Subject: [NEXTEL-1] System provides communications links for emergency agencies

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 03 Apr 2003 12:12:59 -0500

System provides communications links for emergency agencies

Thursday, April 3, 2003

By SONJA BJELLAND, [email-masked]

Local emergency agencies are learning from their own mistakes as well as others'.

On Wednesday, they unveiled a new system to link all communications in emergency
situations. Some agencies, such as the
Florida Department of Law Enforcement, use Nextel two-way radio/cell phones.

Others, such as sheriff's offices and some fire departments, use radios, and those do not
use the same frequency and
equipment, said John Campbell, chief of operations for the Lee County Emergency Operations
Center.

When all the proper information is put into the computer system, it will take about an
hour to set up at the scene of an
emergency. Then Campbell can use his Nextel network phone to call a fire engine on a radio
frequency and coordinate an
emergency effort. He could even keep the National Guard on the line if needed.

Now two boxes that expand to 5 feet in height can link all that technology and be shared
by the nine counties in the Southwest
Regional Domestic Security Task Force. The boxes hold every type of communication used in
the area, from the phones to
different UHF and VHF models of radios. A computer crosses the barriers between them and
four antennae allow them to
connect with each other.

"It looks like an octopus when it's all put together," said David Kitts, an electronic
technician with Cell-Tel Government
Systems who developed the machines.

The state purchased the devices for the regional task forces at $200,000 each. From
hurricanes to brush fires and any other
disaster, they will connect all the agencies involved. In those cases, groups from the
Division of Forestry to the Lee County
Sheriff's Office and many fire districts need to be joined. FDLE spokesman Larry Long said
this has been a major problem at
large events. A terrorism scare on Alligator Alley in September 2002 was the task force's
first major joint response.

"We saw really quickly, especially in an isolated area like that," Long said. "We needed a
system that could plug in all those
different communication devices so everyone could talk to each other."

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, many agencies in New
York City and elsewhere had trouble
reaching each other. This led to the Jacksonville-based company working on this new
machine, said John Cantrell, senior radio
frequency engineer.

"We never really had an awakening like 9/11," he said.

It also can function if the power goes out or wind knocks down local communications towers
through the satellite network and
it comes complete with a satellite dome. They can also reach some aircraft through the
system for emergency helicopters or
other uses.

"If you knock out your towers, we're not losing communications with patrol cars and
ambulances," he said.

http://www.bonitanews.com/03/04/bonita/d923319a.htm

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