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NARROW-BANDING MEETING MINUTES
JANUARY 29, 2008
TRI-COM CENTRAL DISPATCH - ST. CHARLES
Attendees: Steve Rauter, Wes-Com; Jerry Bleck, Tri-Com; Bill Carter,
Il APCO Frequency Coordinator North; Joe Kirts, DuPage County EMA;
Len Edling, Chicago Fire Department; Gary Cochran, Il State Police;
Lambert Fleck, Il CMS; Vicky Rayburn, ISPERN Records Manager; Jeff
Sexton, Il State Police; T.J. Ward, Il APCO Frequency Coordinator
South; Dan Meseke, Star-Com 21; John Lozar, Du-Comm
Jerry Bleck, Illinois APCO Executive Board, opened the meeting at
10:10 AM by stating that with the huge task before us to narrow-band
every public safety radio operating between 30 MHz and 512 MHz in
Illinois (and the nation), it is time to develop a task force and
begin to study what the best method to achieve this goal might be.
Director Bleck said that as the oldest and largest public safety
radio organization in the country, APCO is in a good position to aid
in this process, and hence with approval from the Illinois APCO
Board, he was happy to extend the Tri-Com facilities to get the task
force started. It is hoped that at this meeting we can take the
initial steps to identify the key people that need to be on the task
force and discuss the various steps that will need to be taken in
order to accomplish this goal. In addition to narrow-banding all the
local public safety channels, a major project will be the
coordination to narrow-band all the state interoperability channels
(ie: ISPERN, IREACH, IFERN, FIRE GROUNDS, MERCI, ESMARN, POINT TO POINT).
Steve Rauter reported he had completed some research on the internet
and found that the State of Florida had a narrow-band plan that
completed this task on a regional basis, and that several railroads
have plans that complete the task on a channel by channel basis.
Gary Cochran mentioned that there are over 11,194 ISPERN radios in
Illinois and that is a major task within itself. He fears many of
these radios are older models and that the users will have to
purchase new equipment in order to narrow-band. Lambert Fleck
confirmed that CMS has radios on the state contract that can help
with those replacement radio purchases.
Mr. Cochran suggested a survey is needed to find out exactly what
radios are being used today; he suggested Mr. Steve Jackson might be
able to help with this task in conjunction with the work he is doing
for the SIEC. It was also suggested that Mr. Harold Mays might also
be of assistance. Mr. Matt Roberts was recommended as a good IDPH
contact for this project. Mr. Cochran and Mr. Bleck will contact
these people to see if they can help.
The subject of FCC licensing was discussed. Bill Carter advised that
every FCC license under 512 MHz will need to be modified in order to
change the transmitter emission to narrow-band. This will be a major
challenge with the number of licenses that will be affected and only
two coordinators (both part-time) in Illinois to handle this work.
APCO International charges for license modifications on a per line
basis, it is unknown if there will be any discounts applied because
of the number of modifications that will be necessary. This may be an
unidentified cost that the average user has not thought about. Mr.
Rauter mentioned MABAS may have some grant money to help out the
communities that might experience financial difficulties complying
with this project.
Mr. Carter gave a Power Point presentation on narrow-band explaining
why coordination is so crucial to the success of this project.
Without critical coordination during the narrow-banding process,
radio interference amongst users is sure to occur when both
narrow-band and wide-band emissions are being used in close
geographical areas.
Discussion then lead to trying to establish a goal of a cut-over date
to narrow-band all of the state interoperability channels. It was
thought without a specific date set to achieve this transformation,
procrastinators would let this go too long and the interoperability
we have today would be lost. The committee felt a very tentative date
of January 1, 2012 should be set. That would give users time to meet
the FCC rule mandate of January 1, 2013.
Next, there was discussion on how often the Narrow-band Task Force
should meet. It was felt that for now once a month was adequate. The
next meeting was therefore set for Thursday, March 6, 2008, at
Tri-Com Central Dispatch in St. Charles.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:50 AM.
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