http://www.greenwichtime.com/news/local/scn-gt-radio4jan15,0,1148683.story?coll=green-news-local-headlines
By Martin B. Cassidy
Staff Writer
January 15, 2005
The town has begun the first phase of a three-year project to upgrade the radio system used by police, firefighters and paramedics.
Over the next six weeks, $1.8 million worth of new computer signal processors, consoles and other hardware will be installed at the Greenwich Police Department to enable the dispatch center to use a digital rather than analog signal, Officer Judson VanIngen said.
Digital transmissions have greater clarity than analog, VanIngen said, especially in areas of town where weak analog signals result in garbled messages.
Over the next three years, the town will buy digital hand-held and vehicle radios for emergency personnel, VanIngen said. Until that transition is complete, police officers, firefighters and paramedics will continue to use the town's aging analog radio system, he said.
Police will switch to the digital system in 2006, followed by the fire department in 2007, Police Chief James Walters said. Greenwich Emergency Medical Service Inc. will switch in 2008.
The upgrade is part of a $5.5 million, five-year radio improvement plan the Board of Estimate and Taxation approved in 2002. By that year, Motorola, which sold and maintained the radio equipment the town uses, had already stopped manufacturing replacement parts for the analog system, Walters said.
"It's a matter of staying current with technology," he said. "Our analog system is no longer being supported by Motorola, so we had to decide whether it was effective to stay on analog."
Most of the technology the analog system uses is more than 20 years old, VanIngen said. With the halt in manufacturing of replacement parts, the police department stockpiled key components, but foresaw finding parts "could become an issue," he said.
The town's radio system connects about 560 radios, according to VanIngen. Emergency personnel use about half, and other town departments use the rest. Every town department has some radios, he said. The police department maintains the town's radio communication system.
The town will continue operating the analog system even after emergency personnel have converted to digital radios. Non-emergency personnel will remain on the analog system, VanIngen said.
Walters said the town would consider converting the entire communications system to digital in 2008.
Copyright © 2005, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.