Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Orange County, Fl- WESH Reports Radio Modification Eliminates Nextel Interference.

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 09 Aug 2003 15:59:40 -0400

<SNIP>

"The WESH NewsChannel 2 investigation also showed Nextels --
those popular walkie-talkie radios -- also interfere with police and
fire radios, knocking them out.

But engineers have come up with a fix. Inside each emergency
radio, there's a tiny part that when removed, the Nextel
interference is eliminated."

(see: previously posted Moto's technical bulletin)
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Firefighter Radio Test Is A Success

Orange County Makes Strides In Solving Outage
Problem

POSTED: 11:17 a.m. EDT August 9, 2003
UPDATED: 11:35 a.m. EDT August 9, 2003

ORLANDO, Fla. -- During emergencies, rescuers need their
portable radios to talk with each other.

But a WESH NewsChannel 2 investigation last February showed
the radios can suddenly fail.

"I'd say it's a bigger problem then I think we realize it is," said
Tom Sorley of the Orange County radio division.

Now, Orange County engineers are trying to solve the problem by
reprogramming thousands of its emergency portable radios and
buying special equipment to make sure the radios don't go dead.

So does the new gear work?

WESH NewsChannel 2's Jack Fink tested the equipment with
Orange County's Paul Godwin at the basement of the University
of Central Florida library.

Godwin checked to see if a special amplifier allowed the radios to
work inside. It did.

And because the amplifier was such a big success at UCF,
Orange County has just decided to start a pilot program to buy a
dozen of them.

The amplifiers the county tested are much cheaper than previous
models, costing just $500 each.

Engineers will install them at places where the portable radios
suddenly fail.

No solution is totally foolproof, but the county is confident the
new technology will prevent a communications disaster.

The WESH NewsChannel 2 investigation also showed Nextels --
those popular walkie-talkie radios -- also interfere with police and
fire radios, knocking them out.

But engineers have come up with a fix. Inside each emergency
radio, there's a tiny part that when removed, the Nextel
interference is eliminated.

"You have to take the radio completely apart to get to the very
piece that you have to fix," Sorley said.

It's a big job, but all 6,000 Orange County emergency radios will
get the change by this fall.

"We are doing everything we can to make it so that when a
public safety responder pushes a button to talk, they can get
through," Sorley said. "That's the bottom line."

http://www.wesh.com/news/2393889/detail.html