On 11 January, I attended a 'Signing Ceremony' for the Colorado Digital Trunked Radio System. This was mostly a media event, but luckily I found out about it and resolved to attend. As I arrived, the cameramen were setting up, and reporters waiting somewhat impatiently for it to get over with... I had never seen so many chiefs of police in one room before. At least I felt safe!

I had two things in mind, to learn more about the system, and more importantly, to represent the radio enthusiast viewpoint. As the system is APCO 25 voice compliant, anyone excluded by the 'access policy' (almost everyone) is locked out.

The first objective was well taken care of. On hand were the state telecomm director, the DTRS project manager, and system admins from the backbone of the system.

Luckily, I also was able to make an impression on the media. I grabbed the print reporters I saw, and made sure that they knew that they had been excluded from monitoring the system - unlike the TV stations!

This led nicely into a conversation about scannists and Hams, and this is what the Denver Rocky Mountain News decided to write about...

I did gather some interesting information at the meeting, and will be posting that shortly.

The saga of the Colorado DTRS is far from over.