ScanManQSL
Member
I found this lurking on the web. The forgotten history of Montgomery County.
The early days of Fire radio
The first organized fire department in Montgomery County was the Silver Spring Volunteer Fire Company in 1915. There was no true form of communications in the fire department until the early 1940's. The Silver Spring Fire Department established a small dispatching system using low band frequency 2-way radios at their Station 1 on Georgia Ave, downtown. During the 1940's, other departments followed Silver Spring's example & established their own systems.
In 1952, Silver Spring modified their system & moved to Station 16 located in Four Corners. Single tone paging was used to alert stations & trip the house sirens. The telephone using ringer voltage was used as a backup to activate the house sirens. This capabilty was available up into the 1990's. They provided a link to several other departments & became the first true dispatch center for the lower County. Soon after, the County installed a similar system at the County Road Shop in Washington Grove, providing a secondary dispatch center for the six upper County fire departments. With the increasing call load & rising cost to operate, the County took over responsibility for the operation of both centers in 1958. The lower County departments were on Fireboard 1 & the upper County departments were on Fireboard 2.
Once the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) was completed in 1962, both Police & Fire dispatch were placed in the same location. It was then, that the new Fire EOC consolidated both the Four Corners & Washington Grove centers. Just like the police side, a card system on a track was used for dispatching. Later on, the practice of separate dispatch for lower County & Upper County was done away with. This is the reason that Channel 2 became the main dispatch channel for Fire/Rescue up until 2003. In 1980, the MODAT system was installed in the Fire/Rescue units so they could make status changes without talking on the radio. In late 1981, the repeater for channel 2 was installed to assist in coverage. In the fall of 1982, the Intrac & Quik Call II paging replaced the origional Motorola Selective Calling (2+2) paging system. The Intrac triped the in-house station alerting, then followed by a pager tone.
In November of 1989, the Emergency Communications Center (ECC) was completed & the dispatch operations for Fire/Rescue was moved to the 3rd floor of 120 Maryland Ave. The track & card system was replaced by a Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD). The new CAD system was integrated with the current Intrac & paging system. During this time, there were 4 shifts. The schedule was 2, 2 & 4. Work 2 days, work 2 nights, 4 days off. Each shift had a Lieutenant supervisor, dispatcher on Channel 2, a dispatcher taking calls & monitoring the mutual aid channel, & another dispatcher taking calls & making notifications to the hospitals.
On July 20th 2003, the Fire ECC along with the Police, moved to the current PSCC location. The moved required additional personel to staff the center. The EMD system was installed with the new CAD. The 800mhz radio system provides a greater number of channels (talk groups). 7A (alpha) is the main dispatch talk group, 7B (bravo) is the operations talk group, 7C (charlie) is the first major incident talk group. During this time, MDC's (Mobile Date Computers) were installed into all Fire/Rescue units. This allows for units to make their own status changes, view call screens providing details of the call, send & receive messages from the dispatchers & view the running routes on the Altaris map. The Fire ECC now works 24hr shifts to coincide with field personel.
The early Days of Police Radio
In the fall of 1943, MCP installed it's own 2-way radio system. WKYX went on the air with the main transmitter in Rockville. The radio room was located in the old court house. At this time, there were 7 police officer dispatchers. Due to the very low band radio being used, radio coverage was spotty at the least. Another problem back then was a radio "skip." If atmospheric conditions were right, you could here transmissions from Albuquerquw, NM and sometimes Memphis, TN. During this time, citizens had to call their closest police station, the desk clerks would take the info, select a beat car, call the radio room, then the radio room would dispatch over the radio.
By 1963, the Communications Section was staffed by 25 civilian radio dispatchers & 10 officers. This same year, a central emergency phone number was established for citizens in the County to call, 762-1000. Soon after, 3 new radio channels were placed into service. One was assigned for Bethesda & Silver Spring combined. The second was for Rockville & Wheaton combined. The third was for special operations. By this time, the Cold War was increasingly on everyones mind. With funding from County, State, Federal & a Civil Defense grant, a new Emergency Operations Center (EOC) was constructed underground. On January 8th 1964, the EOC was opened. The EOC is located under 120 Maryland Ave in Rockville. Lieutenant Donald Brooks was designated as the commander for the Communications Section. The EOC was a state of the art bunker, blast proof construction, designed to withstand a Hiroshima sized atom blast. It was self contained, generators, cooling systems, bathroom facilities, all mounted on springs. Able to accommodate 70 people for 30 days. In the next coming years, the delivery of more powerful hydrogen bombs & ICBM's made it clear that an underground facility was useless. The lack of daylight, additional staffing in cramped quaters, busier radios had an impact on turn-over in the 1970's.
By the 1980's, it was clear there was a need for more room & improved technology. In 1986, the plan was approved for a new Communications Section to be built ontop of the EOC at the corner of Maryland Ave & Fleet St, next to the Council Office Building (COB). The new building was renamed the Emergency Communication Center (ECC) & opened in November of 1989. The ECC housed a new Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system which replaced the use of cards. Five ultra high frequency channels were placed into service, one channel for each of the five districts. Plus five side-band channels for car-to-car talk around capabilities. The ECC housed Police communications on the first floor & Fire/Rescue on the third floor.
Near the end of the 1990's, the ECC had already outgrown itself with the radio's becoming dangerously busy at times. Channel 5 (Germantown) became a huge challenge due to an explosion in population of the Gaithersburg/Germantown area. At times, there would be over 100 officers working on one channel. Because of this & other improvements in radio, phone & computer technology, the PS2000 plan was implemented & became the biggest undertaking in the departments history. After seven years of developement, testing & construction, the Public Safety Communications Center (PSCC) went online, July 20th 2003, dispatching both Police & Fire/Rescue.
