Published 3 November 2009 Homeland Security
Emergency communication interoperability is getting closer as the day of the single-band radio is coming to an end; DHS’ S&T is testing a multiband radio for emergency services
Tom Chirhart knows a lot about radios, but over the last year, he has received a real life lesson in supply and demand. When he put out an APB on behalf of the DHS’s Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) looking for volunteers to test a new radio that allows first responders to talk to one another across different frequency bands, the line of interested agencies was long and eager. The challenge of aligning communications among different first responders — such as fire fighters, police officers, and emergency medical teams — has grown apace with the size and sophistication of response teams and plans. As the construction of public safety systems consumed all the available channels in a single radio band, the government logically opened up other bands. Radio equipment lagged behind, however, continuing to operate on just one spectrum band. This limitation did indeed create communications hurdles during the most serious emergencies — natural disasters and terrorist attacks.
“The issue of being able to talk to each other has been such a prominent one for so long, responder agencies were jumping at the opportunity to test the new radios we were evaluating,” said Chirhart, who manages S&T’s three-and-a-half-year-old multi-band radio (MBR) research project. Starting this month, fourteen agencies across the United States will have the opportunity to try out this leading edge technology with fellow first responders through 30-day pilot projects.
Many first responders today are stuck working in a similar prehistoric era, lugging around multiple radios on their belts, just so that they can listen and talk to other first responders at different agencies. “The value in a multi-band radio is that you don’t have to carry three or four different radios — or buy three or four radios at a cost of $4,000 each,” said Roberts, whose fire department is one of the fourteen that will participate in the pilot projects.
Right now, the new multi-band radio to be piloted this fall rings in at about the same cost ($4,000-$6,000), size (10 inches tall), and weight (less than two pounds) of top-of-the-line single-band radios. It works on the five frequency bands currently used by state and local first responders, and, if necessary, can work on four other bands used exclusively by the federal government, the Department of Defense, National Guard, and the Coast Guard. It even provides weather reports from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The battery is expected to last in excess of 10 hours in order to meet the realities of longer shifts. It works even after being sprayed with a fire hose.
“If the multi-band radio can be credited with ensuring that just one first responder goes home to his or her family at the end of their shift, then the whole effort has paid for itself,” Chirhart added.
S&T hopes that the introduction of these radios will spur manufacturers to develop their own professional quality versions — much like what happened with smartphones — along with accessories like alternative batteries or GPS chips that departments can purchase separately.
A final version of the radios could be ready for the mass market by the middle of 2010. By that time, supply should meet demand, as many companies are now jumping on the virtual bandwagon to develop these new radios. S&T launched the MBR project with the goal of stimulating the marketplace so that multiple vendors would see the value in developing this technology to provide greater options that meet public safety requirements.
If the technology is as successful as S&T thinks that it could be, interoperability challenges, like cell phones that only make phone calls, may become forgotten relics of the past.
The fourteen organizations participating in the pilot are: · 2010 Olympic Security Committee (Blaine, Wash., and Vancouver, B.C. Canada) · Amtrak (Northeast Corridor) · Boise Fire Department (Boise, Idaho) · Canadian Interoperability Technology Interest Group (Ottawa, ON Canada) · Customs and Border Patrol (Detroit, Mich.) · Federal Emergency Management Agency (Multiple Locations) · Hawaii State Civil Defense (Honolulu, Hawaii) · Interagency Communication Interoperability System (Los Angeles County, Calif.) · Michigan Emergency Medical Services (Lower Peninsula Areas) · Murray State University (Southwest Kentucky) · Phoenix Police Department and Arizona Department of Emergency Management (Greater Phoenix and Yuma County) · Texas National Guard (Austin, Texas) · U.S. Marshals Service (Northeast Region) · Washington Metro Area Transit Authority Transit Police (Washington, D.C.)
Read the additional pages of this Homeland Security News Wire report here http://homelandsecuritynewswire.com/dhs-trials-next-generation-multiband-radio?page=0,0
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