FYI from the Monroe evening News 1-21-05
County working on 800 MHz problems - 01/20/2005
While the two radio systems are patched together, there have been some problems with communications.
By ANDY ROGERS
With the project one week ahead of schedule, all Monroe County law enforcement agencies have received mobile 800 MHz equipment needed to operate on the county's new emergency radio system.
Lt. David Thompson, coordinator of the new 800 MHz radio system project, said county fire departments are next in line to receive the equipment in their vehicles.
The new $9 million 800 MHz system and the old VHF system continue to be patched together, however, so all agencies can hear communications while mobile radio installation is finished.
"We're looking at getting off the law enforcement patch, hopefully, by the end of next week," Lt. Thompson said. "Where the two systems are still connected together, we have to make sure that we can record the (communications), before we go off the patch."
Recording equipment will be installed next week. Once that happens, all law enforcement agencies will use the 800 MHz system exclusively, while the fire departments will continue to use both the new and the old systems at once.
Patching the two systems together has caused garbled audio in some instances and officials are anxious to see how the 800 MHz system performs on its own.
"There are some areas where the radios are having difficulty," Lt. Thompson said. "There's some coverage problems that we'll be looking at once everything is done as far as installation and we are off the patches, so we can take a look at the 800 system by itself."
Areas inside the City of Monroe and in southern portions of the county have experienced the most trouble with the new system. There have been reports of garbled communications and the altogether failure of communication capabilities.
"We've been getting city officers that have had some problems in some areas and down in the Erie and Bedford area, too," Lt. Thompson said. "We haven't gotten any reports in the north area, but right now it's just the law enforcement primarily using the system. We'll have a better idea once we get all agencies using the system. We'll be able to determine where the problems are and then we'll start looking at the coverage area."
Lt. Thompson said no radio system is capable of 100 percent coverage and noted that even the old system wasn't operable in all areas of the county.
He also explained that some radio operators are still adjusting to the new system, too. Unlike the older VHF platforms, only one user in a particular talk group can broadcast at a time with the 800 MHz system. Some radio users may still be adjusting to the change, he said.
By the end of February, both law enforcement and fire departments will be using the new system, he said.
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Last updated 01/20/05 - 01:53:59 pm EST