Light-Up Night: The Shadow Fireworks

Wow, it's December already.

The Thanksgiving weekend came and went quietly and uneventfully. Leslie, Gianna and I were the beneficiaries of a neighbor's hospitality for holiday dinner. 

That's how it seems to go, what with working weekends and tending to avoid participating in Black Friday, otherwise known (at least to me) as the high holy day of The First Church of My Stuff. I saw at least one Internet meme over that weekend that brought this point home very clearly.

This past Friday evening I headed to the library to review some long-awaited research materials for an upcoming post, and encountered the traffic and crowds associated with Sewickley's annual light-up night. 

The library was bustling with activity associated with the event as well. Staff were setting up tables for kids to do a craft project. Sewickley Herald reporter Bobby Cherry was there as part of their coverage of the festivities.

When I left just before 6, I noticed crowds making their way into the event areas along Broad Street, via the closed section at the intersection with Thorn. There were clearly marked detour signs posted, along with dedicated signs for a detour around the celebration for those needing to access Heritage Valley Sewickley Hospital.

That's when I heard the helicopter. 

Thinking that it was perhaps more than coincidental that a helicopter could be circling the village at that time - perhaps a news chopper to add to the hype surrounding the festivities - I scanned the skies for a spotlight or other visual cue. Not finding any, I started scanning the airwaves, specifically the public safety and aviation bands, for some telltale activity.

Finding some, I headed across the river to find a STAT Medevac aircraft at the landing zone adjacent to Valley Ambulance headquarters, with Moon Township VFC standing by. An ambulance had just left with the flight crew, headed toward Sewickley in bridge traffic that was backed up almost to Coraopolis, and through the village detour to the hospital previously mentioned. It took roughly 10 minutes, with lights and sirens, for them to travel the roughly 1 1/2 miles to the hospital. 

As I wrote in February, the practice of flying patients out of Heritage Valley Sewickley is an infrequent, complex, and frankly perplexing exercise. This is taking into consideration the underlying reasons for using that mode of transportation (usually speed), the proximity of Sewickley to Pittsburgh, and the ready availability of ground transportation. 

After about 45 minutes, the flight crew was making their way back to the aircraft with their patient, and shortly afterward lifted off for a Pittsburgh hospital with what sounded like someone with a cardiac problem.

It's likely that the ambulance committed to that relay back and forth from the aircraft could have had the patient in Pittsburgh in considerably less time, and for a lot less money. Finding out how and why this happens is near impossible, what with privacy laws and stakeholders less than willing to speak to anyone about the underlying processes and politics of our so-called "non-profit" health care system. 

All one can do is try to be an educated health care consumer. 

This wasn't the only thing happening in Sewickley during light-up night. When the fireworks started, the numerous police officers deployed throughout the village were alerted to a report of a male seeking psychiatric evaluation who had run from the Heritage Valley Sewickley ER. A description was aired, and hospital security was seen in the area of Broad and Centennial assisting in the search. It's unknown if the man was ever located or turned back up. 

Sewickley Borough Manager Kevin Flannery, contacted today, dismissed the incident as more commonplace than it might actually seem to be. He estimated that 5 to 7 people run from the ER a year. This makes one wonder even more about another health care factor  relegated to the shadows, perhaps deliberately - the propensity of mental illness in our society, often exacerbated by substance abuse. 

My primary purpose for speaking with Mr. Flannery was to get a sense of the emergency planning contingencies in place for an event that draws a large amount of traffic and several thousand people to a few square blocks of shopping district. I was impressed with what I heard.

Mr. Flannery cited joint planning efforts by the Police Department, Cochran Hose Company, and his office to assure that emergency resources are able to quickly respond into the event area, and that people can be moved quickly from the areas if needed. He spoke about assuring a minimum 18-feet wide clearance to allow emergency vehicle ingress and egress to and from key entry and exit points to the event. Cochran Hose volunteers also assured that the fire station was fully staffed and ready.  

This was put to the test in recent years as well as this year, when a vehicle was reported to be on fire near the intersection of Blackburn Road and McCready Way. Firefighters found that the car had just overheated.

Other reports included some who had enjoyed perhaps a little too much holiday cheer. One woman wanted officers to find a friend that she had become separated from. One man was arrested near the borough building for public intoxication. 

And in the 'ignorance is bliss' department, several reports of loud pounding noises were made by borough residents..during the fireworks display.

Planning for these types of special events is often accomplished by emergency managers and local governments through the use of the National Incident Management System, or NIMS. There is specialized online training available through the FEMA NIMS website to address these events, defined by FEMA as "a nonroutine activity within a community that brings together a large number of people".

