LAPD ASTRO System

Forum for the promotion and understanding of digital voice on the amateur bands.

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Credicon
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Post by Credicon »

Thats the situation with any newer radio system, it needs to be run like similar to a computer network, than a phone system, It needs to be regularly updated, and properly maintained by people who know what they are doing. Most of what I have seen is contracted out maintenance which just has enough budget for repairs, not upgraded or regular maintenance.

I have a few Astros and still love my Astro Saber, but I must admit, the UHF Astro Saber I have has old firmware and it sounds like ass compared to the VHF Astro Saber with newer firmware... It might not help that I think the UHF is VSELP
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motorola_otaku
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Post by motorola_otaku »

I was under the impression that they sent all their old VSELP 512K Sabers to the crusher and bought all-new when they went IMBE in 2000 or thereabouts. If that's the case, then the current state of things is especially fucked-up. Of course, even if they did buy a complete new fleet it'll be lather-rinse-repeat in another 7 years when the current Astro25 line is superseded by something else and Ma M decides to quit selling parts or issuing firmware upgrades.

Houston is making the same noise. Their current UHF analog system would kick ass if they'd spend a relative small handful on upgrading/replacement of the existing infrastructure and subscriber equipment, but instead they got a government grant that specifies "interoperable-only" and took that to mean 700 P25. :ve4uo:
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escomm
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Post by escomm »

If you want an idea of how the Los Angeles City radio shop is run, google "Piper Tech Willie Woods Murders"

Also if I'm not mistaken a fair amount of the radios used to make Nick's radios fell off a City truck.

I've also had the pleasure of listening to ICIS through a Burbank meter maid's XTS5000.. host and DSP are current (well, 8.x, current enough) but it still sounds like asshole. Couldn't tell you if it had AGC programmed in though.
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10-95
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Post by 10-95 »

This has been an ongoing saga for several years. I thought at one
point that they actually went back to operating strictly analog due
to all the problems. Are the patrol officers still using AS3's? What would the meter maid be using the 5K, they should be upgrading patrol divisions to the 5K and hand the AS3's down to the meter maids, dog catchers , utilities people .
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escomm
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Post by escomm »

Yes, patrol officers are still issued AS3s. So are detectives, sergeants, captains, lieutenants etc.

The joke about the 5k on the meter maid has nothing to do with LA. ICIS is a digital trunking system used by many of the fiefdoms, errrr smaller cities, that surround Los Angeles. They don't have as much bureaucracy or general waste that LA does so they have money to build a decked out system.

I am pretty sure meter maids in LA carry HT1000s, if anything at all. They are a useless bunch of fuckups. Much like many of the other civil servants in this fine city! :baby:
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Post by motorola_otaku »

escomm wrote:If you want an idea of how the Los Angeles City radio shop is run, google "Piper Tech Willie Woods Murders"
Willie Woods(4) Willie, a Los Angeles city electrician, felt he was being singled out by his supervisors at work. Taking matters into his own hands, on Wednesday July 19, 1995, Willie went to work at the Piper Technical Center in Downtown Los Angeles with payback in his mind and a gun in his hand. At 10 a.m., after a brief argument about a negative performance evaluation he received, the vengeaful radio repairman left the room and returned moments later with a 19-shot Glock semiautomatic pistol in his hand.

Willie shot and killed two supervisors in their work cubicles in the offices of the Piper Tech technical center. Then walked downstairs to the basement and hunted down his other two victims. He found and killed one in the hallway, and the other in another office. Two officers of the police gang unit who happened to be inside Piper Tech on an unrelated matter arrested Willie as he tried to leave the building. Co-workers said that Woods, "seemed like a mellow guy." His problems with his supervisors started 6 months before the killings. Once he threw a chair across the room when he was being counseled by one of the victims.

On November 5, 1996, Willie was found guilty by a Los Angeles court of three charges of first-degree murder and one of second-degree murder. On February, 7, 1997 Willie was sentenced to life without possibility of parole.
Cute!

So, is Piper Tech an independent contractor or some division of the city? Google wasn't 100% clear on that.
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Post by KG6EAQ »

escomm wrote: I am pretty sure meter maids in LA carry HT1000s, if anything at all. They are a useless bunch of fuckups. Much like many of the other civil servants in this fine city! :baby:
I always see the meter maids/parking enforcement carrying those old crappy GE Mark series EDACs portables.
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Post by KG6EAQ »

motorola_otaku wrote:
Cute!

So, is Piper Tech an independent contractor or some division of the city? Google wasn't 100% clear on that.
Piper Tech is a clusterfuck.

It's a city owned technology center.
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Post by KC9UZB »

r0f wrote:In order for ASTRO/CAI to sound good, all radios must have current host/dsp with AGC enabled.

Even if listening with a 5K--if everyone else is running Sabers with DSP6, it will sound like ass.

Ass is ass, no matter how you look at it. Can't make chicken soup out of chicken shit.

:baby:
:wacker: Thread hijack alert! :wacker:

Both my Saber and my 3k are on DSP7 +AGC, and to my ears it sounds just slightly worse than cellphone quality (which is still fairly good tbh)... will DSP8 make that much difference? Is it worth the time and effort (expense?) getting them lifted?
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Post by KC9UZB »

r0f wrote:I will post some audio files later of DSP8 + AGC. (As received on another DSP8 radio) I have to get permission first to record another party, since it's an encrypted system.
Thanks, I'd appreciate that.

Dave. :baby:
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