Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Digital push worries Nortex

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 03 Jul 2003 02:37:56 -0400

Digital push worries Nortex

By Jeff Hall/Times Record News
July 3, 2003

Some area officials are worried about shifting into the digital radio age,
fearing the cost of the new communication equipment and wondering about
its compatibility with older systems.

A meeting on Wednesday to learn the basics of ordering equipment under
the Homeland Security Grant Program became instead a quick lesson on
what kind of radios emergency services in the Wichita Falls area will be
using in the future.

Michelle Lemus, a sales representative from Fisher Safety, was giving a
demonstration at the Nortex Regional Planning Commission to area fire,
police, city and county officials on how to order equipment from her
company's Web site when someone asked about whether digital radio
systems would be required under the grant program.

"As far as I know ... the grant states you should be Program 25 (digital)
compliant," she said. "It doesn't mandate it."

Several officials attending voiced a concern that their existing analog
communication systems would not be able to communicate with the
required digital systems.

Carroll Phipps, a representative of Mobile Phone of Texas, the company that
handles Motorola radio sales in the area, said his understanding was that
the federal grant does require all radios purchased be digital.

But local officials shouldn't worry about compatibility right now, he said.

"There are radios you can get that are compliant that will operate in analog,"
Phipps said. "And at the time you have to go compliant, you do what we call
'flash the radio.' And you will go digital, and you will be compliant."

However, "your older radios will not have the capability to go digital," he said.

The reasoning behind the push for digital radios is the airwave congestion
in major metropolitan areas, Phipps said. Open radio frequencies are few
and far between there.

"I don't see everybody here going Project 25 because there's no need for it,"
he said. "Up here we've got lots of (open) frequencies."

Mike Cavitt, the Archer County emergency management coordinator, said
after the meeting he hadn't heard much about it, but he wasn't overly
concerned.

"If they're giving us the money, and that's what they require, that's what we'll
do," he said.

There are other considerations beyond being able to communicate between
analog and digital systems as far as Jerry David, Graham Fire Department's
battalion chief, is concerned.

"It's just the extra cost," he said. "It costs about three times what (older
radios) usually cost."

Not everyone at the meeting had heard much solid information about the
issue beforehand, Nocona Police Chief Kent Holcomb said.

"The only concern I have is I need to know more about it and the cost of it,"
he said. "I need to get to the facts first."

Changing over from the older analog system is something he always
thought was inevitable, Vernon Fire Department Chief Charles Stewart said.

"I knew we were probably someday all going to go to digital radios," he said.

Web News Editor Jeff Hall may be contacted at 1-800-627-1646, Ext. 596, or
(940) 763-7596, or by e-mail at [email-masked].

http://www.timesrecordnews.com/trn/local_news/article/0,1891,TRN_5784_2085096,00.html

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