Mr. Flannery expressed satisfaction that the event was so well attended, but also stated that some merchants complained that foot traffic within their shops was less than expected, owing to how nice it was outside. I'm sure someone will get right on that problem for next year...

Mr. Flannery also expressed gratitude to Heritage Valley for allowing use of their parking garage during the event. He also stated that the pleasant conditions made walking from the parking lots at War Memorial Park more amenable to attendees.

As far as attendance at these types of events, Mr. Flannery also cited the annual Harvest Festival and Memorial Day observance as examples where their efforts in planning and communications have paid off.

I asked him about potential contingencies where attendance numbers would possibly require the use of overflow parking in more remote locations, with shuttle buses into the village. Mr. Flannery stated there are areas where such a contingency could be implemented if needed, but he also hoped that attendance would not get too far beyond the 7 to 9,000 that these events have been typically drawing in recent years.

That's a good perspective - not necessarily wanting too much of a good thing. Perhaps that's a message that all of us can identify with. 

May the holidays bring you joy and peace. 

Adventures in Trunked Radio - Gary Harmon Edition

First things first - this week is National Public Safety Telelcommunicators Week. These professionals are tasked with receiving often fragmented information from hysterical, delusional and often clueless people and turning it into a cohesive informational road map with which to deploy and coordinate the activities of our nation's public safety responders - Police, Fire AND Emergency Medical Services.

They work long, convoluted hours, and with a few noteworthy exceptions are largely taken for granted or marginalized by those whom they serve. Returning to the Pittsburgh area has brought this point home for me rather well. Catching up with the system online, and monitoring local activity, has shown me that there are some areas of the region where everything about the system and its practitioners has changed for the better, and also some pockets of resistance where the dispatch profession is still - still - regarded as something anemically clerical in nature.

If you know a professional Telecommunicator, thank them for their service and commitment this week. Grand Junction's group of professionals will have new digs to ply their trade pretty soon - something largely regarded as a once-in-a career occurrence for most in the profession. Good for them.

A short blurb on the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel website caught my immediate attention this afternoon. Under the headline "GJ awarded money for radios", Sentinel reporter Gary Harmon managed, in four short paragraphs, to put forward at least two inaccuracies, several statements that were unclear, and one old, blatant falsehood that for me made a mockery of a significant event that impacts the future of communications in the rural areas of Mesa County.

The announcement that "Grand Junction" will receive nearly a million dollars to purchase new radios for fire agencies across the county (that is, outside of Grand Junction) was the first head-scratcher for me. What Mr. Harmon probably meant was the Grand Junction Regional Communication Center (GJRCC), operated by the City but serving all county public safety agencies, and which has been coordinating much of the efforts to fund the complete transition of the county's public safety agencies to the Colorado Digital Trunked Radio System (DTRS).

The next whopper was particularly onerous, as it repeats false information reported by the Sentinel as far back as August 2009, which is the last time I wrote about this topic in detail.
Quoting the Sentinel story:

The 800 MHz radios should allow all public-safety agencies to communicate on one frequency with less interruption or loss of service, officials said.

(Note: I can find no press release on the City's website that corresponds with the story quoting these un-named "officials".)

The Federal Communications Commission has mandated all agencies switch to that bandwidth by 2012 and the grant will take care of all the fire-safety agencies in Mesa County as part of an $8.9 million project for public safety across the county.

There is no "mandate" by the FCC or anyone else that public safety agencies abandon their existing radio spectrum for frequencies in the 800 Mhz band. What the FCC did do was to require that all public safety radio users in what is known as the VHF and UHF radio spectrum re-configure both their operating licenses and equipment so that they operate with less space between channels. This known as Narrowbanding, and the deadline for agencies across the country to complete the process is indeed January 1, 2013.

The administration of GJRCC may have decided not to utilize their existing VHF spectrum after the 1/1/13 deadline. If true, this is unfortunate for those very rural fire departments that are benefiting from this latest grant. Many of these departments have their own radio licenses and frequencies that they use for tactical purposes. These agencies may choose to go through with the narrowbanding process for their own frequencies. Their reasons can be summed up in the final misleading statement reported by the Sentinel. To be fair, they are quoting Sen. Mark Udall, although there is no press release on the Senator's website regarding this topic:

“The last thing we want to see is Colorado firefighters losing their calls in an emergency or not being able to communicate with other emergency workers,” Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo. said. “The wildfire season this year has already shaped up to be an aggressive one, making it all the more important that our public-safety officers have the proper equipment to safely do their jobs.”

