[Scan-DC] More on MoCo's radio woes

[Scott, KB3JQQ]

 20 years ago Balco was using an analog 3600 baud system. 
A few years ago they complied with rebanding and narrowbandingby switching over to a Phase 1 digital system. Of course, nowthe users and the listeners sometimes get digital disruption,it seems to work better most of the time. Sometimes a few ofthe voice channels coming off the tower I'm pointing at geta little garbled. It's always the same ones, and they fix them
in a few days, but those channels are choppy until them.

Also all the Baltimore metro PD/FD departments have each other's 
talk groups in them so we have good interoperability here.

    On Friday, May 31, 2019, 1:31:58 AM EDT, Alan Henney <alan at henney.com> wrote:  
 
 https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/police-fire/another-outage-cripples-countys-emergency-communication-system-tuesday-morning/?utm_source=Bethesda+Magazine+Master+List&utm_campaign=7506fe30b6-Beat-05.24.19_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1bbe9df5d9-7506fe30b6-104468747&mc_cid=7506fe30b6&mc_eid=be7459338f

Tuesday Outage Crippled County’s Emergency Communication System
Aging network had largest-ever malfunction earlier this month
BY CAITLYNN PEETZ FOLLOW @CAITLYNNPEETZ14 | Published: 2019-05-28 12:46

PHOTO VIA PETE PIRINGER, MCFRS SPOKESMAN

Less than a month after Montgomery County’s emergency communications system
used by first responders suffered an outage lasting more than 12 hours, the
network faltered again on Tuesday.

At about 10:15 a.m. Tuesday, a Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Services
spokesman reported the system was on “condition red due to an internal
technical issue,” meaning non-emergency radio use was restricted because
many radio signals were out of service, straining the system’s ability to
carry voice traffic.

Police did not report any major emergencies during the hour the system was
impacted Tuesday morning, but county leaders have voiced concern that such
outages could impact emergency responders’ response time to serious
incidents, jeopardizing residents’ safety.

The “Condition Red” alert was canceled around 11:20 a.m. About four hours
later, another alert was issued for approximately 30 minutes.

“Unfortunately, the system is so deteriorated that it has small failures
now regularly and it needs to be replaced immediately,” said County Council
member Hans Riemer, one of two councilmen who wrote a letter to County
Executive Marc Elrich last month urging him to ensure the network is
replaced in a timely matter. “These kind of blinking outages are going to
keep happening until the system is upgraded.”

The aging system comprised of 11 communication towers has been the focus of
an upgrade initiative for more than a decade, but delays in obtaining new
tower sites have stalled the plan.

Most recently, Elrich asked county leaders to explore alternate sites for
two of the 22 new towers, which could push back implementation of the
upgrade another year.

Riemer and Council Vice President Sidney Katz urged Elrich to retract his
request in a letter in late April, saying “the entire public safety
communications system is strained under the delay.”

Earlier this month, the system experienced its largest-ever outage,
dropping to about 25% of its normal capacity.

The 20-year-old system – used by the county police, fire and rescue
services, sheriff’s office and others – sometimes experiences minutes-long
malfunctions in which emergency responders are unable to communicate
between each other, but recent instances of outages lasting more than one
hour are “unheard of,” county employees said last week.

The disruption was likely caused by a malfunction in equipment that
transmits radio signals between towers. When the equipment malfunctioned,
it took radio channels off the air countywide, rather than disconnecting
them from affected towers, county officials said.

In an average month, there are one or two “system busies” — a channel
request when a channel isn’t available — but there were more than 1,200
“busies” recorded during the Mother’s Day weekend outage, according to
county officials.

Last week, the system again experienced an outage, again leaving four
channels on which emergency responders could communicate throughout the
county, according to county fire and rescue personnel. The system
experienced issues for about six hours before it was restored to its normal
operation. There are usually about 16 channels available.

It was unclear what caused Tuesday’s issue but county fire and rescue
employees said there were roughly 130 “busies” and only four available
channels for the duration of the outage.

