interference that will always effect any radio frequency.

Shelton's main problem is that they are using a 800 MHz multi base voter receiver sites and a single repeater in a town that is about 26 to 32 square miles that is heavily mixed city, rural, commercial, industrial and residential. Thier problems are mainly topigraphical. 800 MHz is ideal for a bigger city such as New Roc, New Haven, Bridgeport, ect. The higher the refquency the smaller the radio wave. An unfortunate thing about 800 MHz in a rural setting is that even a tree leaf will stop the radio wave's progress of moving.

[Guest]

Stamford (EDACS) and Greenwich (SmartZone) have these systems and make them work. Who knows, maybe they could get on the state police system? I know Massachusetts has allowed other agencies on theirs.

Stamford's radio system is far from perfect, in fact I would call it well below par. A good portion of the North end of the city is virtually a dead zone (Mobile & Portable). Inside of many buildings get little to no reception. It is definitely a safety issue, except for the fact that the portables are like bricks and can be used for self defense. They are due to replace the system this summer with another high band system. IMHO UHF is the way to go.