In most wildland fire scenarios on or near public lands, one of the most important communications links is between local fire responders and the vast, specialized resources of the federal interagency fire system. Responders in this system utilize frequencies and radios in the VHF spectrum that have already been narrowbanded for several years.

There are numerous frequencies, such as common "work" channels, air operations channels, and air-to ground coordination channels, that are standard across the system nationwide. This dovetails with efforts to create a national framework of interoperability channels in several frequency bands for use by any agency that may find itself situated at a major incident - anywhere.

In short, the very radios that Mesa County's rural fire departments are slated to "replace" with these new radios are the very ones they will likely be depending upon to communicate with federal wildland fire resources during a major incident. To be sure, connections will be established so that a VHF and 800 Mhz network can be connected in some way to assist with interoperability efforts on a wide-area basis, but any local engine crew that is supporting a team of federal hotshots in the middle of nowhere is going to need their VHF radio.

Contrary to the ministrations of Gary Harmon and whoever was feeding him this crap, reports of the demise of radio spectrum other than 800 Mhz for public safety have been highly exaggerated. In fact, a significant number of public safety agencies in Colorado that have transitioned to the State DTRS have re-licensed their old VHF or UHF frequencies for narrowband use. I wonder why...

Thanks to all the Dispatchers out there.

Have a good week ahead.

Lots About Watts

Happy February.

Because I've had an affinity for radio nearly all of my life, I pay attention to those things that keep broadcast radio headed in what I consider the correct direction - connected and responsive to the listener, accountable to the public interest, a beacon for connecting a community together instead of creating divisiveness.

There are a few things happening in the arena of non-commercial radio - mostly the left side of the FM dial - that may stand to enhance the diversity and viability of this resource in Grand Junction and across the country.

Watts Low

The most significant development for the majority of the country's population was the passage of the Local Community Radio Act, signed into law by President Obama last month. The real impact of this law is on the 50 largest media markets, where the expansion of low power FM stations has been hampered by regulations that prevent the use of adjacent frequencies at closer channel spacing.

Spearheaded largely through the efforts of the Prometheus Radio Project and others, this loosening of channel spacing will facilitate the establishment of community radio stations that serve more specific geographical areas and populations.

You'd be surprised with how many FM radio stations are licensed in the Grand Junction area. There are a lot of low power stations here - many are broadcasting Christian programming - but only one station is licensed as a Low Power FM station. This has a lot to do with the mountains that surround us, and the coverage that a station can get with a lower power transmitter placed at a higher altitude.

For example, the aforementioned "Low Power" station, located at the Colorado State Building downtown, has a licensed output of 100 watts, but their transmitter is actually below the average terrain of the area. This station, at 106.7 FM, transmits highway information and local National Weather Service broadcasts.

Contrast this with KAFM Community Radio, licensed at only 16 watts, but with their transmitter located at the radio and TV "antenna farm" on Black Ridge, west of town above the Colorado National Monument and about 2,000 feet above the valley floor. KAFM's signal actually has a much greater coverage footprint than the much more powerful signal coming from the state building. Unfortunately, this signal does not penetrate structures or terrain features well, resulting in "dead spots" caused by both terrain and the density of many buildings in the valley.

Watts Up

As a volunteer at KAFM since it's beginnings, I'm aware of and have been supportive of their ongoing efforts to improve signal strength and in-building coverage. The FCC recently approved a power increase for KAFM from 16 to 300 watts. This will help fill the existing coverage gaps, and allow listeners to tune in without significant issues across the valley, and as far south as Delta.

The Watts Up capital campaign is an effort to put the new FCC authorization to work, with not only a new transmitter and tower, but also improvements to the station's studios and physical plant in Downtown GJ. The challenges of fundraising in the current economic climate have been compounded by a recent change in administration at the station, with some accompanying discontent that has caused departures of both paid and volunteer staff.

Things feel like they're beginning to stabilize a bit, but it's still awfully quiet there some days. Perhaps down the road some of these creative folk may decide that their passion for community-based media trumps the personalities involved. Some that have moved on will stay moved on - like me in about a month.

In any event, KAFM needs community support, in both dollars and sweat equity, to keep the mission and the beauty of community media alive in Grand Junction. Please consider supporting the capital campaign, or during the upcoming Spring Fund Drive in mid-March. Better yet, contribute your time and expertise to the station as a volunteer.

