Hagåtñam, Guam - Police radios zapped: Lightning forces officers to use cellphones

[Thunderbolt]

HAGATNA, Guam -- Many local law enforcement radios went mute for nearly three hours yesterday after bad weather knocked the radio system offline.

Police radios zapped: Lightning forces officers to use cellphones | Pacific Daily News | guampdn.com

 

[radioman2001]

Sounds like the system went into failsoft, I guess they are pretty lucky if this has happened only once since the system was installed. Hence nobody knew that all radios would switch a predetermine frequency as a community repeater.

 

[Thunderbolt]

Follow up article:

Upgrade: Don't wait for tragedy before replacing old, outdated radio system | Pacific Daily News | guampdn.com

 

[radioman2001]

I wonder if Guam has to narrow band, good place for the non-compliant equipment to get shipped off to. I can't see a small nation like that needing a Smartzone digital trunking system.

 

[AA4TX]

Guam is U.S. territory.

I wonder if Guam has to narrow band, good place for the non-compliant equipment to get shipped off to. I can't see a small nation like that needing a Smartzone digital trunking system.

 

[Seadoo]

Sounds like the system went into failsoft, I guess they are pretty lucky if this has happened only once since the system was installed. Hence nobody knew that all radios would switch a predetermine frequency as a community repeater.

That is exactly what happend radioman, The system went into failsoft mode. The way the press puts it in the article, If the departments didnt know that the system went into failsoft mode, which is hard to belive since 90% of the time, when a trunking system goes into failsoft, it will display it on the radio that they are in failsoft mode and what site they are operating on. The only radios that would be affected by going silent are the radios that are out of range of the operating towers and close to the site that is down. By the sounds of the article, looks like the lighting took out the zone controller or its backbone at one of the sites.

 

[902]

I wonder if Guam has to narrow band, good place for the non-compliant equipment to get shipped off to. I can't see a small nation like that needing a Smartzone digital trunking system.

Yeah, they do, even though there are only 55 Part 90 licenses (a whopping 3 active licenses are "PW") listed in all of the territory according to ULS.

 

[reedeb]

I do believe MOST of Guam is controlle by the military. So the narrow band requirement may not be that bad there. I have a friend there I'll ask her.