E-911 Director Brad Mullinax is warning the DeKalb County Commission of some possible dire circumstances concerning the county’s emergency radio system. At the County Commission’s Meeting of the Whole, held on November 21, Mullinax said the old antiquated system is now beyond its service life and that the radios are currently working, providing communications to deputies, fire, EMS, and rescue personnel, but if it goes down again it may stay down for a long period of time.
According to Director Mullinax, the current radio system consists of antiquated technology with many components in excess of 20 years old. These components were provided to the county on some of the first homeland security grants awarded after the tragic 9/11 attacks in New York City. The system is made up of conventional Analog technology similar to some of the first cell phones.
In addition to the older technology, the FCC in 2013 mandated that all public safety radio systems modify their transmissions to narrowband technology. This mandate severely weakened the radio coverage in our county.
Shortly after the mandate, the 911 district and county government, with assistance of some grant funding, added tower locations to help mitigate the problem. The equipment that the county currently owns has recently been declared "end-of-life" and can no longer be serviced.
“The 911 district and county has worked diligently to secure parts from local and online vendors and even individuals to make repairs in the past, but those parts have now become hard to locate,” Mullinax said. “Most recently, the county suffered a catastrophic lightning strike at the main transmitter site that has essentially eliminated one of our tower sites from our network. As a result of the above mentioned, we experience problems many times with portable radio reception coverage for our emergency responders in remote areas of the county, especially in low areas around the lake.”
“Additionally, large buildings such as schools, hospitals, businesses and some residences make it currently impossible to communicate inside the building,” Mullinax continued. “We estimate that only 40-50 percent of our county has adequate portable radio coverage.”
Mullinax told the commission that E-911 will need to upgrade to a digital system, recommending the county take advantage of the State of Tennessee's Advanced Communication Network (TACN). The digital radios will improve coverage in the county, especially in areas now considered dead zones with the current system.
“We have met with officials from the state and they have indicated there are no costs associated with coming over to their system,” Mullinax explained. “The TACN system is very robust with multi-site redundant technology that has a track record of being up 99.9% of the time. The system is built to meet or exceed the APCO digital P25 standards and will meet the demands of our county well into the future.”
“Additionally, the state is responsible for all repairs, maintenance, upgrades to the system. The P25 system is standard for most if not all of the state of Tennessee agencies and would allow the county responders to be fully interoperable with many local, state, and federal agencies. This would prove very important in the event of a mass casualty incident or natural disaster.”
The new system will not come cheap and Mullinax told the commission that he is exploring financing options from various manufacturers for the system. Each squad car, fire engine, ambulance, and other emergency vehicles will have to have a mobile radio installed, while each deputy, firefighter, EMS worker, and other rescue personnel will need a portable radio. One advantage will be a “trunking” system, where each personal radio will be received by a more powerful mobile unit in a vehicle, then relayed to the 911 system. This helps with communications, especially in the rural areas around the lake where radio communications are spotty. This is the same system currently used by the THP.
“We have been working on this project for close to a year by obtaining quotes, securing agreements with the state and attempting to obtain surplus radios from the state of TN and other sources,” Mullinax said. “In order to take advantage of the TACN network, all county responder radios will need to be replaced. Based on field testing by our office, we estimate the addition of a vehicle repeater, replacing the responders mobile and portable radios will yield a vast improvement in radio coverage. The new technology will mitigate our current risks of public safety radio failure, improve responder safety and efficiency while also making our schools safer.”
“The price associated varies based on radio manufacturer and model of radio. We are currently working with multiple vendors to secure the best prices for the technology that will meet the needs of our county. However, we do expect prices to continue to increase after the new year, so taking advantage of end of the year pricing will likely prove beneficial by at least reserving some of the equipment from vendors.”
