MACC frequency switch draws fire

MOSES LAKE — A Multi Agency Communications Center (MACC) announcement about plans to switch the radio system in January 2011 drew concerns from agencies Thursday.

The announcement came from Radio Communications Manager Dean Hane during an update on MACC’s project to update and improve the radio system. The center has until Jan. 1, 2013 to comply with a Federal Communication Commission mandate that all emergency services radio signals in the VHF band take up half as much space. The change is referred to as “narrowbanding.”

The center plans to switch the radio system in two parts. First the entire county is going to be switched from the current VHF signal to a narrowband VHF signal. The center plans to add a 700 MHz digital system in three phases, starting in the center of the county.

“There’s some people out there, some agencies, with wideband only radios. They’re going to have to be replaced before we move to the new system,” Hane said. “All of our agencies really should have narrowband capable radios by the first of the year. We’re going to deploy narrowband and we have to have radios that are working in narrowband when we deploy.”

Hane said he was giving them the information as soon as he could, so the agencies could prepare to buy new radios.

Moses Lake Fire Chief Tom Taylor said some of his radios were narrowband capable, but his department doesn’t have enough money in his budget to buy more by January.

“Maybe I missed something in this whole process. It feels like some of this I’m hearing for the first time,” he said.

The switch is also complicated by a MACC board decision to put two radio systems in place, Taylor said.

“I’m not going to go out and buy a bunch of VHF narrowband radios, when we may go to 700 MHz radios,” Taylor said. “So I’m going to have to buy new radios to be narrowband capable … and then the decision is going to be made to possibly go to 700 MHz, now I’m going to have to replace those radios again? All because MACC wants to go narrowband early.”

Hane said the plan to switch to a combination of VHF and 700 MHz was put into place during a November board retreat.

“The VHF narrowband analog is the baseline because we knew that was the minimum amount required by the FCC. The least expensive, it’s the one we know we can afford,” he said. “The one we know we have to buy.”

The addition of the 700 MHz system will be determined by what the center can afford, Hane said.

“The reality of it is we may not know when to go to 700 (MHz) until the bids come in,” he said. “We might have to wait until that point to determine that.”

Taylor asked if the center could wait another year before switching.

Grant County Sheriff Frank DeTrolio added he has 60 radios he needs to switch because money the office received went to help smaller cities switch to narrowband radios.

“If we switch over before the end of 2010, I have 60 radios that aren’t going to work. They aren’t going to function at all,” he said. “We worked up figures of approximately $160,000 to replace those radios at today’s cost. I don’t have the money. The county doesn’t have the money and I don’t think you have the money to purchase those radios.”

When DeTrolio asked if MACC was going to help the agencies meet the deadline it was setting, Hane replied the center expects the agencies to purchase them.

“I guess it’s possible to delay. That certainly hasn’t been our intention over the last two years,” Hane said.

DeTrolio replied he can’t go radio silent, saying MACC is forcing the agencies to go with the new system by the beginning of 2011.

“MACC should buy our radios,” he said.

MACC Board Chair Roger Hansen asked if there was a way to install the system and run it as a wideband system.

“I need to get hopping on licensing,” Hane replied. “After Jan. 1, 2011, the end of this year, there are no expansions to the wideband system. Meaning all the new sites that we built can not be licensed in wideband.”

Hansen cut off further discussion, saying they could talk about it another time.