[Scan-DC] Disaster Radio Network Closer but Still on Hold

[Alan Henney]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6697-2003Nov22.html

Disaster Radio Network Closer but Still on Hold

By Sarah Cohen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 23, 2003; Page A17

The attack on the Pentagon reinforced the goal at the top of virtually
every emergency preparedness list: Build a communication network that
allows firefighters, police and federal agents to talk to one another
at the press of a button.

Since 2001, at least 12 agencies in the Washington region have
allocated more than $63 million toward upgrading communication
systems. But despite the investment -- the single largest allocation
of homeland security dollars -- critical gaps remain in the network.
Prince George's County lacks the standard 800-megahertz radio
technology used by other jurisdictions. Virginia and Maryland state
troopers are without the radios. Federal agencies use their own
equipment on their own airwaves.

And even if those left out of the 800-megahertz system spent the money
to join it, a seemingly insurmountable problem remains: There is no
more room in the region's allocated airwaves. Plans made a decade ago
to expand capacity by recovering surplus bandwidth from television
stations will still take years to complete.

For decades, 800-megahertz radio systems have been viewed as a way to
impose order on the chaos that defines communication between first
responders at a disaster. The problem came home when an Air Florida
jet crashed into the 14th Street bridge in 1982. Almost two decades
later, rescuers at the Pentagon were sometimes forced to rely on foot
messengers.

"Why is it that so many years later, when we have an event at the
Pentagon, we're not prepared to deal with the same issues?" said
Michael Mohler, president of the Virginia Professional Firefighters
union and a Fairfax firefighter.

The millions allocated to address the communication obstacles after
Sept. 11, 2001, have made significant inroads. In the District, which
spent $37 million, officials now have a digital network that will
allow all responders to communicate with one another on one system.
The technology includes towers that can be brought to the scene of a
disaster. That should address one problem evident at the Pentagon: The
thick walls inhibited radio signals.

But Prince George's still faces twin problems: the lack of funds to
buy radios and the lack of airwaves to support them.

Now, when Prince George's police cross into the District, a dispatcher
picks up a telephone and calls a counterpart in the city to coordinate
between the two departments. Conversations between parties are
conducted through a dispatcher on the equivalent of one telephone
line.

Officials across the country complain that the federal government is
not moving quickly enough to free up space on a compatible band. In
the case of Prince George's, getting money wouldn't guarantee a
solution because of the shortage of airwaves. "Right now, we couldn't
move forward," said Jacqueline Brown, the county's chief
administrative officer.

On Sept. 11, 2001, the FBI and other federal agencies at the Pentagon
relied on an unexpected stockpile of 800-megahertz radios from
Montgomery County to communicate with rescuers. But those radios are
now in use in Montgomery. The federal government has plans to stash
extra radios in warehouses, but they have not yet been purchased. The
District, faced with the bandwidth limitations, invested in
alternative technologies for its police department. The system was
implemented in September, and officials said it will be integrated
with the rest of the region sometime next year.

Expanding the capacity of the airwaves is up to Congress and the
Federal Communications Commission. The federal government has promised
to deliver more space on the airwaves, but a solution could be a
decade away.