here is a copy of the letter fireboard sent to all departments about the decision to not narrowband take note they talk about the upcoming 700mhz system at the end of the letter
December 10, 2012
To all Fire & EMS Chiefs & Officers:
This notice is to advise you that all fire and medical radio frequencies will not be narrow banded at this time, in contrast to what has been previously scheduled. However, the VHF paging frequency, which was still mandated for narrow banding, has been completed. The Apollo pagers are fully operational.
In August of this year everyone was advised that your radio frequencies would be narrow banded before January 1, 2013, but not to make any changes until notified by Steve Giancristoforo from this office. If you have already narrow banded any of your radios please contact your radio vendor to have those radios changed back to wide band (25 kHz) immediately.
However, several months ago the FCC reversed their mandate that all licenses in the 470-512 MHz band be narrow banded (from 25 kHz to 12.5 kHz) by January 1, 2013. This was done following the recently enacted “Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012” which states, “Not later than nine years after the date of enactment, the commission shall relocate the spectrum in the 470-512 MHz band (“T-band”
and begin a system of competitive bidding of the spectrum.” The Act also provides that “relocation of public safety entities from the “T-band spectrum” (to the 700 MHz band) shall be completed no later than two years after completion of the system of competitive bidding.
Following the above change Ed Truitt received a letter from T. Fred Short, the Delaware County Engineer/Consultant, who has been working on the narrow banding of our public safety frequencies with Steve Giancristoforo. The final statement in his letter reads, “In my opinion, and in light of the fact that the Police and Fire communities operate independently, we should leave the fire systems on wide band.” His opinion was further strengthened by the fact that the fire companies in the county operate on may different frequencies by the nature of their mutual aid responses, RIT responses, and further complicated by the fact that many fire companies have not yet replaced their outdated mobile and/or portable radios.
Following the letter from Mr. Short, Ed Truitt requested the opinion of the Emergency Services Advisory Committee (ESAC) regarding the issue of narrow banding the fire and medical frequencies. The ESAC Chairman Thomas Murray called a special meeting of the committee on December 5. At the conclusion of the meeting the ESAC instructed Chairman Murray to advise Mr. Truitt that they agreed that although the radio infrastructure throughout the county has already been upgraded, the fire and medical frequencies should be left on wide band at this time. In addition, the committee stressed that the county should begin now to plan for the migration to the 700 MHz radio system. This will allow us to position ourselves to be ready when the private sector starts inquiring about our current frequencies.
We will keep you informed as things progress in this area of emergency communications. Thank you for your understanding and patience over the past two years concerning this issue.
Sincerely,
John F. Gallagher
Deputy Director