Oakland, CA PD Radio System Fails During Presidential Visit

[car5le]

Oakland police radios failed during Obama visit | Fox News

[stevebz1]

Oakland police radios fail during Obama visit - SFGate

[jim202]

Originally Posted by car5le

Oakland police radios failed during Obama visit | Fox News

Since when do you build a comm site that has only one air conditioner? That is the biggest blunder anyone can make in designing the equipment shelter.

Next I am expecting someone to say that there is no generator there because the power never goes out.

[Confuzzled]

Pre-existing thread about on-going problems;

Oakland singing the blues about new P25 system.

[mikepdx]

Originally Posted by

the radio problem ...averages about 500 glitches a month

They may have a few hundred glitches a month, but by God they're "interoperable".

[comsec1]

with 800mhz users it is possible that the communication truck that the SS utilizes took out the system, this happens to us all the time. it jams the control channel thus making all users within the footprint of the jammer unusable. vhf is best to use during visits.

[superfreak]

Originally Posted by jim202

Since when do you build a comm site that has only one air conditioner? That is the biggest blunder anyone can make in designing the equipment shelter.

Next I am expecting someone to say that there is no generator there because the power never goes out.

My government employer just built two. Both with ANY HVAC and one without any generator.. One is in an attic at a fire station and the other is in a TUFF shed...

Morons...

[b7spectra]

Remember, you are talking about Oakland. The ONLY thing they have that people in San Francisco don't have is a great view of San Francisco!

[KS4VT]

Originally Posted by comsec1

with 800mhz users it is possible that the communication truck that the SS utilizes took out the system, this happens to us all the time. it jams the control channel thus making all users within the footprint of the jammer unusable. vhf is best to use during visits.

We have had the president here twice and the VP just last week with no issues at all in 800 Mhz. No rolling control channel, no illegal carriers, and no end user problems.

[KS4VT]

Originally Posted by jim202

Since when do you build a comm site that has only one air conditioner? That is the biggest blunder anyone can make in designing the equipment shelter.

Next I am expecting someone to say that there is no generator there because the power never goes out.

I want to know whose responsibility was it to monitor the enviromental's (room temp) of the building?

[kb2vxa]

"I want to know whose responsibility was it to monitor the enviromental's (room temp) of the building?"

If not the fire department, an alarm company. It really doesn't matter who since the only one to point the finger is you. Nobody's fault really, once the heat detector(s) send the alarm it's too late, the damage has already been done. That's the nature of the beast, they trigger on a specific temperature, not heat rise that would cause a human to think "it's getting hot in here". Since there's nobody there there's nobody to point the finger at.

Reminds me of a similar problem at a server center not far from here. Twice last year the same thing happened, the climate control system failed and the fire department received a heat alarm. It was so hot they could not enter to investigate until they set up smoke ejectors to ventilate the building. Guess what happened to the servers and another guess what, no backup system. (;->) Now if it was so hot nobody could enter the building it doesn't take a genius to figure out how hot it gets before the alarm goes off... so now you know the nature of the beast.

Not to worry, just hot air from Washington being vented elsewhere. Like a thunderstorm it moves on leaving you to pick up the pieces. The difference with Florida is they're used to heat and frequent thunderstorms, Oakland isn't. Remember this is Obama we're talking about, no matter how long he hangs around nobody gets used to him, just wants to get rid of him.

[gmclam]

Originally Posted by KS4VT

We have had the president here twice and the VP just last week with no issues at all in 800 Mhz. No rolling control channel, no illegal carriers, and no end user problems.

Yeah but you are not in California!

[KS4VT]

Originally Posted by kb2vxa

"I want to know whose responsibility was it to monitor the enviromental's (room temp) of the building?"

If not the fire department, an alarm company. It really doesn't matter who since the only one to point the finger is you. Nobody's fault really, once the heat detector(s) send the alarm it's too late, the damage has already been done. That's the nature of the beast, they trigger on a specific temperature, not heat rise that would cause a human to think "it's getting hot in here". Since there's nobody there there's nobody to point the finger at.