Caitlynn Peetz can be reached at caitlynn.peetz at bethesdamagazine.com



https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/police-fire/montgomery-emergency-communication-system-hanging-by-a-thread/

Montgomery Emergency Communication System ‘Hanging by a Thread’
Aging system experienced 13-hour ‘disruption’ earlier this month
BY CAITLYNN PEETZ FOLLOW @CAITLYNNPEETZ14 | Published: 2019-05-23 08:00

A “major disruption” in the county’s emergency communications system on
Mother’s Day weekend knocked out about 75% of the radio channels used by
dispatchers and first responders for several hours over two days.

The two lengthy outages, which apparently did not occur during any major
emergency incidents, are raising fresh concerns about the condition of the
20-year-old network and chronic delays in installing a new, $110 million
system.

“Public safety radio communication in Montgomery County was hanging by a
thread for a good part of Friday into Saturday,” one county fire and rescue
services employee wrote in an email to county officials. “I have no reason
to think what happened Friday into Saturday could not happen again at any
time.”

During the weekend, the system was functioning at about one-quarter of its
typical capacity for more than 12 hours, according to a fire and rescue
official who asked not to be named because they were unauthorized to speak
about the issue. During the delay, about four channels were available to
carry voice traffic among emergency responders. There are usually about 16
channels available.

In an average month, there are one or two “system busies” — a channel
request when a channel isn’t available — but there were more than 2,200
“busies” recorded during the outage, according to the official.

A police spokesman deferred questions about the outage, that started at
about 10:30 p.m. Friday, May 10, and lasted into the next afternoon, to
county government staff.

Internal communications in the days following the incident, referred to as
a “disruption,” show frustration and worry about the effectiveness of the
aging system and the impact of lengthy disruptions to critical emergency
operations.

“We shed as much load off the system as possible and crippled through the
day using the available capacity,” a county emergency responder wrote in an
email to County Council staff. “We were very fortunate that this happened
late in the evening and that the level of incident activity for both police
and fire was low throughout the whole time. If this had happened during a
busy rush hour with a structure fire or two and one or two critical police
incidents we would have been in VERY bad shape.”

Previous disruptions lasted, at most, 45 minutes, but typically were
resolved within minutes, according to the email messages from county
emergency responders to County Council staff.

The disruption was likely caused by a malfunction in equipment that
transmits radio signals between towers. When the equipment malfunctioned,
it took radio channels off the air countywide, rather than disconnecting
them from affected towers, county officials said.

About three hours after the issue was resolved, it happened again, and
lasted for about an hour.

It remains unclear what caused the second issue and how it eventually
fixed, seemingly on its own, according to county staff.

County officials have long been rolling out a $110 million plan to update a
communication system that has been in place for nearly 20 years, but the
plan has hit several “logistical snags,” according to county employees.
Originally expected to be in place in 2013, the new system likely won’t be
operational for at least another year.

About 20 local, county and federal agencies will use the new system,
including the county police department, park police and fire and rescue
services.

There are 11 towers in the current system, but there will be 22 tower sites
in the updated system to increase coverage and efficiency.

In November, the county Planning Board debated recommending approval of one
of the new system’s towers in Potomac, but ultimately reached a consensus
that the emergency coverage provided by the tower would outweigh community
members’ concerns about the 189-foot structure’s location and impact on the
neighborhood’s “character.”

In April, several weeks before this month’s disruption, Montgomery County
Council members Sidney Katz and Hans Riemer sent a letter to County
Executive Marc Elrich, concerned about the executive’s recommendation to
explore alternative locations for two new tower sites.

Elrich advised project leaders earlier this year to look for alternative
locations for the two already-approved towers — one at Bretton Woods in
Germantown and the other at the Georgia Avenue and Intercounty Connector
interchange north of Aspen Hill, which could delay implementation of the
project for an additional year.

Elrich and his county public information office did not return messages
seeking comment.

If new sites are selected, the height of towers at other locations may need
to be reconsidered to ensure radio frequencies aren’t interrupted by hills,
trees, houses or other structures in between.

In their letter to Elrich, Riemer and Katz say some equipment for the
current system isn’t manufactured anymore and replacement parts sometimes
have to be purchased from online retailers like E-bay.

“The Bretton Woods and Georgia Ave/ICC towers not only address known gaps,
but they also work in tandem with existing towers to make the entire
network work,” Riemer and Katz wrote. “In other words, the entire public
safety communications system is strained under the delay.”

Caitlynn Peetz can be reached at caitlynn.peetz at bethesdamagazine.com
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