John Berry \/ The Post-StandardA new $102 million digital emergency radio system will link police, fire and rescue agencies in even the most remote areas, such as Oneida Lake’s Big Bay, where members of the Brewerton and Constantia fire departments recently took part in an advanced ice rescue training class.<\/p>\n
Syracuse, NY — A Camillus police officer who saw an unoccupied patrol car get hit from behind last month couldn\u2019t alert 911 about the driver\u2019s injury because of a \u201cdead spot\u201d in emergency radio coverage. A second officer heard the call and relayed the message. Onondaga County sheriff\u2019s deputies and Syracuse officers experience a different frustration: Patrolling officers from the two departments cannot talk by police radio without asking a 911 dispatcher to connect them. And Phoenix firefighters who cover Oswego and Onondaga counties have another concern: They are dispatched from two radios because the counties\u2019 systems are incompatible. These glitches are expected to be fixed by a $102 million communication system that will link four counties, require retraining of police and fire personnel, and affect thousands who tune in to police and fire radio traffic. Volunteer firefighters, police officers, paid firefighters, paramedics, journalists and scores of police and fire buffs will have to scrap their analog scanner for a digital model that costs five to six times more. The area\u2019s 15,000 public safety personnel who use two-way radios will need new devices three to five times their former cost.<\/p>\n
\nWhy now? Onondaga County\u2019s upgrade to its 40-year-old radio system begins gradually next month. For some, it\u2019s long overdue.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe\u2019re one of the dinosaurs to make this change,\u201d said Manlius Police Capt. Bill Bleyle, who is coordinating the project among Onondaga County police departments. \u201cI can\u2019t talk to Syracuse police right now, unless I had one of their radios.\u201d John Berry \/ The Post-StandardA new $102 million digital emergency radio system will link police, fire and rescue agencies in even the most remote areas, such as Oneida Lake’s Big Bay, where members of the Brewerton and Constantia fire departments recently took part in an advanced ice rescue training class. Syracuse, NY — A Camillus…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29597,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[25,143,194,372],"class_list":["post-18932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ham-radio-news","tag-25","tag-emergency-comms","tag-ham_radio","tag-radio","category-5","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cqdx.ru\/ham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cqdx.ru\/ham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cqdx.ru\/ham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cqdx.ru\/ham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cqdx.ru\/ham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cqdx.ru\/ham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cqdx.ru\/ham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cqdx.ru\/ham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cqdx.ru\/ham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cqdx.ru\/ham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nA study as far back as 2000 found the county needed a new system. That was highlighted by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York City when emergency responders coming from across the country couldn\u2019t communicate because their radios didn\u2019t work together, Bleyle said.
\nThe chief of the Phoenix Fire Department, which straddles the border of Oswego and Onondaga counties, said his firefighters aren\u2019t able to use their primary radios to communicate with departments in Onondaga County or the 911 center there.
\nAt a fire scene, all the departments involved rely on antiquated, low-band radios to talk to one another.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a safety issue,\u201d Chief Robert Kingsley Jr. said. \u201cYou\u2019re got to be able to communicate.\u201d
\nCovering more ground. Digital signals can go longer distances, meaning someone in Manlius can reach someone on Skaneateles Lake, which was impossible before, Bleyle said. Agencies in different counties will be able to communicate on one system.
\nThe new system is guaranteed by the manufacturer to work in 97 percent of each county, officials said. But tests in Onondaga County show the coverage will be above 99 percent, said county E-911 Center Director John Balloni.
\nNow, hilly towns like Tully and southern Camillus have spotty coverage.
\nKingsley was impressed by the system\u2019s far reach. A demonstration for firefighters this month had people talking to each other from Bridgeport, Tully and Lysander \u2014 the farthest corners of Onondaga County.
\n\u201cThat was phenomenal,\u201d Kingsley said. \u201cToday, you can\u2019t do that.\u201d
\nThe new signal will also penetrate buildings better, said Brewerton Fire Chief Duane Otis. He often has trouble talking to firefighters inside burning buildings.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s very depressing and frustrating to me when I can\u2019t talk to my firefighters from outside,\u201d Otis said.
