Montgomery County PSSM Program

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maus92

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Some updates I found about the status of Montgomery County's $100M+radio system upgrade:

Staging was completed over a year ago.
The Purvis Fire Station Alerting subproject is complete, and MOSCAD has been decommissioned.
The Motorola CAD system subproject is complete.
The Records Management System subproject has been restarted (delayed to focus resources on CAD and body camera program.)
The Radio System Infrastructure (sub) Project continues:
Phase 1 of the project installed a new ASTRO core and dispatch consoles at the PSCC in Gaithersburg and AECC in Rockville.
The prime site is at Shady Grove, a site shared with FIRST and MIEMSS.
This will be a 22 site system, expanding from a ~11 site legacy system (from what I can tell.)
The original sites:
- Dickerson
- Germantown
- Hampshire Green
- MCCS
- NRC
- Penn Shop
- Quince Orchard (PEPCO - needs replacement)
- Shady Grove
- White Oak
- Kenwood (to be replaced by Bethesda)
- Takoma Park (to be replaced by Carroll Highlands)

New Sites:
- Damascus
- Bethesda (replaces Kenwood)
- Carroll Highlands (replaces Takoma Park)
- Elmer School
- EOB
- Grosvenor
- Castle Blvd
- Burtonsville
- Bretton Woods
- Brookeville
- Fire Station 16
- Fire Station 30
- ICC (proposed FIRST site - we'll see)

Nine tower sites are leased. Six tower sites will be built ("greenfield.")
 
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Gilligan

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So will this system be independent of FIRST or fully integrated as sites on the FIRST system? And does anyone know approximately how long until it is supposed to be operational?
 

maus92

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So will this system be independent of FIRST or fully integrated as sites on the FIRST system? And does anyone know approximately how long until it is supposed to be operational?
They are independent systems. However, FIRST subscribers will eventually be able to roam onto Montgomery's system for in-building coverage using ISSI. The systems share some physical tower sites and equipment sheds, but since FIRST is designed for portable on-street coverage, it will have few tower sites. FIRST in the NCR is supposed to be operational by the end of this year (which is a fairly ambitious goal.) Not sure about Montgomery's system rebuild - might be another year or two before it is complete.
 

maus92

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Montgomery has a number of microwave licenses that are about to get terminated if they don't actually finish their buildout. Certainly looks like a paperwork oversite, but still....
 

maus92

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Great find with lots of good info. I have to SMH about the ICC site selection - that roadway was highly controversial, and O'Malley basically had to man up and push it through over the objection of community activists and NIMBYists (this is Montgomery County.) One related concession to the community was the construction of a disguise cellular site along the route - it always amuses me when I see that ridiculous structure. The ICC site makes the most environmental sense, the question is the compromise in a shorter tower at the site a way forward. A 250' tower vs. the planned 330' tower would satisfy current requirements for both the county and state system designs, but leave no room for future expansion. My feeling is once the site is built, it would be easier to increase its height in the future than pressing for the full height tower at this time.
 

maus92

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The following is from a Montgomery County Council meeting in early July.* Gives a status report of the build out.

CURRENT STATUS

Motorola was contracted to install a 22-tower configuration which they have certified will meet county public safety personnel requirements by the end of 2020 and within budget. Twenty-two sites were selected, engineered for compliance, and are in various stages of construction:

Non-Greenfield (including existing) sites:
• Construction complete, radio equipment installed: I site • Construction complete, radio equipment to be installed in June 2019: I site
• Construction in progress: 4 sites
• Site preparation in progress: 3 sites
• Permits received, ready for site preparation: 2 sites
• Pre-construction engineering work in progress: 5 sites

Greenfield (new) tower sites:
• Construction in progress: I site (tower is built, shelter is installed)
• Pre-construction engineering work in progress: 3 sites
• Sites not identified: 2 sites RF antenna installations are scheduled for June-July 2019 at sites where construction is complete (tentatively six sites).

Microwave antennas will be installed when construction for most sites is complete.

Due to community concerns in Olney and Bretton Woods, the CE has proposed a change in the program that would deliver a 20-tower solution by December 2020, and an additional two sites at a future time and at an unspecified cost. There are concerns that this delay in full implementation could leave certain parts of the County without 95/95 coverage, at a higher cost. $111,000 has already been spent to assess the feasibility of the 20-site interim solution.*

While the State initially agreed to pull its tower located at the intersection of the ICC and Georgia Avenue and explore an alternate site, the Governor recently indicated that the State will proceed with this site as originally planned. The State portion of the tower will be used to implement Phase 3 of the MD First public safety radio system that spans the entire State, and which may be used as a back-up system for the County radio system, if needed.

* Thc County Council voted to proceed with the originally planned 22 site system, utilizing the state's planned ICC tower. [ed. Sorry (not sorry) NIMBYs.]
 

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