New radio system goes live

Wise County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Lex Love demonstrates the new radio equipment that was part of county’s overhaul of its emergency communications system. The new system went live this week. AUSTIN JACKSON | WCMESSENGER

Wise County’s nearly $6 million project to expand emergency communication capacity went live April 29. 

Over the last two years, the Wise County Office of Emergency Management (OEM) has led an effort to transition the aging infrastructure to the new system. The $5.9 million project is a complete overhaul of tower equipment, units, software and dispatch consoles. The county used American Rescue Plan Act funding to cover their cost for the project. 

The upgrade brought the county’s system from Project 25 (P25) conventional to P25 Phase 2. P25 is a standard for digital two-way wireless communications products developed under the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA). P25 Phase 2 creates two logical channels in one 12.5kHz physical channel. 

The switch has doubled the county’s radio communications capacity. Emergency Management Coordinator Cody Powell said Wednesday that the county and vendor are continuing work to fine tune the system since the launch. 

“There were hiccups and some continue but we are working though them as soon as they pop up,” Powell said. “Additionally, there is no way to load test a radio system until a lot of people are using it, which isn’t possible until it switches over. So, even though we have already seen a dramatic improvement between the old system and the new one, we are now able to start the process of fine tuning it so it gets even better. Overall, we are very pleased with the quality of the new system and its ability to support future growth.” 

The county purchased 700 radios — 350 mobile units and 350 portables — as part of the project. County personnel, all Wise County fire departments and most law enforcement agencies are on the new system. Decatur Police Department will remain on Phase 1 radios. Decatur Police Chief Delvon Campbell said the department is adding an attachment to its current radios to be able to communicate with Wise County emergency dispatch. 

Of the 700, the radios were distributed between county personnel and area fire departments. Powell said providing county representatives radios will assist with emergency response. 

“These went to all county public safety but also Precincts, Public Works, Watershed, Facilities, Etc. Moving to a Phase 2 Trunked system not only improved coverage but also capacity. So this new system will be utilized to improve communication and operational efficiency to the entire county, not just public safety,” Powell said. “However, that is what will allow communications during major incidents to happen smoothly. The Precincts provide heavy equipment to assist on fires, clear roads after weather events, they helped us load and unload water during winter weather. People often don’t realize how much assistance the Precincts provide to public safety during emergencies. Them being able to operate daily on the radio system means they know how to use it and we can speak to them instantly if we need them. It also ensures the operators are able to communicate with incident command when they are operating heavy equipment on fires where they are placing themselves in harms way to assist the fire departments.” 

The launch went live at midnight April 29. The project involved installing and outfitting tower equipment, programming hundreds of radios and facilitating training on how to operate the new equipment, with the assistance of the radio vendor. 

“It was only possible because of the team Judge J.D. Clark put together to manage this project which included my office, IT Director Steven Melton and Facilities Director Jimmy Counts,” Powell said. “It also helps that we were able to select a local vendor, American Communications out of Bridgeport. Local vendors are always preferred but in this situation, the vendor was building the system they themselves will rely on if they need emergency services, so the success of the system isn’t just something that puts their reputation on the line, they have a personal interest in it working well. I think being able to use a local vendor was a major contributing factor in the success of this project.”