[FedCom] Interoperability Hamppers Agencies

[lists]

The more complicated the system, the more likely it is to fail.

The argument goes that if each piece of the system is X  reliable and 
you have N items in the chain, your reliability is X^N. Ninety percent 
reliability and 2 items in the chain would  be 81% reliable. Make that 
10 items in the chain and you are down to 35%.

Trunking by definition can't be more reliable than a non-trunked system.

Jeff Kenyon wrote:

>It will be interesting to see once everyone in Wayne County, Michigan goes
>to P-25 MPSCS systems, and the existing type II systems are upgraded and
>become intograted into MPSCS digital system and how many take advantage of
>features.  In the summer of 2002 I think that our digital system went into
>failsafe mode after a storm, and it was one of the first of the summer,
>and we have some VHF radios around, but not much, so in that case I would
>be in favor of refresher training to remind users of what is available to
>them, and what to do/expect should a system like that fail and what to
>expect.
>	I know that coming from the  vendor they will say nice things
>about their digital trunked systems, but I had heard good and bad things
>about the new EDACS digital trunked system in Florida and how it has
>weathered the last few hurricanes.  M/Acomm says it did a great job, but I
>am taking that with a grain of salt.
>  
>