Current Radio/communications issues for emergency
responders within lower Puget Sound Region:
•Re-banding (Nextel)
•P-25 Switch
•Next Generation Radio system
•Broadband
•Governance
Re-banding – the ‘Nextel’ issue
•Nextel was causing interference issues in many of
our radios
•Issue was happening nation-wide
•During the past year, Nextel has started replacing
that radio hardware (~80% complete) that won’t be
able to make the switch to the new frequencies
Re-banding – the ‘Nextel’ issue continued
•Frequency switch will ‘likely’ occur end of this
year/beginning of next – should be seamless to end
users**
**This does present an opportunity for
consolidation of radio templates throughout region
P-25 Switch
•There are some pending, ‘generational’ type jumps
that are about to occur in our systems and
infrastructure
•In an effort to bridge the gap, the region has
started the purchase/installation of a new ‘switch’
that will enable our current system to talk to future
systems
Next Generation Radio system
•The region has 4 identical radio systems (King
County, western Snohomish County, Tacoma and
suburbs, and Port of Seattle)
•Motorola has advised all of us that they are going
to begin phasing out support of these systems
starting next year
•Greg Nickels and Ron Sims started an effort to
bring all they systems/governments together to
address the common issue
Current Regional Radio System Configuration
Motorola
4.1
Smartzone
Switches
Next Generation Radio system continued
•The leading candidate is a SUPER-regional
system, funded through a regional taxing structure
(similar to RTA)
•Advantages:
•Interoperability and Consistency
•Would likely include associated concerns
(training, equipment upgrades, etc.)
•Disadvantages:
•Preliminary estimates are $500-800M
•Some diminished autonomy within systems
Possible End State for Super Regional System
Broadband:
•Spectrum in the 700MHz frequency range (old TV
frequencies) has recently been made available to
public safety
•The City of Seattle has taken the lead by
requesting an FCC waiver to begin construction of
a regional, wireless, broadband, voice-data network
for use by public-safety and other government
users
•For fire, system would allow for AVL, MDCs,
Building/prefire systems, mapping, etc.
Governance:
•Puget Sound Regional-Interoperability Executive
Committee (PSR-IEC): Group chartered by UASI
Core Group to vet all communications-related grant
request within region to ensure adherence toward
common goals
•TRIS/TICP Oversight: Operational group,
manage/maintain regional communications master
plan (Tactical Interoperability Communications
Plan – TICP)
Governance continued:
•Radio Executive Policy Committee (REPC): group
of elected officials working on next generation
radio system
•Communications Unit Leader (COML) Training:
working to establish a corps of communications
‘experts’ within individual jurisdictions to act as
local go-to experts for communications issues
Other issues:
•Effort to standardize radio templates across
region so that channel naming is consistent (that
your ‘Fire-TAC-1’ is the same as my ‘Fire-TAC-1’)
•Effort to develop an ‘Regional Interoperable
Communications’ training package informing area
responders on how to talk to other agencies when
needed in non-traditional responses (mutual aid,
mega-events, etc.)
For more information:
Sue Rosenthal – Assistant Chief
Seattle Fire Department
301 2nd Ave S
Seattle, WA 98104
(206) 386-1400