Lebanon County's Emergency Management Agency dispatchers will soon be using a new system to communicate with emergency responders.
The county commissioners yesterday gave their unanimous approval to a $10.4 million plan to modernize the current system. Money for the project, which was first proposed about 21 months ago, was appropriated earlier this year when the commissioners issued a $16 million bond.
Work on converting to the new system will begin after contracts are signed next month and will take about a year to complete, said county EMA Director Daniel Kauffman.
"We should be able to go live by 2005," he told the commissioners.
The system will equip police, firefighters, fire police and medical technicians with upgraded portable and mobile radios for wireless communication with dispatchers and each other on a mid-frequency UHF band that will be more reliable and clearer than the current, low-frequency system, said communications consultant Fred Short. The system will also include pagers that provide written messages, eliminating the need for unreliable voice pagers
Communications will travel between seven cell-phone tower sites located throughout the county that will provide 95 percent coverage, including inside buildings, said Short.
The county already owns two cell towers and should be able to arrange space on five others at no cost or reduced rent, he said. The system will also be able to communicate with counties like Lancaster that use different systems, said Short.
The county's emergency responders are in favor of the system, said Kauffman.
"I've gotten very little negative feedback in the past couple of months about this," he said. "I think everybody has to realize, too -- and I'm speaking police, fire and EMS -- a lot of their radio equipment is going to be obsolete in another 10 years."
The equipment will be purchased by the county from M/A-Com Wireless Systems, a unit of Tyco Electronics. Purchase price for the equipment will be set using a state contract, said county administrator Jamie Wolgemuth.
M/A-Com has had trouble implementing a system called Open Sky that was purchased by the state, but the system Lebanon County will be purchasing uses a different technology called EDACS -- Enhanced Digital Access Communications Systems -- that has a much better track record, said Short.
Other suppliers were considered, including Motorola, but M/A-Com's system had advantages, said Short. Among them was analog-to-digital communications capability.
Although the M/A-Com system is digital, the new county radios will be able to communicate with analog equipment, according to Short. That is a feature that Motorola lacks and one that will benefit volunteer firefighters who want to purchase less expensive equipment, he said.
Police will want to use digital radios because their message can be encrypted, said Short. They will also be equipped with a "panic button" that an officer in distress can press and alert others to his location, he added.
Purchasing Motorola equipment also would have required expensive alterations to the console used at the county EMA's communications center, Short said.
The first step in converting to the new system will be to install the infrastructure, including the cell towers, said Short. Once the system is up and running, there will be a period of about six months during which emergency responders will be operating both the old and new systems while the kinks are worked out, he said.
Residents who like to listen to emergency communications on old scanners will be able to do for a while longer, said Kauffman, but eventually they will have to update their equipment.
"There is also some talk about simulcasting on low band for awhile, but I don't know how long that is going to be in place ... a couple years at least," he said.
FD/FP/EMS -- Analog
County Police / EMA -- Digital Pro-Voice
The county commissioners yesterday gave their unanimous approval to a $10.4 million plan to modernize the current system. Money for the project, which was first proposed about 21 months ago, was appropriated earlier this year when the commissioners issued a $16 million bond.
Work on converting to the new system will begin after contracts are signed next month and will take about a year to complete, said county EMA Director Daniel Kauffman.
"We should be able to go live by 2005," he told the commissioners.
The system will equip police, firefighters, fire police and medical technicians with upgraded portable and mobile radios for wireless communication with dispatchers and each other on a mid-frequency UHF band that will be more reliable and clearer than the current, low-frequency system, said communications consultant Fred Short. The system will also include pagers that provide written messages, eliminating the need for unreliable voice pagers
Communications will travel between seven cell-phone tower sites located throughout the county that will provide 95 percent coverage, including inside buildings, said Short.
The county already owns two cell towers and should be able to arrange space on five others at no cost or reduced rent, he said. The system will also be able to communicate with counties like Lancaster that use different systems, said Short.
The county's emergency responders are in favor of the system, said Kauffman.
"I've gotten very little negative feedback in the past couple of months about this," he said. "I think everybody has to realize, too -- and I'm speaking police, fire and EMS -- a lot of their radio equipment is going to be obsolete in another 10 years."
The equipment will be purchased by the county from M/A-Com Wireless Systems, a unit of Tyco Electronics. Purchase price for the equipment will be set using a state contract, said county administrator Jamie Wolgemuth.
M/A-Com has had trouble implementing a system called Open Sky that was purchased by the state, but the system Lebanon County will be purchasing uses a different technology called EDACS -- Enhanced Digital Access Communications Systems -- that has a much better track record, said Short.
Other suppliers were considered, including Motorola, but M/A-Com's system had advantages, said Short. Among them was analog-to-digital communications capability.
Although the M/A-Com system is digital, the new county radios will be able to communicate with analog equipment, according to Short. That is a feature that Motorola lacks and one that will benefit volunteer firefighters who want to purchase less expensive equipment, he said.
Police will want to use digital radios because their message can be encrypted, said Short. They will also be equipped with a "panic button" that an officer in distress can press and alert others to his location, he added.
Purchasing Motorola equipment also would have required expensive alterations to the console used at the county EMA's communications center, Short said.
The first step in converting to the new system will be to install the infrastructure, including the cell towers, said Short. Once the system is up and running, there will be a period of about six months during which emergency responders will be operating both the old and new systems while the kinks are worked out, he said.
Residents who like to listen to emergency communications on old scanners will be able to do for a while longer, said Kauffman, but eventually they will have to update their equipment.
"There is also some talk about simulcasting on low band for awhile, but I don't know how long that is going to be in place ... a couple years at least," he said.
FD/FP/EMS -- Analog
County Police / EMA -- Digital Pro-Voice
