The 700Mhz sites won't be simulcast like the Chattanooga and N. Georgia towers are, they are stand alone sites. Based on testing I'm hearing lately the techs have gotten the towers now on line to link together and work across a wide area. So the primary talkgroup techs use, 1, can be heard on the Chattanooga system as well as whichever 700 site the other radios are on in the outer counties.
Here's an article in Today's Times Free Press that talks about this system about halfway down, even mentions Radio Reference:
Emergency management conference focuses on agency communications
By Todd South
tsouth@timesfreepress.com
Online: Hear TEMA Director James Bassham talk about mutual aid for emergency management. Comment.
When telephone poles snapped and the power grid failed for 103 Kentucky counties during a massive ice storm in January, Brig. Gen. John Heltzel called on surrounding states for help.
One state called him —Tennessee.
Speaking Tuesday at the Emergency Management Association of Tennessee conference in Chattanooga, Brig. Gen. Heltzel, who heads both the Kentucky Division of Emergency Management and the Kentucky Army National Guard, said the storm “knocked down everything in Kentucky.”
Because cell towers and other phone lines were not working in Kentucky, workers from the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency relayed reports from many Kentucky counties to the state’s emergency management personnel, TEMA Director James Bassham said.
The rural western Kentucky counties hit hardest by the storm needed extra personnel, Mr. Bassham said. Through quick phone calls, he and Brig. Gen. Heltzel coordinated the two states’ emergency management resources.
The storm affected only eight counties in northern Tennessee, and after those counties were served, TEMA was able to assist in Kentucky, Mr. Bassham said.
EMS workers arrived in Chattanooga on Monday for the annual Emergency Management Association of Tennessee conference, which will last until Thursday at the Chattanooga Convention Center.
An afternoon panel discussion brought communications experts from across the state to talk about interoperability — the ability of emergency services to reach each other on common radio frequencies.
Citing lessons from Sept. 11, 2001, panel members pointed to still-needed improvements in training and coordination that will help emergency workers talk across the state.
TEMA communications specialist John Johnson said an example of interoperability is the Tennessee Valley Regional Trunking System, an 800-mhz system that is planned to link emergency communications from North Georgia to Knoxville.
“It’s basically a management tool,” Mr. Johnson said.
The work to finish construction, equipment and training should result in smoother communication among participating agencies in the Tennessee Valley once the project is completed, he said.
The project is scheduled for completion about July 2010, according to the Radio reference.com Web site.
