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| Medical Radio System Crashes
Hours After Debut
By Petula Dvorak The multimillion dollar digital radio system launched by the D.C. fire and emergency medical services department crashed hours after its debut this morning, officials said. But even at its worst moment, the new communications system is better and more flexible than the old one, said Battalion Fire Chief Geoffrey Grambo. About 5 a.m. this morning, most of the department’s handheld radios flashed the word "failsoft," indicating a problem with the software that runs the 800 megahertz trunked radio system, Grambo said. The failure shut down the majority of the 44 new frequencies the department has to work with, leaving only eight available for communications in case of an emergency, Grambo said. "But see, before this radio system, we had only three [frequencies], so even when it went down, it was better than what we had been working on," Grambo said. The system was back up to its full strength in about a half an hour, he said. Fire and EMS officials have trained all of the 1,700 members on he new digital communications system in time for inauguration Jan. 20 Even then, they will have the old system running—they will be simulcasting—in case there are more glitches in the new network and "to keep the training wheels on a bit longer." A new communications system was one of the recommendations investigators made for the department after the deaths of three firefighters in two separate fires in 1997 and 1999. |
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Contents © 2008 by David Schoenberger |