Watts Preserved

A broadcast radio license is a valuable commodity, even in the non-commercial, not-for-profit arena. Back in Pittsburgh, the pending sale of a popular non-commercial radio station operated by Duquesne University prompted concerns from the staff and community media advocates that the frequency might end up in commercial hands.

Luckily, a partnership between community station WYEP and a Boulder-based non-profit has been named the successful bidder for the license of WDUQ. This new partnership is now in the process of polling the community for input about how programming should change..or not.

WDUQ's popular jazz music programming will likely remain one of the benchmarks of the station's presence in the area.

I mention Pittsburgh because of two trends that are applicable to that area that aren't in Grand Junction. One is the impact of the Local Community Radio Act on Pittsburgh as a major media market. It will be interesting to see what grassroots efforts pop up. Another factor is the presence of HD Radio, where many stations, commercial and non-profit, transmit a digital signal with multiple channels of programming. WDUQ, for example, dedicates one digital channel to the BBC World Service, 24 hours a day. Once I get settled there, I hope to be able to get involved with community radio at some level.

There are many HD-equipped stations on the Front Range, along with a few public stations in southwest Colorado, but not a single broadcast outlet in Grand Junction offers HD Radio. Someone who's sticking around ought to ask why.

Watts Crazy

Low Power stations can and should be representative of a local community or segment of a community, and I would hope that those who obtain licenses through the new law will use it to enhance the experience of living in a society where free expression and discourse is respected and embraced.

Such was not the case last month in Greeley. A local school board member who also owns a low power FM station and a daily newspaper in that area came under fire for airing editorials critical of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and was the subject of a restraining order for leaving threats on the voice mail of the manager of a competing radio station.

This kind of discourse and disagreement, aside from the threats, is what makes America a great place. It's not really surprising that stations with a more conservative approach to things will pop up with low-power FM licenses, especially those who wish to emulate what they hear on AM talk radio. Hey, free speech is for extremists, too.

Watts Real and Relevant

Regardless of the types of discourse, entertainment and diversion, the option is ours as a people to listen or watch what we choose, and turn off that which we don't care much for. In this context, I am very thankful for the Internet, which allows me and thousands of others around the U.S. to enjoy the coverage of the uprising in Egypt from Al Jazeera English. Most American cable companies and satellite providers do not carry this English-language channel of the venerable, Qatar-based news service, and according to at least one blog that's more than just a little hypocritical. Quoting a new anchor on the network:

We're not entirely blocked, but we're a "taboo" to some crucial decision-makers in the TV business, that's the problem...Given the poisonous smear against us over the years, are cable providers hesitant to carry us? Yes. That's where we hope that US citizens like yourself can lobby hard to give us the choice. I'm sure amid thousands of channels that include those dedicated to Kim Kardashian, shopping addictions, evangelism, hardcore porn, NFL and local news channels where the top story is always the traffic congestion, that the land of the free can find a spot for us!

For me as a little boy growing up, radio was a comforting voice late at night in the dark. As I grew, I realized the continued power of this now seemingly simple and antiquated medium to inform, enlighten, and entertain. Even in the wee hours, slowly manipulating the tuning dial on a shortwave to try to pull in the weakest vestige of Radio Prague, or today listening to the folksy ruminations of Garrison Keillor, there's fascination, escapism, and life and death before your very ears. Think this stuff isn't important? Ask the folks in Egypt or Tunisia.

Have a great day.

Hands-On with the Home Patrol

Last month I wrote about the debut of the Uniden Home Patrol scanning radio, which brings all kinds of user-friendly functionality to the monitoring hobby.

Recently I had the opportunity to get a pretty good look at one, courtesy of my friend Tom. A picture of it in action is above. I apologize for not having something else in the picture to illustrate the unit's size to scale; it's about 7 inches long by 5 inches high and about 4 inches deep.

This is by no means meant as a technical or specialized overview. I approached this based on what I value in a radio, and the way someone for whom it is being marketed to would.

• The functionality of the radio makes it exceedingly easy to operate and understand. The touchscreen controls are easy to use, whether you want to adjust the range (in miles) of what the automatically loaded frequency database will retrieve for monitoring, set a channel as a favorite (priority) or to avoid (lock out), or manually hold the receiver on a specific frequency or talkgroup. The Replay function plays back the last transmission received, and the Record function records all traffic received to an installed micro SD card.
  


