New EMS system nearly finished, says Hamman
Montgomery County’s new emergency communications system is taking shape.
Work on the new towers has been progressing steadily the last few weeks, and Montgomery County Emergency Management coordinator Brian Hamman said the tower phase of the project is nearly finished, despite weather issues.
“As of Oct. 29, all three towers have been erected, and their associated shelters and generators have been placed. The weather hurt us at the beginning of the month with all the rain we received and it’s timing with starting to stack towers. Thankfully, things dried out and only put us behind the construction schedule about two weeks. Looking out the window on Wednesday, it was snowing and not what we really wanted to see so early in the year, but crews have been doing what they can at the sites and a lot more work should be completed over the next two to three weeks with final installation of all of the antennas, line, power and hardware with the towers. Once these crews are complete, we still have microwave dishes to be delivered and installed as well as getting propane at all three sites and the generators fired up and ready to go,” Hamman said.
After the tower work is completed, the next phase is to move the brand-new equipment that has been in storage awaiting the installation of the new system.
“Once all physical work is complete at the tower sites, a lot of the equipment and radio racks that have been stored at the EMA building will be taken to their shelters and installed to make those towers live on the system for final testing and acceptance. Some final grading and stone is yet to be completed as well as security fences,” commented Hamman.
After the equipment is moved, plans call for the system to be powered up and tested in the first quarter of 2020.
“Our current projected cutover is sometime in late February or early March. Once everything is installed and live on the system, we have a very detailed final acceptance plan to go over and create a punch list if needed as well as all of our coverage testing which will be done by both driving the entire county and physically checking in building coverage throughout the county at various locations.”
Hamman stressed the importance of making sure all the kinks in the system were ironed out before the complete change-over to the new system.
“While we’d like to cut over to the new system as soon as possible, we need to make sure everything is up and running smoothly and to our expectations. Our cutover plan is not yet final as we still have several components that need completed but we will keep our current system live for a period to be determined in case we run into any issues along the way and once we’re satisfied with the new system we will start to decommission all of our old equipment, repeater sites and paging sites throughout the county. Thankfully, our local vendor and installer did a lot of work in Page County and is aware of some things to look for and do to alleviate any major issues up front. We will be having training for all of the first responders and dispatchers on the new system, equipment and radios prior to cutover as well,” said Hamman.
Anyone who has an existing scanner will likely have to purchase a new one in order to follow the county’s emergency band.
“Most scanners that people probably have and listen to our radio frequencies on now will not be compatible on the new system, unfortunately. For anyone wishing to purchase a scanner to be able to listen to our new system, our neighboring counties that have switched to the new system, or even the state patrol will need to purchase a scanner that is P25 Phase 2 TDMA capable. These scanners range anywhere from $300 to $700.”
Hamman said he and the other law enforcement agencies and emergency responders are pleased that their hard work has brought the new communications system to fruition.
“There has been a lot of time and effort put into this project by many people to make sure what we eventually took to the Board of Supervisors for approval was truly what we needed and what we felt was best for our county and first responders. Even though the project was approved in early 2018, the ground work really started a couple years prior to that so for me personally, I can’t be more excited to finally see physical progress taking shape and to think that final acceptance is only a few months away,” said Hamman “Our current system is dated as is our equipment and I think everyone is ready and extremely excited for what’s to come with the new system in terms of coverage and reliability. It’s also nice to know that Page County is live on the system which is working very well for them and Mills County should be going live on their new system sometime very close to us in Montgomery County. Fremont, Adams and Union County have also approved projects in their counties so it’s a very excited time for everyone.”
Hamman added all of the fire and EMS vehicles have had their new radios installed as well as their initial training on their handheld radios. Law enforcement radio training is scheduled in the next couple of weeks with their installation starting shortly after that. Another larger piece to the project that will be starting shortly is the installation of an 80’ self-supported tower at the law enforcement center.
“This tower will be used as a back up link to our prime site which is south of Red Oak, as well as our back-up paging system that is located at the Red Oak Fire Department,” commented Hamman.