[Scanner] Cumberland County's 800 MHz Project

Wed, 3 Dec 2003 08:48:43 EST

Subj:   [WFHSG] The Real Status of Cumberland County's 800 MHz Project =20

Date:   12/02/2003 4:22:31 PM Eastern Standard Time=20

From:=C2=A0 =C2=A0 [email protected] (slatteryp)

Reply-to:=C2=A0 =C2=A0 [email protected]

To:=C2=A0 =C2=A0 [email protected]

   =20

   =20

Mr. Potzer's recent email on the status of Cumberland's County 800=20

MHz Project contains many misleading and inaccurate statements which=20

I, as the project manger, feel obligated to correct.=C2=A0=20

1. The County never had a contract with Motorola to provide an 800=20

MHz system. Motorola along with other vendors responded to a County=20

released RFP for an 800 MHz system, but the County rejected all of=20

the proposals.=20

2. The County's design requirement was for 95% mobile coverage 95%=20

of the time and 95% portable coverage 95% of the time into light,=20

residential structures defined as building with 12 dB signal loss.=20

The original OpenSky system design called for expanding the four high=20

profile tower sites to six and adding five OpenSky cell sites. This=C2=A0=20

design was changed BEFORE the installation of any site started to=20

seven cell sites because the analysis conducted by our team showed=20

the design meet the contract requirement but did not provide coverage=20

in a few isolated populated areas and areas of future growth. The new=20

design provided the additional desired coverage.=20

3. The statement that the system is "no where close to being=20

operational" is blatantly false.=20

=C2=A0 - The six high profile sites have been operational for two years=20

and has been serving as the backbone for our 911 Center radio=20

communications for that period.=20

=C2=A0 - Six of the seven cells sites are operational and fully integrated=20

into the system.=20

=C2=A0 - The County's Transportation Department, a fleet of 32 buses, has=20

been outfitted with OpenSky mobile radios and has been operating for=20

the past year using the OpenSky system in a public service mode. The=20

Department is currently working with a vendor to develop a software=20

application for use with a mobile data terminal to pass data to=20

drivers to update scheduling. The application has gone through two=20

successful in-progress reviews where both times it used the 800 MHz=20

system to pass the data.=20

- Currently, two municipal police departments have installed the=20

mobile radios in their cars and along with the portables have been=20

testing them and conducting internal operations. One department early=20

on tested the portables in a local mall and reported great success.=20

- In October of this year, we conducted a coverage test while the=20

foliage was still on the trees of the high profile and six cell=20

sites. The results were mobile coverage in 98.5% of the County. The=20

portable coverage was determined to be 94.5% - just below the design=20

criteria =E2=80=93 but again, this was without the final cell site which wil=
l=20

be situated on exceptionally prominent ridge.=20

=C2=A0 -The sole reason why the seventh cell site has not been installed=20

is because the County has not concluded the lease agreement. The=20

agreement is still in legal review.=20

4. The statement about Shippensburg is misleading. I agree the=20

testing conducted by the local police department shows the portables=20

do not penetrate some of the building downtown. However, the design=20

of the system from the beginning was always portable coverage into=20

residential structures not commercial buildings. The idea of the=20

VTAC, what Mr. Potzer called the repeater, has been part of the=20

system design from the beginning and is not an add on idea to=20

compensate for a failure of the system.=20

5. The County Commissioners have not broken any promises to the=20

municipalities. They directed early on in the project that nearly=20

$2.25 millions dollars be set aside to pay for 67% of the cost of=20

municipal radios. The point that two Commissioners choose not to seek=20

re-election after jointly serving twelve years because of the radio=20

project is ludicrous.=20

6. The comment on the status of the Commonwealth's OpenSky project=20

is also incorrect. I leave it at saying multiple state agencies are=20

currently using the system for day-to-day operations and those=20

agencies have established the interoperability links at the=20

appropriate level. In fact, the Commonwealth's Emergency Management=20

Agency (PEMA) is currently buying OpenSky control stations and=20

remotes for every county emergency management center/PSAP to as to=20

establish communications across disparate communications systems.=20

This equipment is being installed in centers at this time is slated=20

to be completed before the end of this year.=20

As stated above, the OpenSky infrastructure has been in place and in=20

use for two years. It has proven to be an exceptionally reliable and=20

maintain free system to date.=C2=A0=20

Pat Slattery

--- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts ---
multipart/alternative
  text/plain (text body -- kept)
  text/html
The reason this message is shown is because the post was in HTML
or had an attachment.  Attachments are not allowed.  To learn how
to post in Plain-Text go to: http://www.expita.com/nomime.html  ---