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Board chooses ARMER system
The Pipestone County Board decided Tuesday to utilize the state’s Allied Radio Matrix for Emergency Response (ARMER) system to comply with a 2013 Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mandate.
The decision to utilize the ARMER system could cost local governments $1.5 million within the next three years.
The mandate requires government entities to switch from wide-band to narrow-band frequencies between 700 and 800 MHz before January 1, 2013. At that time, anyone using radios that operate below 550 MHz must make the switch to a narrow band signal of 12.5 kHz of spectrum. The FCC also plans to lower that bandwidth to 6.25 kHz at some future time.
The reason for the change, according to Dennis Hausman with Federal Engineering, is that bandwidth spectrum is a finite resource and with the growing number of electronic devices using the spectrum, the FCC mandated the change to narrow band to free up space.
“By narrow banding the technologies, we’re essentially creating more frequencies to give to more people to allow for more applications,” Hausman told the Board last week.
Utilizing the ARMER system was one of the options discussed by Hausman in his report to the Board on Tuesday, Oct. 27. Because the ARMER system would operate at 700 or 800 MHz, anyone using the ARMER system would be exempt from the mandate.
During his presentation to the Board Hausman discussed the feasibility of implementing the ARMER system and two other alternatives that would make the county and cities compliant with the mandate.
“The idea here is we were asked to determine the best way the county could comply with this notion of narrow banding and then to look at the radio systems that you currently have and determine what could we do to make the radio systems that you currently have today operate better tomorrow,” Hausman, said.
During the study, Federal Engineering discovered that most of the people using government radios in Pipestone County are happy with the coverage they currently have. What they want, Hausman said, is more applications on their radio systems such as GPS, automatic vehicle location and the ability to administer EKGs on the scene and transmit the information to the hospital by radio.
The first option Hausman mentioned was to use analog equipment that operates on a narrow band frequency. That option would use as much of the current radio equipment as possible and convert as much equipment as possible to narrow band. While being the least expensive at $1.2 million over the next 10 years, that option would not offer the added applications desired by the local government entities and would provide the lowest quality of coverage.
“Nobody in the state has gone with this,” Hausman said.
The second alternative was to go completely digital and replace all analog radio equipment with digital equipment. The coverage would be better than it is now, but it is the most expensive alternative at about $2.9 million over the next 10 years.
The third option was to utilize the state’s ARMER system. It’s less expensive than going digital at $2.7 million over the next 10 years and supports the additional features the radio users desire. Local government agencies will need to purchase new radio equipment, but will be able to use the state’s towers free of charge.
The state and other local government bodies are already using the ARMER system in some areas and the state plans to build two towers to support the system in Pipestone County – one in Holland and one in Trosky. Those towers, which will be built using 911 funds, would be built even if local governments did not decide to use the ARMER system and could be online in 12 to 20 months.
The ARMER system also allows for interoperability between local, state and national government agencies. The system would work on what are referred to as ‘talk groups’ rather than frequencies. When a law enforcement officer, for example, assisted out of their area, they could tune in to a talk group used by local law enforcement. The talk groups would also prevent radio users from being blocked out if a frequency is already in use. In that situation, the system would simply locate an open frequency to use.
Pipestone County Sheriff Dan Delaney said one concern he has heard from local agencies about the ARMER system is how easy the new radios would be to operate.
“In all candor, ARMER is the most complicated,” Hausman said. “But with any new system, training will be required.”
The commissioners decided to go with the ARMER system Tuesday after Delaney, Emergency Management Director Harlan Nepp and Emergency Services Director Steve Ewing approached the Board with a resolution directing Delaney to develop a participation plan to determine the specifics of adopting the ARMER system.
“Some of the core responsibilities of county government are public safety for the citizens in the county,” Delaney said. “This is a major part of providing that public safety.”
The participation plan will include a more detailed and county specific look at what will need to be done to make the upgrade, how to do it and what it will cost.
By deciding to move forward with the ARMER system the county can begin to pursue grants such as a $30,000 grant that would help pay for the participation plan and a $40,000 grant that would help pay for the purchase of the new equipment.
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