Digital Future
Public Safety does not consider the price of scanners, nor should they. They
also don’t consider the use of scanners, nor should they. If they need
privacy, encryption is available.
The spectrum benefits of digital, will take some time to accomplish. The FCC
refarming of VHF and UHF and the recent narrowband deadline dates will get
us started in that direction.
P25 is an example of a path toward standardization. Watch for those not on
the path to fall away over the next few years. Federal Government funding is
esssential and obtaining it will require more standardization.
Digital systems will allow for using much of the existing off the shelf
standarized network hardware to build networks instead of proprietary boxes.
Radio traffic, VoIP phone traffic, and data applications will all share the
same network instead of seperate ones.
High speed data is not required to make a license plate inquiry or receive a
small ID photo. Look at Nextel for an example of what can be done with data
in 25 khz channels. Forget analog FM, it is soon to be a thing of the past.
When shortwave broadcasters are testing digital, you know the handwriting is
on the wall.
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