shew
Member
Houma Courier, via the web
houmatoday.com.
Houma PD is changing frequencies starting in July.
When a Houma PD officer needs to communicate with another law
enforcement agency for example Terrebonne Parish Sheriff's office,
the officer has two choices.
The first is to radio his police dispatch and have the dispatcher
relay the message to the sheriff's office dispatcher, and then to
the appropriate deputy who then has to send a reply back the same
way.
The second choice is to go thru the parish's 911 communications
system. The 911 dispatch center has a patch button that allows us
to connect different frequencies said Executive Director Mark
Boudreaux of the 911 district.
Because the police department radios operate on the 155 megahertz
band they are not compatible with the sheriff's office radios which
use frequencies in the 800 MHZ. band.
Houma police also have dead zones with the current system where they
are unable to keep in touch with each other.
The current plan is for the police department to move the available
frequencies currently leased by the Terrebonne Parish Consolidated
Goverment. There is also a plan to move all emergency agencies to
the 700 Mhz. frequency so that Nextel can take over the 800 mhz.
band.
The primary force behind the move is interoperability or the ability
of different agencies to communicate directly.
Following the 9-11 attacks the federal goverment placed a premium on
this to reduce problems in an emergency.
On the local level those involved in a post hurricane meetings and
the anti-terrorist task force identified interoperability as a top
priority.
Interoperability works under the concept of trunking or using a few
communications path for a large number of users.
In this group all agencies would be on the same frequency group in
this case the 800 mhz band, when a user tries to contact another
user, a central computer finds an available frequency and directs
radio traffic to that frequency.
Trunking will allow direct communication between users who are
working on separate agencies, provided they have the same priority
access.
Boudreaux said the change in equipment, hardware and software will
cost some $250 thousand dollars, but with the federal goverment
wanting the change, most will be picked up with federal grant money.
The biggest cost is for engineering including a $9000 cost the
parish approved to pay Metairie based engineering firm MS Benbow and
Associates to develop a license package for the FCC to approve.
Boudreaux said most of the leg work will be done by summer to switch
Houma PD to the 700 Mhz. band.
Plans are under way for Nextell to assume the 800 Mhz band and move
emergency frequencies to the 700 band...Under what is known as the
consensus plan Nextell will have to pay for all costs to move those
agencies.
This radio system is not built for now...its built for the future,
so it will help in moving to the 700 band.
Courier Writer Seth Fox wrote this article.
houmatoday.com.
Houma PD is changing frequencies starting in July.
When a Houma PD officer needs to communicate with another law
enforcement agency for example Terrebonne Parish Sheriff's office,
the officer has two choices.
The first is to radio his police dispatch and have the dispatcher
relay the message to the sheriff's office dispatcher, and then to
the appropriate deputy who then has to send a reply back the same
way.
The second choice is to go thru the parish's 911 communications
system. The 911 dispatch center has a patch button that allows us
to connect different frequencies said Executive Director Mark
Boudreaux of the 911 district.
Because the police department radios operate on the 155 megahertz
band they are not compatible with the sheriff's office radios which
use frequencies in the 800 MHZ. band.
Houma police also have dead zones with the current system where they
are unable to keep in touch with each other.
The current plan is for the police department to move the available
frequencies currently leased by the Terrebonne Parish Consolidated
Goverment. There is also a plan to move all emergency agencies to
the 700 Mhz. frequency so that Nextel can take over the 800 mhz.
band.
The primary force behind the move is interoperability or the ability
of different agencies to communicate directly.
Following the 9-11 attacks the federal goverment placed a premium on
this to reduce problems in an emergency.
On the local level those involved in a post hurricane meetings and
the anti-terrorist task force identified interoperability as a top
priority.
Interoperability works under the concept of trunking or using a few
communications path for a large number of users.
In this group all agencies would be on the same frequency group in
this case the 800 mhz band, when a user tries to contact another
user, a central computer finds an available frequency and directs
radio traffic to that frequency.
Trunking will allow direct communication between users who are
working on separate agencies, provided they have the same priority
access.
Boudreaux said the change in equipment, hardware and software will
cost some $250 thousand dollars, but with the federal goverment
wanting the change, most will be picked up with federal grant money.
The biggest cost is for engineering including a $9000 cost the
parish approved to pay Metairie based engineering firm MS Benbow and
Associates to develop a license package for the FCC to approve.
Boudreaux said most of the leg work will be done by summer to switch
Houma PD to the 700 Mhz. band.
Plans are under way for Nextell to assume the 800 Mhz band and move
emergency frequencies to the 700 band...Under what is known as the
consensus plan Nextell will have to pay for all costs to move those
agencies.
This radio system is not built for now...its built for the future,
so it will help in moving to the 700 band.
Courier Writer Seth Fox wrote this article.
