Newark, OH - 911 center woes frustrate fire chiefs

Status
Not open for further replies.

ibagli

Member
Joined
Dec 2, 2006
Messages
983
Location
Ohio
http://www.newarkadvocate.com/artic...ter-woes-frustrate-fire-chiefs?nclick_check=1

The new Licking County 911 Center, expected to improve emergency communications, may have made things worse, area fire chiefs claim.

Since it opened more than three weeks ago, complaints include an inability to hear the fire tones or dispatchers, unreceived text messages, pagers not receiving alerts, scratchy radio quality and poor reception.
 

KAA951

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Sep 9, 2004
Messages
822
Location
Kansas
Wow, they just realized now that their "high band" system doesn't cover their county- after they turned off the "low band" system that does? Somebody didn't do their due diligence on this! Not to mention, it appears they are having problems interfacing the new PSAP consoles with the existing radio system!
 

phask

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
3,666
Location
KZZV - SE Ohio
http://www.newarkadvocate.com/artic...ter-woes-frustrate-fire-chiefs?nclick_check=1

The new Licking County 911 Center, expected to improve emergency communications, may have made things worse, area fire chiefs claim.

Since it opened more than three weeks ago, complaints include an inability to hear the fire tones or dispatchers, unreceived text messages, pagers not receiving alerts, scratchy radio quality and poor reception.

Need to cross post or move this to the Ohio Forum.
 

wa8pyr

Technischer Guru
Staff member
Lead Database Admin
Joined
Sep 22, 2002
Messages
6,974
Location
Ohio
I was wondering why the feed sounded like crap. Someone really dropped the ball out there. They should have done more testing or kept both systems up for a while.

Licking County Fire and EMS

Growing pains, folks. Any major migration of this type will have bugs to be worked out. I've personally never seen a major migration of this type go completely smoothly; there's always something that gets wonky.

According to the article they did do testing prior to going live and it worked OK. No one is dumb enough to go live with a center like this without testing things first.

The situation wouldn't be helped by the fact that so many of the local departments have stand-alone systems they want linked to the county system; this always complicates things, especially when setup and maintenance involves multiple radio shops.
 
Last edited:

PYuknis

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Aug 5, 2012
Messages
20
Location
Green Cove Springs
"Growing pains, folks. Any major migration of this type will have bugs to be worked out. I've personally never seen a major migration of this type go completely smoothly; there's always something that gets wonky"

Sounds like Hellcare.gov. Those type of mistakes in my job would only happen once. I would be looking for new job.
 

chpalmer

Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2002
Messages
23
Location
Western Washington
Coverage issues alone- there is no excuse. I wonder during their propagation analysis if they even considered the noise floor at their sites. (I sometimes wonder how many in the industry even know how to correctly measure site noise anymore...) Or if anyone did an intermod study... But thats just the basics.

From the looks of some of their licenses my belief is they have tried to implement a simulcast system. My belief is that they may need to go back to the drawing board. Ill leave it at that.




The grass is always greener on the other side till everyone realizes that someone just spilled the paint.
 

wa8pyr

Technischer Guru
Staff member
Lead Database Admin
Joined
Sep 22, 2002
Messages
6,974
Location
Ohio
Coverage issues alone- there is no excuse. I wonder during their propagation analysis if they even considered the noise floor at their sites. (I sometimes wonder how many in the industry even know how to correctly measure site noise anymore...) Or if anyone did an intermod study... But thats just the basics.

From the looks of some of their licenses my belief is they have tried to implement a simulcast system. My belief is that they may need to go back to the drawing board. Ill leave it at that.

There is no simulcast and no new communication systems, just the same ones they had before (minus low band); they've merely changed comm center locations. However, they're trying to link things together in new ways, and this takes time to get used to.

They are planning to migrate to MARCS-IP, so much of what they have now will eventually be used only for paging the volunteer fire departments and local comms by the VFDs. The sheriff has already moved to MARCS-IP and is very impressed with coverage.

Like I said before, growing pains. There have been some missteps, but this is a very ambitious project for a rural county which is consolidating nearly all comm centers in the county into a single center, so it will take a little time.
 

chpalmer

Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2002
Messages
23
Location
Western Washington
There is no simulcast and no new communication systems, just the same ones they had before (minus low band); they've merely changed comm center locations. However, they're trying to link things together in new ways, and this takes time to get used to.

Like I said before, growing pains. There have been some missteps, but this is a very ambitious project for a rural county which is consolidating nearly all comm centers in the county into a single center, so it will take a little time.

Just frustrates me when we work so hard to see that our people don't have problems but our next door neighbors use terms like "its good enough and they will have to get used to it." We lost a deputy next to my area some years ago and the radio system came into question. It wasn't that they (his counterparts) couldn't have talked to each other and dispatch but that they were on different channels and having to deal with the bad guy holding them off and things got very confusing. I can only look at their issues from afar hoping my people never have to experience their loss, but knowing all the time it can happen.

If they are not dealing with a new radio system but one thats been in place then I have to say I absolutely see no room for excuses. They should have known. There is no room for growing pains when public safety is involved. Does that mean they won't happen? No. But I will not allow my people to use that as an excuse for not doing their job. If we screw up we're accountable whether we want that accountability or not. Then if we don't want that accountability then we should be doing something else like working cell phone towers.

On the other side of the coin- there is the possibility that some didn't agree with consolidation and will not in the near future be agreeable, and look to find every problem they can with the new system. Arm-chair engineers should keep this in mind I suppose.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top