\nOswego County is building additional towers so signals can be picked up in 15 places, as opposed to the current six locations. Now, portable radios only work around Fulton and Oswego.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a huge undertaking,\u201d said emergency communications director Michael Allen. \u2019\u2019Basically, what we\u2019re doing is tripling the system.\u201d
\nCurrent coverage in Madison County is terrible south of Route 20, leaving responders in towns such as Hamilton, DeRuyter and Lebanon unable to communicate with 911, said Paul Hartnett, director of the county\u2019s Emergency Communications Center. He said coverage is as low as 75 percent in some areas.
\nWho\u2019s affected? More than 9,000 firefighters, 4,000 ambulance workers and 2,000 police officers respond to calls in Cayuga, Madison, Onondaga and Oswego counties.
\nPolice and fire personnel will get new radios. Ambulance workers \u2014 except Rural\/Metro in Syracuse \u2014 will make the switch. Rural\/Metro Inc. is dispatched using its own radio system based on calls from the 911 center.
\nNon-public safety agencies can also use the system. In Oswego County, for example, Department of Public Works, Social Services and other government agencies will communicate on new radios, said Allen, the communications director.
\nIn Onondaga, municipal agencies, like schools, highway departments and the Syracuse Housing Authority will switch over.
\nAnyone who uses a scanner to hear radio traffic will need to buy a new, more expensive scanner, too.
\nWhat about the costs? Onondaga County\u2019s system will cost $36 million, including the construction of three new signal towers, new equipment at the 911 center and 5,000 digital radios, Balloni said. It will be paid for by bonds, grants and a 65-cents-a-month surcharge on landline phones. Most of the nearly $4.5 million in grant money is security-related.
\nOswego County is budgeting $25 million; Madison County, $19 million; and Cayuga County, $22 million.
\nThe counties will pay the initial costs of radios and training, but departments are on their own after that.
\nTwo fire chiefs said the counties are employing a \u201ctrain the trainer\u201d approach in which a few firefighters will learn the new system and train everyone else.
\n\u201cI think it\u2019s going to be fairly easy,\u201d Kingsley said.
\nKingsley and Otis said they are bracing for the increased price tag. The county will buy a radio for every one the department already owns, but \u201ceverything after that, you\u2019ve got to buy,\u201d Kingsley said.
\nOtis said firefighters have to accept better technology is going to cost more.
\nBalloni said he expects the cost to go down as the technology becomes more widely used.
\nThe digital radios cost $1,500 to $2,800, compared with $300 to $900 for an analog one.
\nNu-Tronics, a James Street store, expects to sell up to 50 scanners a month this year, priced between $500 and $600 each, said owner Al Tompkins. That\u2019s five to six times more per month than he sold last year, when they cost about $100.
\nHow the radio system works
\nThe communications system can handle all Onondaga County radio traffic on 30 frequencies, compared to the roughly 80 frequencies used now.
\nA frequency acts as a lane on an emergency communications highway. The lanes are traveled by agencies which use channels as their vehicles.
\nUnder the current system, every channel needs its own frequency. Under the new system, multiple channels can use the same frequency without interference because a computerized traffic cop prioritizes the calls.
\nThe federal government has told public safety agencies to be more efficient in the number of radio frequencies they use by 2011. An increase in use of cell phones, wireless Internet and even credit card readers at gas pumps have increased competition for radio bandwidth, said Manlius Police Capt. Bill Bleyle.
\nThe new system will use fewer frequencies to pick up more channels. The digital radios can pick up 512 channels \u2014 including ones dedicated to national emergencies \u2014 while the current ones pick up 16 channels, Bleyle said.
\nWhen will it go live?<\/strong>
\nOnondaga County will roll out its digital communications systems in early February, starting with roughly 500 Syracuse police officers. County police agencies will follow in early March. City and volunteer firefighters will make the switch last.
\nMadison and Oswego counties should go live in late 2011 or early 2012. Cayuga County is still in the planning stages.<\/p>\nBy Douglass Dowty \/ The Post-Standard<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"