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INFORMATION ITEM - Attachment 6 - F <br />INFORMATIONAL PAPER <br />LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED TRUNKED 700MHz RADIO SYSTEM <br />BACKGROUND <br />1 <br />Over the past three months, Orange County Emergency Services has had discussions with <br />the Sheriff, Orange County Animal Services, Orange County Asset Management <br />Services, Orange County Planning, Orange County Volunteer Fire Departments, Orange <br />County Schools, the Town of Chapel Hill (Police, Fire, Transit, Parks, Public Works, <br />etc.), the Town of Carrboro (Police and Fire), and Chapel Hill /Carrboro Schools, <br />regarding their opinion on the coverage and usage of the North Carolina Voice <br />Interoperability Plan for Emergency Responders (VIPER). <br />Concerns expressed over the existing State -owned VIPER System include: <br />• Coverage is not adequate throughout the County. There are many dead spots <br />where transmission from a portable (hand -held) radio is not possible, even outside <br />of a building. <br />• Coverage lacks of building penetration throughout the County. This is a severe <br />safety problem for all responder when units inside buildings cannot transmit or <br />receive messages. <br />• The State limits on radio assignments outside public safety. For Orange County <br />to have true interoperability, we need to be able to directly talk with public works, <br />transit, schools, animal control, inspectors, etc. Currently, the State -owned VIPER <br />system will not allow these users on the system. <br />• There is no local control over the system, its capabilities, its use, or even how <br />many radios can be assigned into it. We are dependent on the State to issue radio <br />IDs (each radio must have unique radio ID to work on the system, much like a <br />cell phone). For the past year, the State has advised that they are out of IDs and <br />cannot issue any more. <br />• Routine radio programming and maintenance must be performed through State <br />approved vendors or technicians, versus at the local level. This can be costly and <br />time consuming. <br />Orange County recently utilized the consultant company Federal Engineering to conduct <br />a VIPER radio coverage study throughout Orange County. The study looked at adding <br />tower sites for coverage, as well as upgrade channel capacity to create a more balanced <br />system (the current system has 5 channels north and 8 channels south). This unbalanced <br />system creates busy "bonks" where users cannot transmit during peak periods. The draft <br />VIPER radio study report was presented to the Board of County Commissioners on <br />October 3, 2013 and showed that there was still a substantial coverage issue even with the <br />recommended modifications. <br />1 <br />