County officials approved a $6 million bid Tuesday for an upgraded radio system that will be used by first response agencies. The Motorola P25 trunked radio system is expected to increase outbound coverage from 67 to 95 percent and will take up to two years to build.
An ASTRO25 CORE connects the City’s digital radio system with dispatch operations. The County will share the ASTRO25 CORE with the City, making it the most cost-effective way for Fiscal Court to implement their new digital radio system.
Daviess County Purchasing Agent Jordan Johnson said there would be several benefits in having a shared core with the City.
“The County already pays for the maintenance of the core. The county can utilize the existing core and the county’s utilization will have no impact on the functionality of the system,” Johnson said.
In March 2019, Fiscal Court produced a needs assessment to upgrade their outdated VHF radio system after consulting with Trott Communications about their options in upgrading. The court chose to approve a P25 trunked digital solution after the needs assessment was completed.
“We received four proposals from a single vendor, ranging from $6,009,708 to $7,943,251. Each proposal comes with a set of layout and operational assumptions,” Johnson said. “It should be noted this project will take an estimated two years to implement, with ongoing negotiations of site improvement, subscriber and maintenance options. We have received funding for the project.”
Fiscal Court is committing to the maintenance contract as well, Johnson said. It will last five years and will start in the second year after the system is implemented.
Every agency reviewed the data and had no issue with the slight reduction in coverage, Johnson said.
Trott Communications will serve as Fiscal Court’s project management team, observing everything that is installed along the way. They will do their own testing as well, Johnson said.
“This is obviously a very complicated and technical system,” Judge-Executive Al Mattingly said. “I really appreciate Trott Communications for being involved in this.”
The sites using the digital radio system will all go live at the same time, and there will be one transition period in their switch from VHF to digital.
