Extending Range of Alerting Channel

[KC2ZHY]

I am very new at this larger system-based equipment stuff, so please bear with me.

I work in a hospital which has very poor radio reception in the basement and East side, inconveniently the same area where the emergency department is. As such, EMS agencies in the emergency department being paged for additional calls are in a dead zone, which is causing delayed responses and this delays in patient care. I work for the EMS department there, which uses a system of recorders and retransmitters for every time the two-tones are dropped. Unfortunately, this delays the page the length of the transmission AND causes any additional transmissions for additional calls to be completely blocked out during the retransmission, which causes frequent missed calls and thus delays.

Therefore, I'm asking what hardware I need to look into to create a "mini-base station" (pardon if my terminology is incorrect) in that particular area of the hospital where I can work with the dispatch center to patch into their system and have it transmit like every other tower set up on the simulcast in the county. I believe their towers are linked over IP (maybe a T1 line), but I can't say for sure so I need other options for other means as well.

Thanks in advance!

 

[popnokick]

The hospital needs a DAS (Distributed Antenna System). They are made by companies like CommScope, Corning, Macom, and installed by authorized installers such as InnerWireless and local firms who specialize in mobile communications, in-building wireless, and DAS.

 

[902]

It's been done before.

This was also the situation when Miccom began dispatching the Bergen/Passaic MIC Consortium. Englewood Hospital ER (where the paramedics usually were in between calls) was in a dead spot for their primary transmitter on HMC (before they had a "U" in it). What they did as an economical solution was place a Mitrek consolette with a quarter wave antenna at the ER. They ran a telephone line between EH and HMC and tied the base into that. The dispatcher sent the two-tone alert page for what was then ALS 4 over that base station. The dispatcher could also receive talk-back traffic through the consolette radio.

This was 30 years ago, and there are better ways of doing this now. This could also be done through RoIP. And, then, they can do simulcast so there is no delay and no one can forget to switch over to the wide-area system...

PM me if you'd like more info. I'm from NJ, too, originally.