(Wilmington) News Journal

Radio fix for NCCo elusive

Frequencies needed to fill dead zones

By STEVEN CHURCH

Staff reporter

09/03/99

    The governor's first choice to fix Delaware's emergency radio network problems in New Castle County hit static this week because consultants were unable to get the new frequencies needed to repair the system.

    The setback means state radio officials must pick from among several alternatives, each with its own drawbacks.

    The $52 million radio system was designed to allow police officers and firefighters to communicate with one another from any outdoor spot in Delaware.

    But the computer-dependent radios often go dead in five areas of the state.

    The system does not work at all inside large buildings such as malls, hospitals and apartment complexes. The designers never intended the radios to work indoors.

    Gov. Tom Carper announced last month that the system's builder, Motorola Inc., would give the state equipment called "intellirepeaters" to fill in dead zones.

    The equipment, however, must have additional frequencies to work.  In Rehoboth that hasn't been a problem. But in New Castle County, which has three of the five dead zones, state radio officials say no frequencies are available.

    Motorola should be finished installing the equipment in Rehoboth Beach this morning. State officials plan to test the system this afternoon. If it works, the intellirepeaters also will be installed in Hartly.

    But that fix won't work in New Castle County if officials can't find frequencies for the equipment. Carper could not be reached Thursday for comment. His spokesman, Anthony Farina, repeated the administration's assertion that Motorola would fix the problems at no cost to the state.  The governor will hold Motorola to its commitment to fix the problems, Farina said.

    But the governor's solutions don't go far enough for Harry Warner, chairman of New Castle County's Committee for Public Safety Communications.  "All they want to do is put a Band-Aid on this thing," said Warner, who has pushed for an 800-megahertz radio system since the late 1980s. "What's the point of putting a Band-Aid on this thing when they are just going to have to come back and fix it again later? I'm tired of lip service on this."

    Carper's solutions are designed only to improve coverage outdoors. Once Motorola has done that, the state will look at expanding the system so the radios, which cost about $3,800 each, will work indoors.

    "At this point spending more state dollars before Motorola fixes all the problems would be foolishly spending state dollars," Farina said. "First things first."

    Officials found out this week that no frequencies are available, said Richard Reynolds, the state's top radio expert, who oversaw installation of the system and is leading efforts to repair it.

    "Right now the search is coming up kind of empty," he said.  State officials had hoped to use frequencies previously set aside for Maryland, but that option appears dead.

    Maryland had reserved 47 frequencies from the Federal Communications Commission to use in its own statewide radio system. But the state scaled back its plans and returned about 35 of those frequencies, said Stephen H.  Souder, chairman of an FCC regional committee that regulates radio signals in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and part of Virginia.

    When Delaware officials heard about the returned signals, they thought they had found the answer to their problem.

    Souder effectively killed that hope Thursday. Souder's committee oversees frequency assignment in the area known as FCC Region 20, which is made up of Maryland, Washington and part of Virginia.

    He said Region 20 had 12 applications to use the signals within its borders, and those agencies get first choice. Delaware belongs to Region 28, which includes southern New Jersey and southeastern Pennsylvania. Each region got the same number of frequencies and there is no trading between regions, Souder said.

    Delaware used its fair share of frequencies and shouldn't go looking outside its borders just because the state's radio system has problems, Souder said.

    "I've been in this business my whole life, and I've never heard anything remotely like this," he said.

    The state may try to simultaneously use the same radio signals in Sussex and New Castle counties, but that will require Motorola to redesign the intellirepeaters, Reynolds said. If it doesn't work, each county's use could interfere with the other's.

    In that case, state officials may try a solution that failed once already in Claymont, where county police officers and paramedics have some of the worst reception.

    Earlier this year the state put in an amplifier designed to boost radio signals in the area. But it didn't work, Reynolds said.

    A new type of amplifier linked to a fiber-optic cable might work, Reynolds said. If it doesn't work, the state can insist that Motorola install new radio towers, which cost about $1 million each, Reynolds said.

    Motorola has never promised to put in new towers, considered the most expensive and difficult of the solutions.

Contents © 2008 by David Schoenberger