A good communication system is the core of emergency response services, allowing various agencies to quickly respond to incidents and communicate with each other on scene. Changes in federal regulations, brought about by communication problems during the terrorist attacks at New York’s Twin Towers on 9-11 and Gulf Coast hurricanes, mean that Montgomery County emergency agencies will have to either upgrade their current communication systems or switch to another system.
New federal regulations, commonly referred to as “narrow banding” and meant to increase the number of UHF and VHF channels, go into effect in 2013 and would require substantial cost to upgrade current equipment.
Montgomery County agencies currently use two different systems, with law enforcement using UHF (ultra high frequency) systems while fire, EMS and rescue use VHF (very high frequency). While this system has worked fairly well for many years, it does have problems, most serious being dead spots across the county where responders can’t get radio signals.
Shortly after coming to work in 2007, Alan Griffin, the county’s emergency management director, raised the issues of the new federal regulations and signal problems. In January, a seven-person committee led by Griffin with representation from different county emergency agencies began a communication study, which Griffin expects to present to county commissioners this month.
According to Griffin, the study compared two options. One is upgrading the current UHF/VHF dual system and additions that will allow interoperability among agencies. Griffin estimates a cost of $2.8 million for this option.
“It will be tough to get large scale grant funding for this,” Griffin explained, since this option will not support the system the state is using to meet federal interoperability standards. The state system, called VIPER (Voice Interoperability Plan for Emergency Responders) is a digital 800 MHz system, and the state is bearing the cost of installing VIPER towers, including some in Montgomery County.
Estimated cost for full VIPER compliant equipment for the county is close to $1.5 million, with numerous grant opportunities available for local equipment, according to Griffin. Grants have already been received or approved for part of this cost, with funding in place for the first phase of VIPER, which makes the 911 communication center VIPER compatible. FirstHealth EMS has also been approved for a grant for VIPER capability and the Sheriff’s Office has been approved for partial grant funding covering 14 VIPER-capable hand held radios.
The biggest costs will be for the county’s 10 fire departments, since they have the largest number of radios, and Griffin has applied for two grants, one which will require an $80,000 county match and another, a BRAC grant that would cover the full remaining cost.
There are conflicting opinions among some members of the study group about which option is best. Troy Fire Chief Joe Huntley has said from what he’s learned so far, the VIPER system doesn’t allow for signal penetration into structures as well as the VHF system; the county would have to keep part of the current system in place since VIPER doesn’t work for firefighters’ paging systems. “I realize digital is more modern but I still feel like the fire departments will be better off with the old system,” Huntley said, adding that he hadn’t yet taken advantage of the opportunity some other local agencies have had to try out the VIPER radios the county already has.
Tracy Parsons, outgoing captain of the Montgomery County Rescue Squad, however, is a VIPER fan. Parsons said rescue personnel have used the VIPER radios several times, including the recent search operation for the Raleigh youth group on the Uwharrie River.
“We cover the whole county and have lots of areas where we can’t get a communication signal,” Parsons said. “We’ve used VIPER on the Uwharrie Trail and other places and I’m tickled to death with it; it’s got great service anywhere I’ve been and I really like it.”
Star Police Chief Dempsey Owens, who was also on the study committee, said he believes the county will go to VIPER sooner or later. “We’ve got the interstate, and the Highway Patrol is pushing it,” he said. Although Griffin is applying for grants that could eventually phase in local law enforcement, “There’s a lot of what ifs,” Owens said. Just in case the countywide grants don’t come through, Owens is applying for a grant that will get the Star P.D. enough VIPER compliant equipment to use as a secondary communication system.
Other counties’ experience
Currently, 67 N.C. counties or municipalities are part of the state’s VIPER partnership. According to Capt. Everett Clendenin, with N.C. Crime Control and Public Safety, VIPER is not mandatory and agencies moving to VIPER must find their own funding.
“It’s up to counties to decide but it is the way North Carolina is moving,” he said. “The towers are going up and it’s advantageous for local responders. It gets emergency responders all on the same channel and they can talk instantly among different agencies.”
From the list of 67 VIPER partners, the Herald picked four at random and spoke with emergency management directors about how they’re using the system.
Stanly County used Homeland Security grants to purchase VIPER equipment being used as a secondary system, giving one radio each to different agencies, including outlying fire departments, police departments, sheriff’s department, the hospital and public health department, that allow them to communicate with each other and outside agencies in disasters or mutual aid situations.
“It’s there for back up and it works well,” said Brian Simpson, Emergency Management director. “We can talk from all over, even in poor signal areas.” Stanly has no current plans to expand its VIPER capability, citing the expense to completely transition their current UHF/VHF system.
Hoke County is moving to full VIPER according to EM Director Freddy Johnson. “It will be our primary system for fire, rescue and EMS and we’re in the process of implementing it now,” he said. Law enforcement will be phased in as funding becomes available. Based on testing and current use, he said the system works very well and they’ve found no problems of communication among individuals on scene and have found only a handful of large structures where signal penetration is an issue. Hoke County is installing a $12,000 repeater that will handle that problem.
Johnson is also president of the Cumberland County Fire Chief’s Association and said Cumberland’s VIPER system is up and running and everyone is pleased with it. “It’s a good thing; it’s the future,” he added.
In Bladen County, rescue, fire, ambulance and sheriff’s departments are fully VIPER compatible. Fire departments have VIPER radios in their trucks and handhelds for line officers. “We’re still working out the bugs in paging and using both systems at the same time right now,” said EM Director Mitchell Byrd, who noted they’ve had to install more repeaters and that the system is expensive. Byrd’s FEMA grant applications were not successful and the county commissioners opted to finance the cost, estimated at $1.8 million. Noting that Bladen is in “hurricane alley,” Byrd said he feels the ability to easily communicate among different local and outside agencies will be helpful, “so the right hand knows what the left hand’s doing.”
Steve Hale, EM director in Rockingham County, said VIPER will be their primary communication system and the county’s base site is operational.
In 2004, Rockingham County officials did a communication study that showed poor interoperability among agencies using different UHF/VHF bands. “Narrow banding was an issue we knew was coming,” he said, and the county included communications upgrades in its five-year capital improvement plan for county-funded agencies, including sheriff, EMS and emergency management.
He’s working with the 21 volunteer fire departments on grant applications to help with their costs.
“There was a lot of skepticism at first and people had concerns, but we handed out the cache of state VIPER radios to fire chiefs and police departments and other agencies to try them,” Hale said. “They were concerned about the cost and said they couldn’t afford to have these radios, but now they want more. Communication is the most important part of the situation and the only thing that hasn’t moved forward in firefighting is communication technology.”
Griffin, responding to questions about signal penetration in buildings, said he’s tested the VIPER equipment with a few of the committee members in several local structures, including a Troy industrial building, the hospital and the Wadeville Fire Department. “The coverage was fine and we could talk mobile to mobile and back to the 911 center,” Griffin said. “There may be some spots with signal issues, but less than what we have now.”
He also noted that if full grant funding doesn’t come through, the VIPER system, which is his recommended option, can be phased in gradually as funds become available.
