Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Disaster Radio Network Closer but Still on Hold

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2003 01:34:43 -0500

Disaster Radio Network Closer but Still on Hold 
By Sarah Cohen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 23, 2003; Page A17 

The attack on the Pentagon reinforced the goal at the top of virtually every
emergency preparedness list: Build a communication network that allows
firefighters, police and federal agents to talk to one another at the press of a
button.

Since 2001, at least 12 agencies in the Washington region have allocated more
than $63 million toward upgrading communication systems. But despite the
investment -- the single largest allocation of homeland security dollars --
critical gaps remain in the network. Prince George's County lacks the standard
800-megahertz radio technology used by other jurisdictions. Virginia and
Maryland state troopers are without the radios. Federal agencies use their own
equipment on their own airwaves.

And even if those left out of the 800-megahertz system spent the money to join
it, a seemingly insurmountable problem remains: There is no more room in the
region's allocated airwaves. Plans made a decade ago to expand capacity by
recovering surplus bandwidth from television stations will still take years to
complete. 
For decades, 800-megahertz radio systems have been viewed as a way to impose
order on the chaos that defines communication between first responders at a
disaster. The problem came home when an Air Florida jet crashed into the 14th
Street bridge in 1982. Almost two decades later, rescuers at the Pentagon were
sometimes forced to rely on foot messengers.

"Why is it that so many years later, when we have an event at the Pentagon,
we're not prepared to deal with the same issues?" said Michael Mohler, president
of the Virginia Professional Firefighters union and a Fairfax firefighter.

The millions allocated to address the communication obstacles after Sept. 11,
2001, have made significant inroads. In the District, which spent $37 million,
officials now have a digital network that will allow all responders to
communicate with one another on one system. The technology includes towers that
can be brought to the scene of a disaster. That should address one problem
evident at the Pentagon: The thick walls inhibited radio signals.

But Prince George's still faces twin problems: the lack of funds to buy radios
and the lack of airwaves to support them. 

Now, when Prince George's police cross into the District, a dispatcher picks up
a telephone and calls a counterpart in the city to coordinate between the two
departments. Conversations between parties are conducted through a dispatcher on
the equivalent of one telephone line.

Officials across the country complain that the federal government is not moving
quickly enough to free up space on a compatible band. In the case of Prince
George's, getting money wouldn't guarantee a solution because of the shortage of
airwaves. "Right now, we couldn't move forward," said Jacqueline Brown, the
county's chief administrative officer. 

On Sept. 11, 2001, the FBI and other federal agencies at the Pentagon relied on
an unexpected stockpile of 800-megahertz radios from Montgomery County to
communicate with rescuers. But those radios are now in use in Montgomery. The
federal government has plans to stash extra radios in warehouses, but they have
not yet been purchased. The District, faced with the bandwidth limitations,
invested in alternative technologies for its police department. The system was
implemented in September, and officials said it will be integrated with the rest
of the region sometime next year.

Expanding the capacity of the airwaves is up to Congress and the Federal
Communications Commission. The federal government has promised to deliver more
space on the airwaves, but a solution could be a decade away.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6697-2003Nov22.html

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