New system to help region stay in touch

That direct line to a national emergency is allowing the PRPC to finance PanCom using federal Homeland Security funds. PRPC is in the first phase of the PanCom rollout, having ordered about two-thirds of the 34 radio repeaters that will make up the heart of the system. The plan calls for one repeate...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inKnight Ridder Tribune Business News p. 1
Main Author Cunningham, Greg
Format Newsletter
LanguageEnglish
Published Washington Tribune Content Agency LLC 29.07.2005
Subjects
Cann, David
DeArmond, Bo
Emergency medical care
Fires
National security
Radios
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Summary:That direct line to a national emergency is allowing the PRPC to finance PanCom using federal Homeland Security funds. PRPC is in the first phase of the PanCom rollout, having ordered about two-thirds of the 34 radio repeaters that will make up the heart of the system. The plan calls for one repeater mounted in each county, with a second in counties with rough terrain that tends to block radio signals. The repeaters would provide signal coverage to nearly the whole area, but the real magic of the system is that it is centralized and standardized, [David Cann] said. Once the system is implemented, every emergency department in the Panhandle will be operating on the same system, which will make mutual aid between counties a snap, Cann said. But given the number of independent systems in the area, the rollout is bound to have a few hiccups. The rollout of the entire system could take up to five years. The later phases of the implementation call for networking the repeaters, adding in complex computer systems and perhaps, adding Global Positioning Systems to individual units. A lot of that will depend on whether the federal Homeland Security money keeps coming in, but even if the system only gets through the first phase of installing the repeaters, it will prove to be a benefit to all residents of the Panhandle, said John Kiehl, regional services director for PRPC. "We're starting to see some of the Homeland Security money possibly drying up," Kiehl said. "We hope to complete the project, but at a minimum, we're going to be able to replace a 30-year-old system that was breaking down in a lot of areas."