CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A multimillion-dollar plan to convert Kanawha County's emergency service agencies to a digital radio system may not be all it's purported to be.
Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper has asked for a complete review of the county's radio plan, and has asked state officials to discuss the digital radio system at a regular meeting of the Kanawha County Commission today.
Although Carper believes the new digital radio system is needed, he wants to make sure the radios work the way they're supposed to. "There have been serious issues raised," he said Wednesday. "I expect the vendor and the manufacturer to defend their product."
County officials had planned to switch all communications between the county's fire departments, police departments and other emergency agencies to a digital system within the next three years.
State officials already have spent about $40 million on digital radio systems in the state. In June, Carper announced a $1 million grant to buy digital radios for the county to tie into the system. The Charleston Fire Department is already on the digital system.
But police and fire departments using similar digital radio systems all over the country are starting to report problems. According to a May report by the International Association of Fire Chiefs, the digital radio signals can be stymied by background noise, oxygen masks or simply walking into a building.
Some users have found that the noise from high winds, fire engines or emergency saws interferes with the digital radio signals and makes speech unintelligible. The radios sometimes don't work inside buildings, according to several trade publications.
Officials in Virginia believe the digital system's inability to cope with field conditions contributed to the death of a firefighter in April 2007.
Firefighters in Indianapolis are asking local officials to rethink a $37 million project to switch to the digital radio system because of concerns that the technology doesn't work in the field, media in Indiana reported last month. And the city of Phoenix scrapped its digital radio system after spending about $120 million on the project.
Dave Erwin, Emergency Operations Center Coordinator for the Kanawha County Metro 911 center, said he is aware of the reported problems.
Erwin said the problems with digital radios are inherent with digital technology. But he said many of the shortcomings reported in other parts of the country are with earlier versions of the system.
"It's like any other technology," Erwin said. "Each generation that comes out, there are upgrades that are put into it."
The Charleston Police Department has been using the digital radios for months for traffic calls, and the Charleston Fire Department recently switched to the new digital system.
Erwin said local officials and emergency crews have tested the digital radios extensively and found them to work well. But, just in case, Erwin said the county's digital radios have extra analog channels built in as backup in case the digital signals fail.
http://wvgazette.com/News/200807230666?page=1&build=cache
Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper has asked for a complete review of the county's radio plan, and has asked state officials to discuss the digital radio system at a regular meeting of the Kanawha County Commission today.
Although Carper believes the new digital radio system is needed, he wants to make sure the radios work the way they're supposed to. "There have been serious issues raised," he said Wednesday. "I expect the vendor and the manufacturer to defend their product."
County officials had planned to switch all communications between the county's fire departments, police departments and other emergency agencies to a digital system within the next three years.
State officials already have spent about $40 million on digital radio systems in the state. In June, Carper announced a $1 million grant to buy digital radios for the county to tie into the system. The Charleston Fire Department is already on the digital system.
But police and fire departments using similar digital radio systems all over the country are starting to report problems. According to a May report by the International Association of Fire Chiefs, the digital radio signals can be stymied by background noise, oxygen masks or simply walking into a building.
Some users have found that the noise from high winds, fire engines or emergency saws interferes with the digital radio signals and makes speech unintelligible. The radios sometimes don't work inside buildings, according to several trade publications.
Officials in Virginia believe the digital system's inability to cope with field conditions contributed to the death of a firefighter in April 2007.
Firefighters in Indianapolis are asking local officials to rethink a $37 million project to switch to the digital radio system because of concerns that the technology doesn't work in the field, media in Indiana reported last month. And the city of Phoenix scrapped its digital radio system after spending about $120 million on the project.
Dave Erwin, Emergency Operations Center Coordinator for the Kanawha County Metro 911 center, said he is aware of the reported problems.
Erwin said the problems with digital radios are inherent with digital technology. But he said many of the shortcomings reported in other parts of the country are with earlier versions of the system.
"It's like any other technology," Erwin said. "Each generation that comes out, there are upgrades that are put into it."
The Charleston Police Department has been using the digital radios for months for traffic calls, and the Charleston Fire Department recently switched to the new digital system.
Erwin said local officials and emergency crews have tested the digital radios extensively and found them to work well. But, just in case, Erwin said the county's digital radios have extra analog channels built in as backup in case the digital signals fail.
http://wvgazette.com/News/200807230666?page=1&build=cache