• One thing absent from the internal software is the ability to program frequencies into the database. You can directly input a single frequency to monitor, but can't make it part of the scanning database. This database is addressable via the included software and PC interface cable, and the Radio Reference database integral to the radio is updated at least once a week. It's probably a good idea to update the unit through your computer along the same time frame.
  I verified this via the Home Patrol website, which you can query by zip code to see examples of what the unit will receive. I sent updates to Radio Reference last week for new 800 Mhz frequencies now in use at Grand Junction Regional Airport, and they appeared on the Home Patrol website. Sweet.
  


• The GPS functionality relies mostly on a "hockey puck" type GPS receiver and interface cable marketed specifically for the unit. As I mentioned previously, GPS receivers that communicate coordinates via the NMEA 0183 protocol will talk to Home Patrol, but connecting them is cumbersome and expensive. You do have options, however. The unit will accept manual GPS coordinate entry to program via the internal database.
  


• The unit is not ruggedized. Care needs to be taken to avoid damage by impact or vibration.
  


• The audio quality and volume is adequate for a home environment, but not hardly for the restaurant we were in, and ditto for a vehicle, office, or area with higher-than-usual ambient noise. My PRO-96 put it to shame in terms of volume.
  


• Like just about any scanner, the provided stock antenna leaves much to be desired. My friend Tom had a more professional grade multi-band antenna that needed two adapters, one from BNC to SMA, and a 90-degree elbow so the antenna was positioned properly. The difference in reception quality was worth it, however.

I like this receiver, but not enough to spend upwards of $600 for everything I want to do with it. I'll wait for future iterations of the Home Patrol to do even more interesting things. Also, the hobbyist and programmer communities are likely developing software applications that will maximize the ease of updating and operating the unit.

The influences of things like online scanning via dedicated websites, IPhone or Android apps, and now dynamic updating of internal databases in receivers such as Home Patrol stands to re-energize the monitoring hobby in ways we have yet to understand and cannot predict.

As the old Chinese curse says, "may you live in interesting times". In more ways than this, to be sure.

Enjoy the rest of the week.

Home Patrol - The iPod of Police Scanners?

In a post earlier this year, I outlined the changes to public safety radio use in Mesa County and elsewhere, and how those interested in monitoring public safety activity via scanning receivers could still do that.

A recent development in the marketplace for scanning receivers has the potential to revolutionize the scanning hobby as we know it, and open it to all kinds of new potential uses and user communities.

The Home Patrol scanner by Uniden, released for sale the beginning of this month, utilizes technologies previously unavailable in most scanners. Some of these features include:

• Touchscreen controls
• Pre-programmed frequency database, coordinated through Radio Reference
• Automatic scanner programming from the database by ZIP or postal code
• Built-in last transmission recall and manual recording capability with Micro SD Card storage

Home Patrol brings forward the potential of an elegant and versatile receiver that will likely bring in new hobbyists who may have been previously intimidated by the complexity of today's receivers, as well as bring back those who may have left the hobby because of these complexities. The video above demonstrates how quickly and easily one can have the scanner up and running out of the box.

Another feature that is a little more complex to put in place is the ability of the scanner to interface with any GPS receiver that can communicate with other equipment using what is known as the NMEA 0183 standard. This standard code also requires an RS232 serial connector, but the end result is that the scanner will automatically update from the database with the frequencies in use in the location provided by the GPS receiver.

In other words, hook Home Patrol to a compatible GPS, and the scanner will automatically tune to the frequencies in use wherever you are in the US or Canada. Pretty cool for traveling.

There are some kinks to work out, like any new piece of equipment. One thing that's missing is the ability to program the unit manually. You can enter a single frequency for monitoring, but not to program into the internal database or the available favorites list. There is software provided for free download that will manage the internal database, but something this sophisticated will undoubtedly have improvements coming down the pike. Hopefully these will be available as software downloads, and not require additional hardware purchases to implement.

The Home Patrol HP-1 may not be quite the cup of tea for purists or true die-hard hobbyists, many of whom derive joy from the ability to experiment and tinker. Some have called the unit the beginning of a 'dumbing down' of the scanner hobby, and thus a threat to the integrity of the hobby itself. Hogwash.

There are greater threats to the hobby than an easy-to-use receiver; the push toward getting public safety to start making more use of newer wireless broadband networks, such as LTE, threatens to make scanning go away because of its potential to leverage all kinds of datasets, including voice, into a single digital communications environment. If you're interested in discussions concerning the future of public safety communications, check the sidebar for the blogs of Andrew Seybold and Daryl Jones. They're both highly informative and pull no punches.

Home Patrol, as you would expect, isn't cheap. Most retailers are pricing it just below $500.
I'm not one to jump on the bandwagon of every new thing, and that includes this new innovation.

