Fire Territory Approves Purchase Of New Radios For Vehicles
September 8, 2021 at 2:41 a.m.
Fire Territory Approves Purchase Of New Radios For Vehicles
By David [email protected]
During the Warsaw-Wayne Township Fire Protection Territory regular meeting Tuesday, the WWFT board approved $69,724 for vehicle mobile radios and related equipment for that move.
Fire Chief Mike Wilson said the County Commissioners have been working on the upgrade to the countywide communication system for over a year.
“Knowing everything that’s going on with how poor VHF is today, we will be moving to the 700 frequency megahertz, which is like the 800 megahertz the state systems use, except this is a standalone program that is only good in Kosciusko County,” Wilson explained. “As I’ve mentioned before, there’s four towers that will be going up so that a handheld radio or a mobile radio anywhere in the county will be able to talk to another agency within the county from one point of the county to the other. So from Sidney to the Nappanee area, we will have great communications.”
In doing that, Wilson said they had to replace the mobile radios sitting in the trucks.
He provided the WWFT board with a list of the costs, broken down by apparatus. Assistant Chief Aaron Bolinger’s radio has already been replaced in his new vehicle, as has EMS Chief Chris Fancil’s in his old and new vehicles. The radio for the battalion vehicle that is coming already has been purchased.
Wilson said the $69,724 will come out of the equipment replacement 410 account.
Hopefully, he said, the new system will be on by January, which is the target date.
Board member and Mayor Joe Thallemer said a few years ago “we spent quite a bit of money” for the handheld portable radios for the police, fire and the street department. They ran into some problems countywide being able to communicate. He said with the county improving communications with the towers, “it’ll now enhance dramatically the ability for us to use this 700 MHz radios that we had for a while, portable ones, and what we’re being asked to do today is purchase the (mobile) radios that fit in the vehicles. So this is kind of a last step in us shoring up our ability to communicate at 700 MHz.”
Wilson said with VHF radio, it’s difficult to communicate in concrete and steel buildings. “So we can take the 700 frequency we’ve been using ever since we bought these radios, and we can be on the roof of the Justice Building, the jail, it’s all concrete and metal, and be able to talk to the teams in the basement. It’s unheard of.”
He said it is not a direct communication, but is in-depth, short-range. “And when you go onto the system, it’s like a repeater system, it is great depth, long range,” Wilson said. “So the 700 MHz originally was designed a long time ago.” He said they finally have enough communication programs going that the county can go to the 700.
“The county has already paid for towers, all new consoles at dispatch, all new upgrades, so this is just a portion of what we have planned for in moving to the new county program,” he said.
Brandon Schmitt, WWFT Board member, asked if each county fire department would have their own frequency. Wilson said they would be dispatched on one frequency, operations will be on another frequency, plus there will be two fireground channels to each department.
“So there is so much bank of communications that they will not be walking on top of each other like you experiencing when you were working (as a firefighter),” Wilson told Schmitt.
“So they will still have to go to a fireground channel?” Schmitt asked, and Wilson said that was correct.
Thallemer asked if there was some crossover with VHF. Wilson said yes.
“So the redundancy for your ISO programs, you want to be able to still have your VHF radios. So all the VHF radios that are in the apparatuses will still stay. And they’re already in the dual bands, we thought of that when we went forward starting this process,” Wilson said. “So you will have a crossover effect that we can switch back to VHF in the event that we need to.”
He said they’re also adding a city emergency channel into the 700 bank. They decided to do that several weeks ago, prior to their last drill. “So that all the guys from the street department who have VHF radios and have not upgraded will be able to talk to us on the 700 MHz. It’s all been blended together,” Wilson said.
Board member and Councilman Mike Klondaris made a motion to approve the expenditure and Schmitt provided the second. It was approved 3-0.
The funds will come out of the 2021 budget. No grant is involved. The Board of Public Works and Safety also will have to approve the expenditure at its Sept. 17 meeting.
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During the Warsaw-Wayne Township Fire Protection Territory regular meeting Tuesday, the WWFT board approved $69,724 for vehicle mobile radios and related equipment for that move.
Fire Chief Mike Wilson said the County Commissioners have been working on the upgrade to the countywide communication system for over a year.
“Knowing everything that’s going on with how poor VHF is today, we will be moving to the 700 frequency megahertz, which is like the 800 megahertz the state systems use, except this is a standalone program that is only good in Kosciusko County,” Wilson explained. “As I’ve mentioned before, there’s four towers that will be going up so that a handheld radio or a mobile radio anywhere in the county will be able to talk to another agency within the county from one point of the county to the other. So from Sidney to the Nappanee area, we will have great communications.”
In doing that, Wilson said they had to replace the mobile radios sitting in the trucks.
He provided the WWFT board with a list of the costs, broken down by apparatus. Assistant Chief Aaron Bolinger’s radio has already been replaced in his new vehicle, as has EMS Chief Chris Fancil’s in his old and new vehicles. The radio for the battalion vehicle that is coming already has been purchased.
Wilson said the $69,724 will come out of the equipment replacement 410 account.
Hopefully, he said, the new system will be on by January, which is the target date.
Board member and Mayor Joe Thallemer said a few years ago “we spent quite a bit of money” for the handheld portable radios for the police, fire and the street department. They ran into some problems countywide being able to communicate. He said with the county improving communications with the towers, “it’ll now enhance dramatically the ability for us to use this 700 MHz radios that we had for a while, portable ones, and what we’re being asked to do today is purchase the (mobile) radios that fit in the vehicles. So this is kind of a last step in us shoring up our ability to communicate at 700 MHz.”
Wilson said with VHF radio, it’s difficult to communicate in concrete and steel buildings. “So we can take the 700 frequency we’ve been using ever since we bought these radios, and we can be on the roof of the Justice Building, the jail, it’s all concrete and metal, and be able to talk to the teams in the basement. It’s unheard of.”
He said it is not a direct communication, but is in-depth, short-range. “And when you go onto the system, it’s like a repeater system, it is great depth, long range,” Wilson said. “So the 700 MHz originally was designed a long time ago.” He said they finally have enough communication programs going that the county can go to the 700.
“The county has already paid for towers, all new consoles at dispatch, all new upgrades, so this is just a portion of what we have planned for in moving to the new county program,” he said.
Brandon Schmitt, WWFT Board member, asked if each county fire department would have their own frequency. Wilson said they would be dispatched on one frequency, operations will be on another frequency, plus there will be two fireground channels to each department.
“So there is so much bank of communications that they will not be walking on top of each other like you experiencing when you were working (as a firefighter),” Wilson told Schmitt.
“So they will still have to go to a fireground channel?” Schmitt asked, and Wilson said that was correct.
Thallemer asked if there was some crossover with VHF. Wilson said yes.
“So the redundancy for your ISO programs, you want to be able to still have your VHF radios. So all the VHF radios that are in the apparatuses will still stay. And they’re already in the dual bands, we thought of that when we went forward starting this process,” Wilson said. “So you will have a crossover effect that we can switch back to VHF in the event that we need to.”
He said they’re also adding a city emergency channel into the 700 bank. They decided to do that several weeks ago, prior to their last drill. “So that all the guys from the street department who have VHF radios and have not upgraded will be able to talk to us on the 700 MHz. It’s all been blended together,” Wilson said.
Board member and Councilman Mike Klondaris made a motion to approve the expenditure and Schmitt provided the second. It was approved 3-0.
The funds will come out of the 2021 budget. No grant is involved. The Board of Public Works and Safety also will have to approve the expenditure at its Sept. 17 meeting.
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