By Dariush Shafa
The Messenger-Inquirer
OWENSBORO, Ky. — A major upgrade of mobile radios for the city came at a drastically reduced cost to taxpayers after a fortuitous mishap between the federal government and a major telecom company.
On Aug. 9, the city completed a 2005 mandate from the Federal Communications Commission to switch to a lower set of frequencies, affecting all city agencies from fire and police to sanitation and schools. The change also included replacing and upgrading more than 800 radios to the tune of $2.2 million, a bill that was picked up by the cellular phone provider Nextel.
The last time the city made such a change in its radio system was in 1995, said Ron Jackson, a radio technician with the city.
“This is a saving grace,” Jackson said. “The radios themselves that we’re replacing, the vast majority of them had reached the end of their life cycle. The parts we needed to maintain them were no longer being manufactured. We were going to have to pay (for the new equipment) ourselves.”
The FCC ordered the 2005 switch to help clear up a problem where cell phone towers were overpowering and interfering with public safety radio transmissions.
“You had a lot of cell phone frequencies adjacent to public safety frequencies,” Jackson said. “If the (cell phone tower) equipment is just slightly off tune, it’s going to (interfere).”
As part of the switch, Nextel was ordered to cover a huge chunk of the costs. In Owensboro, Nextel covered the cost of each replacement radio.
“Nextel had to pick up the costs for this because they were causing the interference,” Jackson said. “It gets a little expensive.”
Jackson said each mobile radio in a vehicle costs about $3,000, and the handheld radios that police carry on their belts cost about $2,500 each. Of the 800 or so radios that the city already had, about 40 of them could be retuned and didn’t need replacement. The city is covering the cost of installation and accessories.
The new radios are a significant upgrade, technology-wise, Jackson said.
“The new radios are mainly computers. The programming and computing are more than any regular information technology project would encounter,” Jackson said. “The audio should be a little bit better. You’ll also see less of a failure than with the 15-year-old systems.”
Thus far, the upgrade has been handled well from all city departments. When the frequency switch happened, there was a 16-hour retuning that had to be done at the city’s main transceiver station at Chautauqua Park. Once that was completed, the big question was if other city agencies would have problems.
The massive deluge of trouble-shooting calls never materialized. “It (the adaptation period and issues) will go on off and on, but the mass migration problems we expected didn’t happen,” Jackson said.
Assistant Chief Bill VanWinkle with the Owensboro Fire Department was working the early morning shift at 3 a.m. when the transition happened and said that it was business as usual. “It was pretty smooth,” he said. “It was the same as always.”
The big test in his department will come when the radios are truly needed in an emergency.
“We haven’t really had a large incident since the changeover to get an idea of how these will work out,” VanWinkle said.
Jackson said the next goal is to get the city into a regular eight-year rotation, replacing radio equipment every eight years to prevent excessive wear-and-tear or risk outdated equipment failing when it’s needed most.
Copyright 2009 Messenger-Inquirer