However, I know of at least one local scanner hobbyist in Grand Junction who is trying to order one, and has promised me a look once he gets it. I'll post an update when that happens.

Have a great day.

Adventures in Trunked Radio...and Beyond

Last month I wrote about the transition of Mesa County's public safety and other government agencies to the state's Digital Trunked Radio system (DTRS). Most of the county's law enforcement agencies, as well as the Grand Junction Fire Department, were slated to be operating completely on the new system yesterday. Other area fire departments will remain on the existing VHF radio network; according to a memo issued last week, a transition date for them "has not been determined".

Digital Trunked Radio Systems are not new technology. They have been put to the test in much larger urban environments, and dependent upon their configuration have proven to be a largely reliable, robust, and reasonably secure method of maintaining communications and establishing interoperability between large and diverse groups of radio users. As with many technological advances, adjustments and updates are almost a constant process, and a complex system such as trunked radio is no exception.

I thought that I would expand on how these technologies are developed, marketed, procured, and implemented, in hopes of fostering some understanding of the complexities involved.

Warning: Fairly exhaustive late-night techie diatribe follows.

A Brief History of Trunked Radio.

Trunking is the use of several repeaters, on different frequencies in the same band, operating together under computer control to allow for the pooling of resources.¹ The first trunked radio systems started to become operational in the late 1970's. By the early 80's it became apparent to many in public safety that a standard group of capabilities were necessary, such as a mode for operation in the event of computer problems, or a transmitter site becoming isolated from its computer controller, priority access to the system, and emergency alerting.

The Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO), made up of members from both public safety and the commercial sectors that provide radio equipment, established a project group within its membership to develop such a standard. This Project 16 group was successful in putting forth standard capabilities that were adopted by several of the 'big players' in the industry, such as Motorola and General Electric.

The standards list dovetailed with the Federal Communications Commission's first issuance of licenses to operate public safety radio systems in the 800 Megahertz frequency band. While trunked radio systems can effectively operate in the VHF (150-170 MHz) or UHF (450-512 MHz) bands, they are most frequently found in the 700-800 MHz band today.

One big drawback to APCO 16 trunked systems is that they were not interoperable; radios on a Motorola system, for example, would not work on a GE system. Thus began another APCO project effort to define a standard by which multiple manufacturers could adhere to when building trunked radio systems.

This Project 25 (or "P25") standard incorporates the use of a device called a vocoder to convert voice radio traffic into a digital signal for transmission through the system architecture. This formed the basis for what is known as the P25 Common Air Interface (CAI). A radio using the P25 CAI should be able to communicate with any other P25 CAI radio, regardless of what manufacturer produced the radio.²

The final P25 standards were presented in 1994, with most of the manufacturers adopting the standard for use in their systems. These included Motorola, EF Johnson, Kenwood, and Daniels Electronics. One notable exception was Ericsson, which had purchased GE's radio manufacturing division. This company is known today as M/A Com. This is significant, as many cities in the core of the Denver Metro area use a trunked radio system known as EDACS, manufactured by this company.

In the late 90's, the State of Colorado developed a proposal to construct a statewide trunking radio network. The state purchased and began development of the statewide DTRS in 2001.

In 2002, the Consolidated Communications Network of Colorado (CCNC) was incorporated as a users group encompassing multiple jurisdictions and governmental layers. This group serves as the standards setting and system coordination arm of the DTR, which is maintained and monitored by the state.

I am DTR of Borg...not.

The arguments are compelling for a public safety entity or local government's participation in CCNC and transitioning their operations to the DTRS. There is a distinct advantage to a trunked radio system's ability to leverage multiple repeated channels, connected and coordinated through multiple transmitter sites, to providing wide-area coverage for even portable radios.

The state, along with other public safety organizations and the commercial sector, has touted the economies of scale and interoperability benefits associated with a statewide radio infrastructure to encourage local governments and special districts to move their operations to the DTRS. This is true even with the increased end user costs associated with such a move. DTRS mobiles and portables can cost nearly 5 times more than conventional VHF or UHF units.

Some of this encouragement has been less than subtle. The state Department of Local Affairs (DOLA), which administers many grant programs to local governments using funds such as Energy Impact fees, will only approve grant requests for radios that operate on the DTRS, regardless of what system is used by the local jurisdiction. Additionally, funding for communications upgrades from the Department of Homeland Security usually requires migrating to a P25 system.³

Even with this, there are jurisdictions committed to other radio technologies, and there are still very valid uses for legacy VHF and UHF radio systems. Many smaller agencies, even using grant funding, are having a hard time affording the cost of new field units. This is likely what is keeping most of Mesa County's fire departments on VHF for the foreseeable future.