The early days of Fire radio
The first organized fire department in Montgomery County was the Silver Spring Volunteer Fire Company in 1915. There was no true form of communications in the fire department until the early 1940's. The Silver Spring Fire Department established a small dispatching system using low band frequency 2-way radios at their Station 1 on Georgia Ave, downtown. During the 1940's, other departments followed Silver Spring's example & established their own systems.
In 1952, Silver Spring modified their system & moved to Station 16 located in Four Corners. Single tone paging was used to alert stations & trip the house sirens. The telephone using ringer voltage was used as a backup to activate the house sirens. This capabilty was available up into the 1990's. They provided a link to several other departments & became the first true dispatch center for the lower County. Soon after, the County installed a similar system at the County Road Shop in Washington Grove, providing a secondary dispatch center for the six upper County fire departments. With the increasing call load & rising cost to operate, the County took over responsibility for the operation of both centers in 1958. The lower County departments were on Fireboard 1 & the upper County departments were on Fireboard 2.
Once the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) was completed in 1962, both Police & Fire dispatch were placed in the same location. It was then, that the new Fire EOC consolidated both the Four Corners & Washington Grove centers. Just like the police side, a card system on a track was used for dispatching. Later on, the practice of separate dispatch for lower County & Upper County was done away with. This is the reason that Channel 2 became the main dispatch channel for Fire/Rescue up until 2003. In 1980, the MODAT system was installed in the Fire/Rescue units so they could make status changes without talking on the radio. In late 1981, the repeater for channel 2 was installed to assist in coverage. In the fall of 1982, the Intrac & Quik Call II paging replaced the origional Motorola Selective Calling (2+2) paging system. The Intrac triped the in-house station alerting, then followed by a pager tone.
In November of 1989, the Emergency Communications Center (ECC) was completed & the dispatch operations for Fire/Rescue was moved to the 3rd floor of 120 Maryland Ave. The track & card system was replaced by a Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD). The new CAD system was integrated with the current Intrac & paging system. During this time, there were 4 shifts. The schedule was 2, 2 & 4. Work 2 days, work 2 nights, 4 days off. Each shift had a Lieutenant supervisor, dispatcher on Channel 2, a dispatcher taking calls & monitoring the mutual aid channel, & another dispatcher taking calls & making notifications to the hospitals.
On July 20th 2003, the Fire ECC along with the Police, moved to the current PSCC location. The moved required additional personel to staff the center. The EMD system was installed with the new CAD. The 800mhz radio system provides a greater number of channels (talk groups). 7A (alpha) is the main dispatch talk group, 7B (bravo) is the operations talk group, 7C (charlie) is the first major incident talk group. During this time, MDC's (Mobile Date Computers) were installed into all Fire/Rescue units. This allows for units to make their own status changes, view call screens providing details of the call, send & receive messages from the dispatchers & view the running routes on the Altaris map. The Fire ECC now works 24hr shifts to coincide with field personel.
The early Days of Police Radio
In the fall of 1943, MCP installed it's own 2-way radio system. WKYX went on the air with the main transmitter in Rockville. The radio room was located in the old court house. At this time, there were 7 police officer dispatchers. Due to the very low band radio being used, radio coverage was spotty at the least. Another problem back then was a radio "skip." If atmospheric conditions were right, you could here transmissions from Albuquerquw, NM and sometimes Memphis, TN. During this time, citizens had to call their closest police station, the desk clerks would take the info, select a beat car, call the radio room, then the radio room would dispatch over the radio.
By 1963, the Communications Section was staffed by 25 civilian radio dispatchers & 10 officers. This same year, a central emergency phone number was established for citizens in the County to call, 762-1000. Soon after, 3 new radio channels were placed into service. One was assigned for Bethesda & Silver Spring combined. The second was for Rockville & Wheaton combined. The third was for special operations. By this time, the Cold War was increasingly on everyones mind. With funding from County, State, Federal & a Civil Defense grant, a new Emergency Operations Center (EOC) was constructed underground. On January 8th 1964, the EOC was opened. The EOC is located under 120 Maryland Ave in Rockville. Lieutenant Donald Brooks was designated as the commander for the Communications Section. The EOC was a state of the art bunker, blast proof construction, designed to withstand a Hiroshima sized atom blast. It was self contained, generators, cooling systems, bathroom facilities, all mounted on springs. Able to accommodate 70 people for 30 days. In the next coming years, the delivery of more powerful hydrogen bombs & ICBM's made it clear that an underground facility was useless. The lack of daylight, additional staffing in cramped quaters, busier radios had an impact on turn-over in the 1970's.
By the 1980's, it was clear there was a need for more room & improved technology. In 1986, the plan was approved for a new Communications Section to be built ontop of the EOC at the corner of Maryland Ave & Fleet St, next to the Council Office Building (COB). The new building was renamed the Emergency Communication Center (ECC) & opened in November of 1989. The ECC housed a new Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system which replaced the use of cards. Five ultra high frequency channels were placed into service, one channel for each of the five districts. Plus five side-band channels for car-to-car talk around capabilities. The ECC housed Police communications on the first floor & Fire/Rescue on the third floor.
Near the end of the 1990's, the ECC had already outgrown itself with the radio's becoming dangerously busy at times. Channel 5 (Germantown) became a huge challenge due to an explosion in population of the Gaithersburg/Germantown area. At times, there would be over 100 officers working on one channel. Because of this & other improvements in radio, phone & computer technology, the PS2000 plan was implemented & became the biggest undertaking in the departments history. After seven years of developement, testing & construction, the Public Safety Communications Center (PSCC) went online, July 20th 2003, dispatching both Police & Fire/Rescue.
