VRP Newsletter - March 2013

Director Ed Atkins welcomed all to the first face-toface meeting for the Voice Radio Project. The meeting was held at the Public Safety Training Campus with all responder agencies represented.

John Struhar, Project Manager, Harris Corporation, presented the status of the Project. Tower site surveys have been done in the last month. The surveys included space on the towers as well as space in the tower shelters. Some sites were OK and others will need to be modified. Final report on the surveys is due in about 3 weeks Ed Toner, FOP representative, inquired about how long we are asking to be on the towers. Levin Czubaroff, attorney with Fox Rothschild LLP advised that each tower site agreement is

for 20 years with options to renew the agreement up to 29 years.

Preliminary Design

Harris is working on the preliminary design. A detailed schedule, diagrams, site drawings, microwave channel plans, system configuration for each site and a list of equipment needed at each site will be presented at the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) scheduled for April 25 and 26. Agenda for the PDR will be forth coming.

Future Meetings:

Webinar scheduled for April 9th at 10:00am.

Please check the DES website for the most up to date information: www.chesco.org/des

Responders: please address any questions or concerns you may have to the Fire Chief, EMS Council or Police Chiefs association presidents.

Pager Testing for the next 2 weeks

 

NOTICE TO PROVIDERS

  

13- 0318-01A 

  

Over the next two weeks there will be a variety of testing conducted on the paging system related to overall system parameters / performance, timing for each site and physical equipment inspection.  The testing, evaluation and inspection should have no direct impact on day to day operations. Should a test affect changes in the system, we ask that the issue be reported immediately to the 9-1-1 Supervisor so an evaluation can be done of the test being performed at that time.

The first testing process will occur Wednesday morning starting around 09:00 and be completed within a 1-2 hour window.  During this testing phase one site at a time will be taken offline and test conducted with that site.  All the work will be done with technicians at the GSC; constant communications between the 911 center and the Technicians will occur to coordinate normal dispatch operations. 

A NOTAP will be put out prior to the testing on Wednesday. We will keep you informed to the progress as we move through the next couple of weeks.

Authority:   Alt. Supervisor Scott B Fredericks          

Date:                              03/18/13

To:              Fire      XXXX      

EMS    XXXX      

DES Director's Monthly Briefing

March 2013

18,597 Telephone Calls last month:  664 per day.

699 Fire Incidents

2,886 EMS Incidents:  BLS = 1,226 ALS = 1,660

Average Fire/EMS Dispatch time of 1 minute and 17 seconds

25,425 Police Incidents

Average Police Dispatch time of 1 minute and 27 seconds

We conducted 484 formal quality reviews for telephone, radio, and emergency medical dispatch.  The combined weighted average of 99% remains well above the Department objective of 90%.

Technical

Ø  Re-Banding:

o   We experienced delays in mobile radio installations so the project completion date has slipped from the end of December of this year to the end of February of 2014.  Of the total 1,432 mobile (vehicle mounted) radios, 778 (54%) have been installed.  Installation is expected to be complete by the fall of this year. 

o   Portable (handheld) radio distribution is essentially complete.  We will hold one final training/distribution session to catch the stragglers. 

o   Four voice channels on the entire system have been successfully re-banded.  The concern that there would be interference from these new frequencies has proved to be unfounded. 

Ø  Voice Radio Project: 

o   About 40 people attended the Kick Off meeting on 26 February. 

o   We will conduct monthly face-to-face meetings and monthly webinars half way through each month.  

o   Harris has begun the site surveys that should be complete by the middle of this month. 

o   On 27 Feb we had an initial meeting with the State Radio Project Office concerning the new, higher tower at White Clay Creek.  They are very amenable to this idea as they also need improved coverage in the area. 

o   We will need emergency responder help to get municipal approval to build new towers at White Clay Creek, Ludwig’s Corner, and other yet to be identified sites.

Ø  Paging:  Interference is coming from North Penn School District in Montgomery County.  The FCC had North Penn reduce power which did not correct the issue.  The FCC is now working with North Penn to transition to a new channel.  The voice degradation issue is still unexplained.  ARINC has deployed site monitoring equipment to better characterize the issue.  SONIK has deployed their lead engineer to Chester County to help find a solution. 

Ø  New Computer-Aided-Dispatch System (CADS)

Ø  Data connectivity design work completed and equipment is being ordered.

Ø  Updated schedule: 

§  System Staging:  August 2013,

§  Training November 2013,

§  Cutover January 2014,

§  System acceptance April 2014. 

Training Facility: 

Ø  Site work at the tactical village will be complete this month.  Curbing should be installed in the next week or so and work on the drafting pit should begin. 

Ø  Structural design for the Tactical Village is complete.  Once the cash flow problem is resolved, the Facilities Department will be able to publish a bid package for construction of the Tactical Village.

Ø  Last month we hosted 726 people at 12 training events and 10 meetings. 

Southeastern Pennsylvania Regional Task Force: 

Ø  Last month Task Force funded equipment delivered to Chester County emergency responders included:

o   HazMat detection/reconnaissance robot,

o   A building collapse/trench stabilization kit,

Six sets of self contained breathing apparatus, and three dynamic entry ballistic protection shields.