Some limitations are technical; the DTRS cannot be used for over-the-air paging, and cannot be accessed by airborne aircraft. Other factors include interfacing with federal resources, such as wildland firefighting crews and aircraft, which use a national VHF radio system for coordination.
There are now statewide and nationwide common calling channels allocated for use in an analog, simplex mode which can be used to accomplish some of these user needs.

Technology has also played a role in the diminishing of the non-proprietary, common-across-manufacturers component of the P25 standard. While the P25 CAI is a non-proprietary 'open' trunking standard, some manufacturers have been marketing technology that incorporates proprietary components for use on these systems.

An example is encryption protocols, which provide another level of security for discreet communications. While there are forms of encryption which can be used in any P25 radio, Motorola markets a proprietary form of encryption, which when used requires any user needing to use encrypted talk groups on the system to use a Motorola radio.

A key development in the years following P25 is Software Defined Radio (SDR). This technology has facilitated the development of radios that can transmit and receive over multiple frequency bands, in either conventional or trunked modes. Radios from newer players in the public safety marketplace such as Harris Corp. and Thales are capable of communicating over VHF, UHF and 800 Mhz frequencies and trunked systems. The cost of these units are roughly double that of the currently available P25 equipment, often exceeding $5,000 per radio.

Concerns about safety in certain environments has also led to the development of alternative simplex channels using analog modulation, which can be contained in the same radio. An exhaustive study conducted by the Phoenix Fire Department concluded that "simplex channels provide incident commanders and firefighters a safe and consistent communications system that is not dependent on infrastructure in order to speak to other units on the
incident."

Despite these challenges, it made good sense for our local communications system to begin a transition to trunking. The obvious benefits outweigh a simple dollars and cents argument. While as a taxpayer I would have preferred an objective assessment of available technologies when there is big money involved, the DTRS was a common sense path of least resistance.

Right now there are eight transmitter sites providing coverage of the 3300 square miles of Mesa County, with more to come. These sites are part of a network of nearly 200 across the state, all accessible by the end user using the same radio. Every radio on the system is registered, its
usage monitored, and can be disabled remotely if malfunctioning or compromised.

By combining this robust technical resource with effective utilization protocols and consistent use of proven Incident Management strategies, our public safety responders are poised to provide a better coordinated response to all manner of emergency situations.

Growing Pains...and the Future.

As much as this technology brings to the potential effectiveness of public safety response, it is still 20 year old technology, and portions of it are showing their age. The development of improved means of transmitting digital voice has resulted in the establishment of a second phase of P25 digital standards.

The Colorado DTRS has been feeling the effect of some of these factors as their system has continued to grow in popularity and usage. This past February, a letter from the CCNC Executive Board detailed a moratorium on new users of the DTRS until specific goals pertaining to technical and administrative capabilities were met. These included, for example:

System Infrastructure Additions: As the DTRS has grown over the past 10 years, many entities have joined without adding the infrastructure necessary to support their traffic load. Applications to the CCNC must be more thoroughly scrutinized to ensure additional users do not negatively impact the system resources provided and used by current members.

Additionally, the development of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology, and the ability to effectively use broadband networks to carry voice traffic, has led to a new push for broadband communications systems for public safety that incorporate the secure digital transmission of both voice and data.

This was most recently reflected in the National Broadband Plan released by the FCC for public review last month. Part of this plan advocates for the establishment of a broadband public safety network using radio spectrum in the 700 MHz band, recently allocated to public safety after the transition of broadcast TV to digital transmission.

However, the nature of public discourse in the form of some of the finest minds in technology implementation and consulting are already creating doubt as to the effectiveness of broadband communication versus channelized systems, given the nature of public safety operations. One of the most respected consultants in this area, Andrew Seybold, put it right out there last week in an email to an FCC commissioner:

Channelized communications for voice is one-to-many, which is a critical component of first responder communications...It is vitally important for all units in a given area to hear what is happening so they can prepare to provide additional coverage or assistance.

It is not possible to provide the level of voice communications required by public safety within the confines of commercial wireless systems or using commercial wireless technologies...It can be difficult to understand how different channelized devices are from cell phones. They must be able to communicate directly with each other no matter where they are, and with those around them so everyone knows what is happening. A delay of only a few seconds can mean the loss of life or property.

Scannerheads Unite.

