Municipal Network —

Police, Fire, Ambulance Shift Communications

to New Radio System

By Andrew Gorosko

Police department communications are now being handled by the town’s new radio network, a nearly $2 million system which is designed to improve the reliability and quality of radio communications for several town agencies.

The radio system, which has been put in use by town agencies in stages during the past several months, includes sophisticated new equipment and multiple radio transmission and reception facilities designed to extend the reach and reliability of the municipal radio network, according to Bill Halstead, the town’s emergency management director. Mr Halstead oversaw the radio system upgrade.

Besides Mr Halstead, other town officials who helped organized the new radio network are Director of Emergency Telecommunications Joseph DelBuono, Police Chief Michael Kehoe, and Public Works Director Fred Hurley.

When it becomes fully operational, the radio system will use a total of five radio towers. Three of those towers will transmit signals and also receive radio signals for retransmission. Two other towers will function solely as reception/retransmission sites, which rebroadcast received radio signals to bolster the functioning of the radio network, especially the operation of hand-held radios.

Town antennas for transmission/retransmission are located on towers at the Connecticut Light & Power Company at 20 Barnabas Road, private property at 8 Ferris Road, and private property at 151 Berkshire Road.

Reception/retransmission antennas are located on a tower at 25 Berkshire Road.

The last link in the new radio system will be the installation reception/retransmission antennas on an existing tower at Julian Enterprises at 352 South Main Street. The town has encountered some legal difficulties in getting that South Main Street site into operation.

Legal issues are being worked out between the town and the property owner, according to Mr Halstead. The use of that tower site is intended to improve radio communications in the southern part of town, he said.

“So far, it’s worked out very well,” according to Mr Halstead. “In the whole town, the (radio) coverage is much better,” he said.

New hand-held portable radios, which look like walkie-talkies, are in wide use by various town agencies. They are much more reliable than the portable radios previously used by the town, he said.

Communications transmitted among hand-held radios are notably better than they were in the past, he said. The improved reliability of hand-held radios makes the radio system much more useful, he said.

For example, the new radio system allows a firefighter who is inside Newtown High School on Berkshire Road to use a hand-held radio to communicate directly with the town’s emergency dispatching center inside the police station at 3 Main Street, Mr Halstead said. The hand-held radios function well in such buildings, even though the structures contain large amounts of steel, which is problematic for radio communications, he said.

Shifting Frequencies

The radio system is used by police, fire, ambulance, emergency management, the scuba diving team, public works, parks and recreation, and school system staffers. The police department was the last agency to sign on to the new radio network. 

Each agency has designated frequencies. Because the radio system is programmable and does not rely on radio crystals, the various agencies are able to communicate with one another by shifting frequencies. 

The municipal radio system is comprised of 433 radios, of which 278 radios are mobile units that are mounted in motor vehicles, and 155 units are hand-held portable radios, Mr Halstead said. The radio system also serves 319 town electronic pagers, he said. The system uses eight different radio frequencies.

Vehicle-mounted radios generally transmit at 25 watts of power; hand-held units operate at 5 watts. The hand-held radios may be worn on a belt and be used with an accessory microphone.

The improved radio performance of the new system is based on three basic factors. Old radio equipment has been replaced with sophisticated new gear. The town now has a multi-point, high-tower network for its antennas. The radio system has shifted to higher frequencies in the 150-megahertz radio band, also known as high-band, which is better able to penetrate the town’s hilly terrain.

Mr Halstead noted that after extensive testing, it was found that only a few “poor coverage” areas remain where radio communications are unreliable.

“We have excellent coverage, compared to what we used to have…A high-band system works better in our terrain,” he said. Lower frequency transmissions are susceptible to various forms of radio interference.  

“We have a real super system right now,” he said. Mr Halstead termed the new gear “heavy duty” equipment, which is intended to operate under rugged conditions.

Mr Halstead noted that all the radio antennas used in the radio network are mounted, or will be mounted, on existing radio towers. Those towers were erected by commercial wireless telephone companies, which are required by state regulators to provide tower space for municipal radio systems.

The municipal antennas are located as high as possible on those towers to provide the best possible radio coverage, Mr Halstead said. 

One electronic bug that has cropped up with the new radio system is some interference involving distorted sound on some fire frequency transmissions, Mr Halstead said. Fire and ambulance personnel use the same frequency.

A Long Process

First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal said this week, “We’re very pleased that it’s finally in operation…It was a long process.” The new radio network marks a great improvement over the previous radio system, he said.

Mr DelBuono, who manages the town’s emergency dispatch center located in the police station was equally pleased. “It’s a very complete system…The quality is phenomenally better…It’s a great frequency range… It’s a good tool.”

Having such a system in operation will buttress the safety of firefighters, police officers, and ambulance personnel in the field due to improved communications, both in terms of radio range and sound quality, he said. The new Motorola system may have a useful life of 15 to 20 years, he said.

“Fringe areas,” where radio communications were unreliable with the town’s former radio system, now have improved radio coverage, he said. 

 At a recent session of the Police Commission, Chief Kehoe updated commission members on the police’s use of the new radio network.

Police Commission member Richard Simon said the new gear makes for a “tremendous improvement” in radio communications. It took more time than anticipated to implement the radio system, but the work was done properly, Mr Simon said. Police officers have told him they are impressed with the new radio system’s performance, he said.

“I hope it meets all our expectations and beyond,” Chief Kehoe said.

Chief Kehoe stressed that the new radio system will provide more reliable communications for police officers who are using hand-held radios, allowing them greater flexibility in the field. Besides the 50 hand-held radios issued to police, the police use 20 vehicle-mounted radios, he said.

 “Once you improve communications, public safety is enhanced, officer safety is enhanced,” he said. Police knew that the former radio system was inadequate and needed improvement, he said. The new system will provide more reliable communications for police who are inside buildings and in remote locations, he said.