Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Dog Pound - Jan. 2, 2003

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 02 Jan 2003 14:51:35 -0500

Our collection of Holiday stories continues to grow, with one from Florida about a
brand-new dispatcher's experience...check our homepage for the link.

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Warning...warning! The FCC is reassigning frequencies! Well, at least they are if you
don't renew your frequency licenses, like Kendall County (Tex.). Apparently the renewal
was sent to an old address back in 2000, and in the meantime Kerr County applied for a
license on the frequency as part of a new, $1 million radio system. Kendall County plans
to ask for 90 days to arrange another frequency, which could be in another band, forcing
them to spend $200,000 to reprogram and update their radio gear.

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Another one of those "benefits of Phase II" news stories, this time from Perry County
(Ohio). Mary Botelho, 72, was turning her car around in a restaurant parking lot during a
trip from Las Vegas back home to Massachusetts when the car slipped into a ditch at night.
She dialed 911, but didn't know where she was--in fact, she told a calltaker she was in
Massachusetts. After 17 calls to 911, her handset battery died. It wasn't until 7 hours
later that a passerby saw the car and called police.

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Robbie Thomas, founder and president of 911 Mapping Systems Inc., and one of the pioneers
in the field of public safety mapping, passed away unexpectedly on Dec. 22, 2002. His
brother Mike says, "We know that those of you who had the privilege of having met Robbie
share both our sadness in losing him and our joy in having known him."

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Congrats! to Brown County (SD) dispatchers, who just moved into a new comm center in the
basement of the courthouse annex. There were a few technical glitches, most simply related
to the fact the center isn't located in the Aberdeen municipal building, where it was
close to other city and county offices. A public phone outside the municipal building will
allow persons to still contact a dispatcher. The city and county split the cost of the
comm center's budget--about $364,800 a year.

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Check our job listings for a new opening for a Public Safety Outreach Coordinator in the
Kansas City (Mo.) metro area.

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Now that Philadelphia is rolling out a 800 MHz digital radio system for its public safety
agencies, there has been lots of back-and-forth on the scanner Web sites about the
black-out: a digital-capable scanner won't be available from Uniden until January or
February. You'll recall the $51 million Motorola system uses 10-sites and 15-frequency
pairs for the police department, which is using portable radios only--no vehicle-mounted
mobile radios. There's been lots of talk about the fire department's unusual use of
encryption on its fireground frequencies--reportedly the only FD in the country to do so.
There are some officer reports of busy signals--and the system isn't being used by all the
police districts yet.

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