Patriot News
Copyright 2007 The Patriot News Co.
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HARRISBURG, Penn. — Curt Hall, chief of the New Kingstown Fire Company, has been looking forward to today.
For a year, his company has practiced using Cumberland County’s $10 million emergency radio system.
Hall is confident his team will be ready when the county activates the system for fire and emergency medical services companies at 10 a.m.
“This is a big step up from what we’ve had,” he said.
The county’s 18 police departments have been using the system since December 2005.
Some police chiefs have complained about dead spots where reception fails, but county officials insist they have remedied all shortcomings.
“We are, or we wouldn’t be pulling the plug” on the old system, project manager Pat Slattery said.
Despite extra work and refinements made to the system -- it was supposed to go into full service years ago -- the radio project didn’t overrun its budget, Slattery said.
Nearly half of the $10 million went to M/A-COM, a Tyco Electronics subsidiary, which developed the system and has contracts to install emergency radio nets across Pennsylvania and beyond, he said.
The county also provided $2.3 million to help municipalities and emergency services companies buy portable radios and other gear to use the 800 MHz OpenSky system, which replaces a low-band radio net that employs technology from the 1950s.
Proponents say the new system is more flexible, allows seamless communication among local and state police, fire crews and government agencies, and has more data transmission capability.
New features include a global positioning system and emergency call buttons that trapped or injured firefighters or police officers can press to summon help.
“This system is light years ahead of the older one,” Upper Allen Twp. Police Chief James Adams said.
Dave Smith, emergency management resource coordinator, said the county’s 37 fire and 12 EMS companies were given opportunities to practice with the system.
“We’ve had no major issues with our radios,” Hall said. “We’ve even had them as far as Fayetteville [in Franklin County] and have been able to talk with the fire station as clear as can be.”
Dan Burkett, chief of South Newton Twp. Volunteer Fire Company, wasn’t as comfortable about the switch-over.
“I have a little bit of concern,” Burkett said. “I think they need more transition time.”
At least the old system will be available as a backup, he said.