Just finished a conversation with the local rep for the local company who supplies police radios. The big supplier of police radios is Motorola. Motorola is huge in police/fire/industrial radios and communication technology.
Several weeks ago, a couple of old cops were talking and the subject of radios came up. Particularly, the cost of radios, and I asked the rep how much (ballpark numbers) how much the radio I carry costs the department. "About $2000.00.", he replied.
Then I took out my cellphone and commented that a cell phone is simply a thousand-dollar radio. The rep nodded, then started to tell me about some new things coming out that we should see in the next several years. According to him, the technology is still "buggy" and they haven't worked all the glitches out, but we should start seeing a blending of technology across the traditional walkie-talkie / cellphone technology divide. A radio is simply a device that transmits and receives data, and cell phone tech has gotten much better over the past decade.
It was a good conversation, and police administrators should try to stay current on communications technology. There are exciting things going on.
4 comments:
It will be interesting to watch... NOT to participate! :-)
The radios my department uses (less than 1 year old) have Bluetooth capability (which allows the use of cordless mikes and ear pieces) and WiFi (which allows software updates without docking).
Now, I'd really like to know what protections are in place against hacking.
First radio I was issued was a Motorola HT-200 it had two channels (local and repeater) a battery that worked for almost a whole shift.
And out radio tech could open it up and work on it.
The last couple were a Motorola XTS and a little explosion proof Yaesu that could fit in a shirt pocket.
Both of which could do so much more than I needed and the batteries would last for day's.
Oh, the Yaesu cost was about 20% of the Motorola, was quicker and less expensive to buy a new Yaesu than it was to repair either the Yaesu or Motorola.
That third line is supposed to read, "And our radio tech could open it up and work on it."
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