Philadelphia Radio Woes

[brey1234]

The city of Philadelphia has released a 175-page audit it commissioned about its emergency preparedness, noting deficiencies in many areas, including communications. The report noted that CAD is being upgraded for police and fire, and the 911 center is being upgraded. But it warned there is no communications in the underground transit tunnels, and that fire and police communication operations are separate. The report recommended that ambulances be equipped with radios to contact hospitals, and integrate city communications with surrounding counties. Download (pdf, 4.1 Mb) the report here:

http://www.phila.gov/pdfs/EPRC_Final_Report.pdf

 

[ctrabs74]

The interesting part is that Montgomery County and Bucks County also have Moto TRS systems, so I don't see how they can't get a compatible radio that would allow access to Philadelphia TGs and suburban TGs.

Delaware County is still conventional analog (radios are also Motorola), so inter-ops with DelCo may be a little iffy at the present time. Chester County has that LTR Multi-Net mess, so short of upgrading to a P25 compliant system, I don't see how Philadelphia will get any inter-ops with ChesCo (though I did see PPD's Tac-Air 1 assist on a search in the Westtown Twp area on Tuesday - right before the storms caused all hell to break loose).

Throw the state's OpenSky garbage into the mix, and you have more inter-op issues...

Note that I'm making these comments without having read the report just yet, but I will do so in a matter of days...

 

[chankel]

Interoperability

A few months before I changed jobs and moved from Maryland, a compact of counties including Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Baltimore City, Harford, and Howard implemented minor changes to their 800 MHz systems that permitted both simplex and repeater operation on all or most of the 5 designated ITAC channels. This story was covered by the local news media as well as audible to anyone monitoring, when the system went online.

It troubles me that other jurisdictions still haven't got coverage that is as well organized. All someone has to do is add the necessary frequencies and PL tones to unassigned channel slots in their radios.

In addition, for those jurisdictions on VHF-high band or UHF there are several designated mutual aid frequencies that have been put forward. Then there are the old standbys like 155.475, 154.28, etc.

Now, get a few key locations and add some patch panels, and/or some mobile command posts with tac stacks, and you have interoperability where there wasn't before. Even with their LTR MUltiNet, ChesCo still put ITAC frequencies in their "county" radios, and they make regular use of them.

Why, oh, why, does the Commonwealth want to stumble ahead with OpenSky when they could instead focus their priorities on increased interoperability? It makes my head hurt.