Police, Firefighters Getting New Radio System

Chattanooga is building what some are calling a model radio communications system for the state of Tennessee and country.

It comes on the seventh anniversary of 9/11 when hard lessons were learned from New York's police officers and firefighters. During the attacks on the Wold Trade Center emergency responders discovered they could not communicate with each other because their different kinds of radios transmitted on different frequencies.

It's a nationwide problem that affects just about every metro region in the country.

Since 9/11 all the different public safety agencies in Hamilton County switched to a shared analog 800MHz radio system that allows everyone from every agency to talk to each other during emergencies.

About a year ago the idea surfaced to expand this system to the entire region and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security loved the idea so much they sent money to the city to get the job done.

Paul Page, Director of General Services for Chattanooga, said "the federal government came through the state and funded that for us, we were successful in writing that and getting this grant."

In all more than $20-million in federal grants are paying for the expansion of Chattanooga's radio system to a regional digital system using the latest technology. 

The Georgia counties include Catoosa, Dade and Walker. In Tennessee the venture includes Hamilton, Bradley, McMinn, Rhea, Meigs, Roane, Louden, Anderson and Knox counties.

Chattanooga's radio shop director, Arnold Hooper, said the system can be expanded to cover more counties in Georgia and  Tennessee.

"We will be able to communicate system to system, much like roaming in a cellular network, it will be more roaming in a public safety world," Hooper said.

Currently counties in the Tennessee Valley use a hodge-podge of 42Mhz, 150MHz and 460MHz frequencies.

The Chattanooga 800MHz system now uses six radio transmission towers - five in Hamilton County and one on Taylor's Ridge south of Ringgold. Hooper said plans are to install new 700MHz and 800MHz digital transmitters from Dalton and Trenton, Georgia to Knoxville. Many of the transmitter sites will be installed on existing radio towers now used by various counties for their aging, analog transmitters.

The first agency outside Chattanooga to join their system is the Catoosa County Sheriff's Department and all other public safety agencies in that county.

Catoosa County Sheriff Phil Summers said their older 150MHz system only gave 60% radio coverage of the county with portable radios, exposing officers to "dead spots" where they were not able to call for help if needed. He said with their new 800Mhz digital radios officers are getting better than 90% coverage with portables.

Sheriff Summers added the digital transmissions are clear, static free and penetrate into buidlings that before blocked signals.

"We had no communications once inside Hutcheson Medical Center, even in Wal Mart we had problems communicating because the signal would not penetrate the steel in buildings," Summers said. "With 800Mhz we now have communications that improved throughout Catoosa County."

Summers is spearheading the work to get Walker and Dade counties on line with the Chattanooga system, and negotiating with other Georgia counties to join.

Summers said by joining the Chattanooga system he saved taxpayers millions of dollars. After getting estimates from several companies for building out a digital system for Catoosa County he learned it would cost about $5-million. The cost for joining the Chattanooga system cost $1.5-million for the tower, equipment and 911 Center consoles. Most of that was covered by the county's SPLOST tax which is up for voter renewal and approval.

Catoosa County does pay about $60,000 per year to Chattanooga to cover the costs of maintenance and emergency repairs. As other counties go on line they will also pay a similar fee to keep their towers and equipment working.

According to the provisions of the federal grants the "P-25" digital trunked system must be built and on-line by July 1, 2010. It will be up to individual cities and counties to pay for the radios in the field, but Hooper said there are state and federal grants available to help with those costs.

"We've got a huge project in front of us but our vendor's come to the table and put a very aggressive time line and we're going to be busy the next two years," Hooper said.