By STEVEN CHURCH
Staff reporter
09/19/99

Delaware’s new $52 million radio system caused some problems for emergency workers handling a deluge of calls during Hurricane Floyd, firefighters said. But state and county officials said overall the new system worked well in trying circumstances.

In one case, a woman trapped in her car by floodwaters Thursday had to wait an extra 10 minutes for help because firefighters had trouble calling in a water-rescue unit.

Heavy use of the 800-megahertz network contributed to the delay, said Jack Anderson, an assistant chief with Claymont Fire Company. The woman eventually was pulled to safety.

Other fire companies reported less dramatic problems with the radio system. In some cases, firefighters frustrated by delays relied instead on cellular phones.

Delaware bought the new radio network in 1993 to replace the separate, aging systems used by police and fire agencies around the state. After it was turned on statewide in 1998, officials discovered it did not work properly in five areas.

Service to two of those areas - Rehoboth Beach and Hartly - has been fixed, state officials said. But officials still are trying to design a fix for the remaining three problem zones in New Castle County.

Sean Mulhern, director of the Delaware Emergency Management Agency, praised the system. The agency coordinated the state’s response to Hurricane Floyd.

Mulhern said the radios allowed rescue workers from different agencies to talk to one another in the field without stopping to find a telephone.

"I can tell you … that the radio system worked extremely well for us," he said.

Some firefighters, however, complained they routinely got busy signals when they keyed their radio microphones and tried to talk.

"There were times I wanted to throw the radio across the road," Anderson said.

Thursday’s troubles can be traced to two main causes, said Jack Nold, head of the state Office of Information Services, which oversaw construction of the network of microwave towers and computer-dependent radios.

Some firefighters might not have had enough training on the radios, and a glitch in the system cut the number of channels available for talking by half in the late afternoon, Nold said.

About 5 p.m. a tower that broadcasts radio signals in New Castle County lost seven of its 14 channels, said Bob Pedersen, director of the Division of Communication for the state department of Public Safety.

Technicians fixed the problem by 6 p.m., Pedersen said.

But for an hour, all police officers, paramedics and firefighters trying to talk on the system in New Castle County had to compete for air time on what was probably the busiest day the network has ever experienced.

Normally county dispatchers handle about 1,000 calls a day. Thursday they logged 3,200 calls, said Dave Roberts, who is in charge of communications for New Castle County.

At one point Thursday, a firefighter radioed his superior to complain about the busy signals. His comments were heard over a radio scanner just before 6 p.m., about the time state officials say the channel trouble was solved.

"We’re having the same problem, chief," the firefighter said. "Mine’s only working once in about every hundred transmissions."

A few minutes earlier a dispatcher had recommended emergency workers use cell phones for some calls.

That became a standard procedure for less important messages, said Assistant Chief Eric Haley, with Claymont Fire Company.

Christiana fire Capt. Greg Mason said he had mixed feelings about the system’s performance Thursday.

The radios are an improvement over the old low-band radio system and overall, they allowed emergency workers to communicate with one another, Mason said.

But throughout the day, the system’s limitations frustrated him, he said.

"It’s just the system that we have to get used to," Mason said. "It’s got its flaws, but it works under normal circumstances. I guess yesterday was a real testing time."

The Claymont rescue appeared to be the most dramatic failure reported by firefighters. Anderson said he tried to use a radio and a cellular phone to call in a water rescue unit, but both failed because of the heavy traffic.

Roberts said the high volume of calls Thursday meant that delays of a few seconds were inevitable. But the system is designed to connect radio users much more quickly than the old radio network, he said.

And in nearly all cases, it meets that standard, said Steve Austin, vice president of the Delaware Volunteer Firefighters Association.

"In any radio system you are going to reach a point where you are going to saturate it," he said.

When that happens a computer is supposed to assign the radio user the next available channel, so the delay should not be longer than a few seconds.

A delay of 10 minutes, such as the one experienced in Claymont, is extremely unusual said Mike Mayban, assistant public information officer with the Baltimore City Fire Department. Baltimore has the same system Delaware bought.

"I’ve been on many major fires and I’ve never had anybody say they couldn’t get through for 10 minutes," he said. "That’s amazing. That is absolutely amazing."