Montgomery County, PA

In 1996, the County installed a new 800 MHz trunked radio communication system that was supposed to enable all Police, Fire, Ambulance and County agencies to operate on one common radio system.  This would enable communications between agencies and provide in building handheld portable voice radio coverage while eliminating the cost and upkeep on all older and separate systems.  Along with the new voice system an 800 MHz mobile data infrastructure (single channel), was also installed.  This allows the police to operate in-car computers or M.D.T’s (Mobile Data Terminals).  The M.D.T. system is used by the police to exchange police information with state and county databases in addition to police call dispatch.  It was hoped that the Ambulance and Fire services would also one day utilize this information system.

At the time of the system installation, funding for the entire project was not available, so it was decided that it would be completed in phases. The system was phased down to a point that outside portable coverage was also affected, as well as, the M.D.T.’s.  The County installed only seven full transmit and receive sties and two receive only sites operating on eleven frequencies. The County has been enduring life safety issue complaints since the onset of the system, as well as system loading complaints.

The system was activated in May of 1997.  All Montgomery County Government Agencies were switched over to the system. Approximately 35 of the 51 police departments of Montgomery County were switched over in the first year.  Since then we have switched the remaining 16 police departments and added the 42 EMS Ambulance Squads of Montgomery County.  Also to date we support several state and federal agencies that interact with County units.

We were not able to switch the 93 fire departments of the County over to the present system due to system loading.

Montgomery County, PA is approximately 483 square miles serving 750,000 residents.  It is made up of 62 municipalities of which 24 boroughs and 38 townships.  Montgomery Counties Emergency Dispatch Services processes 35,000 police radio calls and 6750 Fire and EMS calls per month.  The system has 77 talkgroups, 68 of which are in service and 9 of which are inactive, but originally established for the fire service.

The system averages 163,000 radio transmissions per day, and runs at 69% capacity during daily peak hours.  We experience system busies on a regular basis and have exceeded 100% during storm conditions. 3353 busies were recorded on February 5^th, 2001.

At present (March 2001) we have approximately 2318 (radios) users on the system broken down as follows.

County:  A variety of Montgomery County departments use the 800 MHz system.  These departments include: Emergency Dispatch Services, Court House Security, Detective Unit, Emergency Management, Parks Department, Geriatric Center, Sheriffs Department and the Correctional Facility.  The total number of units is currently 424 radios.

Police Services:  The Police Services of Montgomery County is made up of 51 police departments.  They currently utilize 1532 radios.

Emergency Medical Services:  The Emergency Medical Services of Montgomery County is made up of 42 services with 57 individual stations.  They are presently using 329 radios and are projected to utilize 1140 radios when the migration to the 800 MHz system is complete.

Other:  Other services that use Montgomery County’s 800 MHz system include Pennsylvania State Police and FBI agents.  The total number of radios used by these departments is currently 33 radios.

Fire Services:  The Fire Services of Montgomery County are made up from 92 individual fire departments with 115 fire stations. They are being dispatched off of six different frequencies mixed between  Low band and VHF High band (33.70 MHz through 154.445 MHz) and utilize several other frequencies for on-scene operations. Our goal is to have all fire services of the County on one common system in common with all other County system users. We would then be able to release some of the VHF license.

Expected growth in number of radios is 2557 units, 1840 of which are fire and 711 EMS units.   The system cannot support the activity generated by these units, which continue to operate on low band and high band simplex channels.

Once both West and East systems are completed, the County will notify the fire service, as to there opportunity (Welcome) to switch over to the Enhanced 800MHz Radio System.  The fire companies, at the announced time, may switch over and utilize the Enhanced 800MHz Radio System for all County radio communications. A “drop dead date” for when fire companies must switch over has not yet been set. Technology and FCC licenses will govern this “drop dead date”. The County anticipates that it will take several years for the 93 fire companies to switch over to the enhanced system.  The County will be simulcasting the present fire dispatch and hail channels with 800MHz fire talkgroups. This simulcasting allows the County dispatcher to monitor and transmit to all new and old fire system users. Simulcasting does not allow new and old fire system users to monitor and transmit to each other in the field.

Fire Companies that will be ready to switch over to the Enhanced 800MHz Radio System will need to plan with their neighboring fire departments as to field communications. This may require the 800MHz departments to maintain some old equipment until their neighbors switch over. Regional planning is suggested to ease communication issues that will exist until all fire departments are operational on the Enhanced 800MHz Radio System.

The County is working with Motorola as well as other vendors seeking radio product and models that may become available for full system functionality and operation, in all price ranges. The County has also researched the option of non-system 800MHz radios and has found very favorable applications. One is cost; there are many radios in the $600 to $1500 range. These radios can be programmed with the 800MHz fire ground and National channels that are common to the channels that reside in the more expensive trunked system radios. These radios will support fire ground communication as well as rescue and boat operations to name a few. The draw back is that they are for close proximity communications only and will not communicate with the County dispatchers or on the Enhanced 800MHz Radio System. More information is available upon request.

With the Enhanced 800MHz Radio System upgrading from 7 to 20 full transmit and receive radio sites throughout the County, the need for mobile radios has been greatly reduced. Since 1996 when the original 800MHz system was made available, several agencies have been operating with only portables. Other department’s added mobiles to their fleet due to derogated system coverage in local areas. These areas as well as the entire County were addressed in the Enhanced 800MHz Radio System. The “new” system is designed as a portable base system.

There are many issues concerning the system and non-system frequencies that will be in operation associated with the Enhanced 800MHz Radio Project. The County must enforce all rules and guidelines set fourth by local, state and federal agencies with relation to the use and operation of the system and non-system 800MHz frequencies. For this reason, the County will not allow the use and/or operation of repeaters of any type by any fire, EMS, and police department.

For more in depth information on the Enhanced 800MHz Radio System, radio products, or any related issues feel free to contact Rick Lohwasser at 610-631-6542 or rlohwass@montcopa.org.