Subject: [NEXTEL-1] NY- Radio daze blamed on construction

From: NEXTEL-1
Date: Sun, 04 Jul 2004 19:38:54 -0400

Radio daze blamed on construction.

Crane at city hotel site linked to emergency system troubles

By ANDREW TUTINO
Journal Staff

ITHACA -- The lengthy interruptions in the
Tompkins County emergency radio system are
being caused partly by the shutdown of a key leg
in the system due to work being done at the
Seneca Place on the Commons project
downtown, a legislator said on Friday.

Speaking at the Tompkins County Industrial
Development Agency meeting, Legislator Peter
Penniman, D-Ulysses and Enfield, said work
being done by cranes at the project was causing a
disconnect in the leg of the system that links the
Courthouse on North Tioga Street to one of
the radio towers located at Ithaca College.

That leg was shut down, Penniman said, while the work was being done
before two lengthy outages that have occurred in the last two months.

Normally, the system "re-loops" itself when there is a problem. However,
when major malfunctions occurred during the last two months, the system
could not "re-loop" because that leg of the system had been shut down,
Penniman told the IDA board.
"There was no way of looping back," Penniman said. "That is why we had
serious problems."
Penniman said the issue apparently escaped scrutiny during the lengthy
review process that took place before the project was approved. He said
there is talk of trying to have a transmitter put on top of what will
eventually become a hotel in downtown Ithaca.

"We are actively trying to figure this out," he said.

The vice president of Ciminelli Development Co., David Chiazza, said he
was unaware of the problems.

On May 19 and June 24, the emergency radio system was knocked out for
several hours as a part malfunctioned. On May 19, the system went down
for five hours when a part malfunctioned at a tower and created static
so loud it distorted any radio signals that tried to penetrate through
the microwave system. On June 24, the system went down around 9 a.m. and
came back online at 12:30 p.m. A circuit board in a tower stopped the
relay of transmissions leaving the county's dispatchers.

In both cases, police, fire and emergency response officials were
frustrated by the malfunctioning system. They were forced to resort to
contingency plans to ensure messages could be relayed to people out in
the field.

The county will eventually install a digital system that will cost more
than $19 million.
The new system is at least two years away.
http://www.theithacajournal.com/news/stories/20040703/localnews/771174.html

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