Subject: [NEXTEL-1] NHP's radio system crashes

From: NEXTEL-1
Date: Tue, 01 Jun 2004 13:59:53 -0400

NHP's radio system crashes
In rural areas: Backup system helps prevent major problems
Steve Timko

RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
5/29/2004 12:25 am

The Nevada Highway Patrol’s new $10 million radio system crashed for 90
minutes during an evening rush hour this week, forcing northwest Nevada
troopers outside Reno to use an older radio system, NHP officials said.

One trooper in Fernley talked to dispatchers using a cellular telephone.
But all troopers had two-way communication on either the old or new
system, and no one reported significant problems during the outage that
started just after 4 p.m., Tuesday NHP officials said.

“It was a thing we don’t have to have happen,” said Bob Wideman, deputy
chief of NHP’s northern command. “It wasn’t a thing we take lightly. On
the other hand, it wasn’t a crisis that there was no other way around.”

A surge in electricity occurred Tuesday, knocking out two controller
cards that direct radio traffic over data lines, said Richard Sheldrew,
the Nevada Department of Transportation telecommunications manager. The
cards had to be repaired and rebooted, Sheldrew said.

Reno-area troopers could still communicate to dispatch over the
800-megahertz system because their patrol cars are tied in to Washoe
County’s 800-megahertz system, which is connected with NHP dispatch,
Wideman said.

The dispatch center in Reno handles troopers east to Lovelock, eastern
Churchill County and south to Mineral County.
No more than five troopers outside the Reno area had to use an older
150-megahertz radio frequency as backup, Wideman said.

The State Board of Examiners, led by Gov. Kenny Guinn, agreed last
October to spend about $10 million to buy almost 1,800 new radios from
the Massachusetts-based M/A-Com Inc. so the NHP system could be run on
an existing NDOT communication system.

In March, the Nevada attorney general’s office said it would not file
charges against those responsible for the state spending $14 million to
buy an older system, which operated only three years, despite what it
called “certain improprieties.”
Sheldrew is leading the NHP’s upgrade. The engineering will be finished
and new dispatch consoles and other equipment in place in five months,
he said, giving the system backup to prevent a repeat of Tuesday’s
problem.

The Reno dispatch center should be fully upgraded in five months,
Sheldrew said, and after successful testing this week in Clark County,
it looks as if the Las Vegas dispatch center will be on line by
December.

The state is spending another $3 million to upgrade radio transmitting
sites on mountaintops, most in rural Nevada, Sheldrew said. The third
and final upgrade for the Elko dispatch center will depend on when the
new mountaintop sites are finished, he said.

Gary Allen, owner, editor and publisher of Dispatch Monthly magazine for
public safety personnel, said M/A-Com and Motorola are the two primary
U.S. radio systems for public safety, and both rely heavily on
computerization.
Radios going down are not common, Allen said, “but it certainly occurs
where a component fails. That’s the nature of electronics.”

http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2004/05/29/71891.php?sp1=rgj&sp2=News&sp3=Local+News&sp5=RGJ.com&sp6=news&sp7=local_news

Copyright © 2004 The Reno Gazette-Journal

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> 
Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar.
Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/61FxlB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~-> 

-- 
    "NEXTEL-1 IT'S NOT JUST NEXTEL"
  Note The New address 
Subscribe to Nextel-1: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/NEXTEL-1

  "NEXTEL2 FOR iDEN SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS"
Subscribe to Nextel2: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/NEXTEL2

  "WIRELESS FORUM HOMELAND SECURITY GROUP"
     The Complete Resource for Wireless Homeland Security.
Subscribe to WFHSG:  http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/WFHSG

Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEXTEL-1/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
     [email-masked]

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
     http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/