What do the development and deployment of these rapidly evolving technologies mean for the average citizen who enjoys listening to public safety in action? From what I've heard, many have been converging on places like Radio Shack, trying to figure out why they can't hear the GJPD anymore.

It's possible that the scanning hobby may find itself fading out of popularity as these digital technologies make for more sophisticated and expensive equipment to monitor them. For the casual hobbyist, most of today's scanners require a computer and software to program them with any degree of efficiency. Monitoring these communications may eventually become impossible.

If/when that day comes, I will regard it with some sadness. I remember the first police scanner I ever owned, a little handheld Bearcat that you had to buy crystals for. This was followed rapidly by a programmable Bearcat 210XL, which I took to work on the night shift and learned a lot. This eventually translated itself into a career.

There are several fellow hobbyists in the GJ area with a lot more experience and technical knowledge than I. They've kept ahead of the curve, and thanks to the Internet the fruits of their labor are available to anyone interested. Enjoy it while you can.

The times they are indeed a changin'.

Have a great week ahead.



Photo Credits: http://forums.radioreference.com
http://www.eham.net

¹ http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Trunking_Basics
² http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/APCO-25_Common_Air_Interface

³ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_25#Adoption

Public Safety Radio Changes

Mesa County's public safety agencies are making significant changes in how they communicate via radio. These changes will have an effect on anyone who listens to a police scanner locally.

Field personnel have been in training for the last several weeks in the operation of their new radios, which are integrated into the State of Colorado Digital Trunked Radio System, or "DTR" for short. This system is also used by most of the neighboring counties, as well most state agencies, including the Colorado State Patrol and CDOT.

For those interested, I will go into further detail on this in another post later. In the meantime, changes have been effected that will immediately impact the average scanner listener in Grand Junction and Mesa County, many of whom do not own a scanner capable of receiving channels in the 800 Megahertz band, using what is called P25 Digital Trunked Radio.

This system allows for numerous groups of users to share a pool of frequencies from a number of transmitters located across the county and the state. A computer controls the channel allocation. The user's voice is digitized as part of the process. This has been shown in most cases to enhance reception, and helps to facilitate encryption of the user's voice.

For the local scanner enthusiast, unless you already own a trunking scanner or actively monitor an online scanner feed, you'll be shut out of the bulk of the activity.

As of this writing, the Grand Junction Police appear to have switched all of their operations to the DTR. Their main VHF radio channel has fallen silent. The Mesa County Sheriff is using both the old and new systems in a simulcast configuration. Fire and EMS operations remain unchanged, but a changeover of some type is likely in the near future.

Here's some direction for local monitoring enthusiasts in the short term:

Scanners: There are numerous models out there, and all of them carry a pretty hefty price tag. One radio that will still do the job locally (there are other issues related to monitoring on the Front Range) is the Radio Shack PRO-96/2096. It's been discontinued by the store chain, but is still available on places like Ebay. The scanner still enjoys extensive use in many areas.

There are other models with many more features and capabilities, such as the GRE PSR-500/600. These scanners allow for the monitoring of channels in the 700 Mhz band, along with the EDACS ESK trunked systems used extensively in Metro Denver. There is an excellent comparison chart that shows each unit's capabilities and price.

Also, if you end up purchasing one of these units, there is excellent programming software available from a company called Starrsoft. The software will also allow the remote monitoring and control of some of these scanners, including from some smartphones. Cool..

Online Monitoring: There is a very robust and knowledgeable hobbyist community in Mesa County and across Colorado. Combined with some very forward-thinking and entrepreneurial radio enthusiasts, an extensive network of online scanner feeds has been established through the comprehensive Radio Reference website. Feeds are available for most of Colorado's counties, with coverage within all 50 states.

Mesa County's online feed is available here. It is also available for monitoring from many models of wireless smartphones with Internet access. Using a service such as Moodio and this link, the audio stream is available via a standard music player. Additionally, the Emergency Radio app for the IPhone is very useful for keeping tabs on hundreds of scanner feeds around the country.
There are many encrypted channels on the new system, but most of the local traffic that interests legitimate users (law-abiding citizens, the media, etc.) is broadcast 'in the clear'.

The process by which public safety agencies utilize technology to accomplish significant goals, such as a transition to a new radio system, can be a daunting and exhaustive one. Having been involved in many of these processes over the years, I wish our local agencies the best for a smooth and uncomplicated move to this newer technology.

I'll have more to say later about the technologies and processes involved, and what they mean for the future of public safety communications, and the ability of citizens to follow the activities of their public servants.

Have a good weekend.