Reminds me of a similar problem at a server center not far from here. Twice last year the same thing happened, the climate control system failed and the fire department received a heat alarm. It was so hot they could not enter to investigate until they set up smoke ejectors to ventilate the building. Guess what happened to the servers and another guess what, no backup system. (;->) Now if it was so hot nobody could enter the building it doesn't take a genius to figure out how hot it gets before the alarm goes off... so now you know the nature of the beast.

Not to worry, just hot air from Washington being vented elsewhere. Like a thunderstorm it moves on leaving you to pick up the pieces. The difference with Florida is they're used to heat and frequent thunderstorms, Oakland isn't. Remember this is Obama we're talking about, no matter how long he hangs around nobody gets used to him, just wants to get rid of him.

Me and my group monitor the HVAC compressors and have 2 building temperature alarms (one set at 90 degrees and the other at 100) that notify us remotely for 10 sites. This is not rocket science and back in the 90's did the monitoring with something as simple as using the "M" lead on an analog microwave system that tripped an alarm in dispatch. Now we use MOSCAD and monitor a laundry list of items such as door entry, high VSWR and generator overcrank, just to name a few.

Like I said, I don't know whose responsibility to monitor it, but someone should of. Whether it be a dispatch center or the Harris NOC, but somone dropped the ball big time.
The article didn't state that it was a fire, so smoke alarms would not of gone off and the FD would of not been notified, unless their PSAP was tasked with monitoring the environmental alarms in the shelter.

[KS4VT]

Originally Posted by gmclam

Yeah but you are not in California!

Ahhhh...so. Managing a radio system in CA is no different than FL or any other 50 states.

[kb2vxa]

"This is not rocket science..."

No, this is Verizon! (;->) This isn't the first time or place stupid brought the house down, about 10 years or so ago a blown fuse led to a cascade failure of a major switch (CO) knocking out phone and 911 over a wide area of northern NJ and southern NY. Thankfully there were no emergencies during the outage.

Here's how it went; AC mains failed, Diesel backup generator starts, no trouble alarm. Backup generator runs out of fuel, 48V floating battery bank bears the load, no trouble alarm. Batteries die, system failure, no trouble alarm.

Tough noogies fella, we're the phone company! <snark>

[Hooligan]

Originally Posted by comsec1

with 800mhz users it is possible that the communication truck that the SS utilizes took out the system, this happens to us all the time. it jams the control channel thus making all users within the footprint of the jammer unusable. vhf is best to use during visits.

It's equally possible that Martians did it, and in the case of you noticing it happening all the time with whatever system you're claiming to be involved with, I think it's highly likely it's the Martians doing it to try to communicate with you.


Do you really think the SS/WHCA/WHMO (& by the way, it wouldn't be the Roadrunner doing it) is dumb enough to just flip on some 800MHz broadband jammer during an routine event, without comprehending it may wipe-out local/county/state public safety communications, including those related to the security detail & motorcade?

[Cheesedoff]

When I last worked on a radio system the shelters were kept between 70 and 67 if the temp went to 73 or below 60 we got alarms up the waz. I have heard horror stories from tower techs that do work for cell companies they say they have seen shelters where the ceiling light covers are melted from the heat. Our ac units ran even in the winter.

[bryan_herbert]

OAKLAND (CBS SF) – Dual investigations by the City of Oakland and the Federal Communication Commission have determined AT&T cellphone towers are responsible for the glitches plaguing the Oakland Police radio system.

AT&T Cellphone Towers Blamed For Oakland Police Radio Failures « CBS San Francisco

[KevinC]

You'd think this would have been caught during coverage testing...assuming any was done.

[triptolemus]

Originally Posted by KevinC

You'd think this would have been caught during coverage testing...assuming any was done.

Yes, because a major metropolitan law enforcement agency installs and commisions a new radio system with no coverage testing.