On December 6, 2005 I wrote a letter to the Macon Telegraph as a response to their editorial on the privately funded 911 "discourse projects" report card that alleges inadequate frequencies for interagency coordination. My key point is that there are sufficient frequencies but due to poor planning and coordination between agencies these are being utilised a their full potential.
Lastly the real question that needs to asked has four parts:
I believe these were omitted because they would imply that the Telegraph is not doing its job as defined by numbers two and three of Knight Ridders Seven Tenets of Journalism which state:
2) Trust: Reports the news accurately.
3) Watchdog: Gives the information needed to hold our leaders accountable.
Note that my key question of who should be held accountable has been lost in translation. This is common of the way the Telegraph "edits" letters submitted that call to task one of their editorials.
As an Amateur Radio operator, I feel you have done a disservice to your readers. By perpetuating the myth that emergency response organizations do not have the frequencies required for interagency communication, you allow some agencies that have made poor decisions to hide that fact.
Here are some facts related to interagency communication.
The frequency bands that public safety agencies can operate in are defined by the FCC. Within those bands the agency is allocated specific frequencies. There are interagency frequencies allocated in each public safety band.
Another fact is that the vast majority of public emergency communications equipment is computer programmed with selected frequencies. The critical fact that is being overlooked is that the choice of what frequencies should be programmed is the responsibility of the agency purchasing the equipment. When a given agency is unable to communicate, it is most commonly the result of poor choices by individuals in those agencies. If an agency fails to have these programmed, then who is at fault?
The questions that need to be asked are: Are frequencies currently set aside in the band where the agency operates for interagency coordination? With very few exceptions the answer is yes.
Is the equipment used by the agency in question compatible with that used by other agencies in the surrounding area? More often this is "no." It is a fact that all agencies make their own purchasing decisions. Who makes the decision to purchase equipment that is incompatible with that of other agencies?
John F. Kraus II
KC4ZGQ
Macon
What I actually wrote:
John F. Kraus II RN KC4ZGQ
Editors,
As an Amateur Radio operator I feel you have done a disservice to your readers. By perpetuating the myth that emergency response organizations do not have the frequencies required for interagency communication you allow some agencies that have made poor decisions to hide that fact.
Here are some facts related to interagency communication.
The frequency bands that public safety agencies can operate in are defined by the FCC. Within those bands the agency is allocated specific frequencies. There are interagency frequencies allocated in each public safety band.
Another fact is that the vast majority of public emergency communications equipment is computer programmed with selected frequencies. The critical fact that is being overlooked is that the choice of what frequencies should be programmed is the responsibility of the agency purchasing the equipment. When a given agency is unable to communicate it is most commonly the result of poor choices by individuals in those agencies. If an agency fails to have these programmed then who is at fault?
The questions that need to be asked are:
Are frequencies currently set aside in the band where the agency operates for interagency coordination? With very few exceptions the answer is yes.
Is the equipment used by the agency in question compatible with that used by other agencies in the surrounding area? More often this is no. It is a fact that all agencies make their own purchasing decisions. Who makes the decision to purchase equipment that is incompatible with that of other agencies?
Lastly the real question that needs to asked has four parts:
Does every agency in the state have equipment in every response vehicle that is capable of communicating on the interagency frequencies?
Has a sufficient degree of planning gone into being able to communicate with other agencies?
If not who is responsible when a disaster occurs and interagency communication fails?
Do these agencies actively listen to the frequencies on a regular basis?
In Georgia these frequencies where established for interagency communications in one band as far back as the 1980's.
For fire communications:
154.28000 Statewide Mutual Aid FM
For Law Enforcement:
154.90500 Intrastate FM (this is a repeater frequency)
154.90500 Intrastate Car-to-Car FM
155.37000 Statewide Intersystem FM
For Miscellaneous uses:
155.90500 Multi-Use "State Net 1" FM
155.93500 Multi-Use "State Net 2" FM
158.92500 Georgia Statewide Paging FM
This is a brief list and there are other frequencies in other bands of the radio spectrum set aside specifically for interagency communication.
Note there is some overlap of frequencies between services which enhances interoperability. A key question is how many of a given agencies personnel have access to the frequencies on a daily basis? If the radios are packed away or only have limited distribution then they will not be able to communicate across agency boundaries until the short coming is corrected. Is this the result of lack of frequencies or poor planning?