by The Sage
Dear Sage,
My agency is getting ready to put together a proposal for bids on a computer-aided
dispatch (CAD) system. But what's the best way to find out what companies
to send it to?
The CAD Man
Dear Man,
Excellent question! But first, did you know that you can actually get companies
to write the RFP for you? Yup, they'd be happy to spec the whole thing.
On the other hand, guess which company will be the only one that can fill
the specs? Oh, the list. Check out the February issue of RadioResource magazine,
the only publication to actually try compiling a list of CAD vendors. It's
an excellent start. On the other hand, guess what big-time company is completely
missing? PRC.
Sage
Dear Sage,
What do you think was the news story of 1997?
D. Rather
Dear D.,
You're asking me? Well, the rag you're reading should know best. I vote
for the FCC and all the action they took on 911, digital TV and the UHF
television band. Yea, I know. It was all regulatory, all quiet and difficult
to read, but it probably made more impact on more public safety dispatchers
than we comprehend right now. Others: Northampton County gets 911, Motorola
and Ericsson continue to face off over 800 MHz contracts, the meteoric rise
of 311, and the Kellogg TV ad. Whew!
Sage
Whoa!: Ha! I was one of many that read in the last May-June issue of 911 Magazine about what a lovely place the Yosemite National Park dispatchers have. Well, a tourist just returned from a winter-time visit there and reports that, on warm evenings, they open the back door of the comm center to let the breezes blow in-from the public restrooms! They're just 10 feet away. With all that scenery, could we not find them a better location? Chee!
Dear Sage,
Who are you talking to, to get some of the information you print here?
No Source
Dear No,
Hey, like any good columnist, I have my sources, hidden deep within the
structure of the proletariat government. Occasionally, TV gives me a clue.
Did you get a look at the Secret Service Joint Operations Center on ABC's
Behind the Scenes program with Joan Lunden? It is "so secret"
that she couldn't tell her viewers where it was. (I hear it's below the
Oval Office.) On the other hand, if you watched the program frame by frame-like
I did, you could decipher a video screen clearly showing it was Motorola's
"Centracom Elite Dispatch" system, presumably controlling the
Secret Service's encrypted radio system, with channel designations "Charlie"
and "Tango." Ha, not so secret anymore.
Sage
Attention: Dispatchers in Arlington (Mass.)-scannerists in your town say they heard an officer dispatched to a car blocking a driveway. The officer arrived, asked for a "forty-four" (turn off the repeater), and then radioed the dispatcher, "Could you call 555-1234 and tell my wife her car is blocking a driveway?" Oops! Yea, the car was moved and the caller was none the wiser. My advice: even your mobile-only frequency isn't safe from scanning.
Dear Sage,
Someone told me that you can have a trunked radio on any frequency band.
If this is true, why are all the new ones on 800 MHz?
Trunkee
Dear T.,
Your source is correct-any band has the potential for trunking. It's just
that you need a handful of frequency pairs, with some separation between
transmit and receive. Just so happens the 800 MHz band was mapped out just
for that purpose. The rest of the spectrum is such a jumble of assignments
that finding enough pairs is almost impossible. On the other hand, South
Australia is going trunked soon in the 400 MHz band with a Motorola SmartZone
system. Hey, they're an island that doesn't interfere with anyone, so they
can carve up the airwaves any way they want.
Sage
Dear Sage,
I hear that APCO is inviting a very special person to this year's conference
in Albuquerque to be the keynote speaker. Am I right?
Tony
Dear Tony,
I hear that Tony Hillerman will be no where in sight, even though he lives
just up the road from the convention center. Instead, APCO has invited one
of the FCC commissioners who lives in New Mexico to speak.
Sage
Memo: To the president of a big CAD software firm-remember that telephone conversation you had with a police chief last fall? It's taken months for word to reach me that you really pissed the chief off! There's nothing wrong with your system, but the chief is now ready to kick your butt into the street. The chief attended the IACP conference later, hooked up with another firm and is ready to spend-gulp!-almost $1 million on another system. My usual advice of kiss-and-make-up won't work here. You're out.
Lastly: Boy was I wrong about AMR and Florida! Turns out they
just closed a deal in Argentina! I was just a few thousand miles off!