Carrol County MD 800TRS has conflicts with Pennsylvania freqs

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Wrangling over the radio

Apr 27 2000 12:00AM By Patrick Walters, Times Staff Writer.

Some Carroll County emergency, road and police crews might have to change the radio frequencies they use to avoid interference with a similar statewide radio system Pennsylvania is planning to install. Pennsylvania could be using a fully-operational 800 Megahertz radio system, like the one in Carroll, in nearby counties, such as Adams, Lancaster, York and Franklin, as early as December. County officials need to make sure Carroll is not using any of the 256 available frequencies that Pennsylvania will be using in neighboring counties. A resolution that would involve Carroll switching some frequencies is being discussed.

Carroll uses a 800 Megahertz system for groups and agencies across the county, including all of its volunteer fire departments, county road workers, emergency medical services, facilities management and the sheriff's office. Frequencies that are close to one another or are the same in two areas can cause static or other disruptions in communications, said Mike Valentine, a county communications technical assistant. Carroll has federal licenses to use nine of the 256 frequencies, so officials are still negotiating a few of those frequencies.

``This seems to have taken forever,�� said Buddy Redman, director of the county�s Office of Public Safety. ``But we should be pretty close.�� Donald Appleby, project director with the Governor's Office of Administration in Pennsylvania, agreed. ``There was one frequency that we had some questions on,�� he said. ``I�m really optimistic we're going to reach a solution quickly.''

Appleby said Pennsylvania's statewide project will cost about $222 million, and he hopes to have the southeast corner of the state - including the counties near Carroll - up and ready by December. The system will have 25,000 users when it's completed for the entire state in 2001. To resolve the possible interstate conflict by the December target date, Carroll needs to go through the Federal Communications Commission and the Associated Public Communications Officers Inc. to get licenses for several new frequencies. Redman said he is not sure when exactly the switch would happen. But he added that it would only create minor inconveniences for Carroll's radio users.

``The worst case scenario would be we�ll shut down some of the channels and the others will continue to operate,�� he said. The county, he said, could also ask some agencies not to communicate by radio during the frequency change.

Carroll has had its 800 Megahertz system since 1997. The county paid Motorola $8 million to build the system. Redman said Motorola will make the necessary technical changes in the system for free when the county changes the frequencies. Mike Law, who was the Motorola project manager for Carroll, said he doesn't think the company could issue licenses in this region until the frequency issue is resolved. Region 20, includes Maryland, the District of Columbia and six northern counties in Virginia.