Sanpete County Sheriff's Office EOC

Sanpete County Sheriff's Office
160 N Main
Manti, Utah 84642
(435) 835-2191
Sheriff Kevin G. Holman

SAR Communications

Information on this page provided by

WB7REL - Barry Bradley

License Search http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/searchLicense.jsp

APRS & SAR http://home.twcny.rr.com/wildernesssar/page4.html

Mutual Aid Plan - Appendix 11 - Incident Command System (Basic Plan) http://www.sccfd.org/MAP_appendix_11.html

APRS Search Page http://www.wulfden.org/APRSQuery.shtml

Repeater List for Utah http://www.ussc.com/~uvhfs/rptr.html

Air Com http://www.air-comm.com/index-pma.html

Air Force Resource Coordination Center http://www2.acc.af.mil/afrcc/

The following is a letter about use of 155.160 as discussed in state board meeting. Mailed to all counties. Barry

October 27, 2003

.
To:
Utah Search and Rescue organizations

Topic: Unauthorized or improper use of 155.160 MHz. (also known as National SAR or State SAR).

155.160 MHz is a special emergency, public safety service frequency. FCC part 90 rules apply to all and any use of this frequency.

The Utah State Search and Rescue Association have held an FCC license for 155.160 MHz for many years (call sign KX5008). This license allows members of the Utah state search and rescue association within the boundaries of Utah to conduct radio communications for SAR business and operations as needed. This license allows for a certain number of mobile radio transmitters. All users of this license must also be members of the association and therefore be accounted for under the license, and using the FCC call sign KX5008.

Some counties in Utah have licensed base stations and mobiles for 155.160 MHz for the Sheriffs office and search and rescue units. Under these licenses the mobiles may use the counties call sign and accountability to part 90 FCC rules within the boundaries of the license, (the licensees county boundaries).

Please comply with the following list when using 155.160 MHz in Utah.

1. Become a member of the Utah State Search and Rescue Association. You then may use 155.160 MHz anywhere in Utah as long as you do not cause any interference. You must sign off with the call KX5008.
2. If your Sheriff or SAR unit has its own FCC license for 155.160 MHz you must operate on that frequency only within your county, using your FCC call sign.
3. If your Sheriff or SAR unit has its own license for 155.160 MHz, and you are a member of the state association you may use the state license to cover the legal operation of your mobile radio anywhere in Utah, again you must sign off with KX5008.
4. You must not operate on 155.160 MHz if you are not covered by an FCC license as 1-3 above. You would be in violation of FCC rules and subject to fines up to $10,000

Your compliance will be appreciated. SAR communications will be more effective if we follow the rules, maintain our FCC licenses. And operate with order and discipline.

Respectfully

Barry Bradley, Communications Officer, Utah State Search and Rescue Association

DRAFT VOICE (TWO-WAY RADIO) INTEROPERABILITY

Two-way radio systems interoperability has been a long and tedious process over many years. Association of Pubic Safety Communications Officials ( APCO ), the Department of Justice ( DOJ ) / US Treasury partnership in the Public Safety Wireless Networks

( PSWN ) have been working for near to a decade to establish a standard that multiple vendors can develop products that would provide interoperability on an APCO Project 25 compliant network. This was a huge step forward for users that worked together to develop a network. The push by State and Local agencies was to move from VHF or UHF to 800 MHz where more frequencies were available for shared use. The Federal agencies remained on the VHF frequencies; which immediately effected interoperability between State, Local and Federal agencies as these APCO 25 systems were implemented. Interoperability or connections between compatible Motorola trunked systems is possible but very expensive. A cost effective solution was implemented prior to the Olympics to provide interoperability between VHF and 800 MHz that is described below.

Currently there are VHF, UHF and 800 MHz trunking systems in operation, only a handful that are APCO Project 25 compliant. The next push by the FCC is the 700 MHz band for State, Local and Federal Government use and broadband channels have been allocated for data use. The next project is voice and data on the same network. The issue that everyone will face is the cost to move from 800 MHz or other frequency to 700 MHz after spending in some cases hundreds of millions of dollars to deploy a network. All RF infrastructure, mobiles that are not dual band will have to be changed.

Voice system interoperability with State, local and Federal agencies throughout the State of Utah has challenges, some political, ownership or control issues.

In eight counties along the Wasatch Front UCAN has deployed an 800 MHz trunked two-way voice network that provides service to those agencies on a per unit fee basis that which to join. This network does provide agencies that use UCAN 800 MHz network interoperability with talk groups, emergency talk groups or event channels that have been preprogrammed into handheld or mobile units for specific events.

There are agencies such as Salt Lake County, Salt Lake City and other early adaptors to 800 MHz systems that elected not to join UCAN for financial political or other reasons. Murray City elected to install their own system after UCAN was developed and operating. All these agencies have installed Motorola networks and in most but not all cases (age & type of equipment) interoperability between agencies is possible but not on one network. This requires individuals to change channels on their portable or mobile but interoperability is possible. Interoperability of units operating on 800 MHz frequencies is not a big issue; it can be done but requires planning, training and continued planned exercise to insure interoperability is functioning properly.

The Federal Agencies such as the FBI operate on VHF frequencies in the 150 to 174 MHz band. The handheld and mobiles are limited to that band only consequently cannot have no interoperability at a radio frequency level. To allow interoperability of FBI units operating in the VHF band to UCAN, Salt Lake County or City users operating in the 800 MHz band the dispatch centers were connected together with what was described as “BIM to BIM connectivity”. With a flip of a switch at both centers, (which requires coordination) FBI field units are connected to 800 MHz trunked users on some assigned talk group during this incident that required interoperability of communications. This works. The connection was used during the Olympics and was tested for operation by the FBI the week of August 5^th, 2002 and found to operate to their expectations.

Other users that operate on VHF, 150-174 MHz or UHF 450-470 MHz can obtain interoperability with UCAN users in a similar manner. Stations operating in the VHF or UHF assigned as coordinating or interoperability repeater channels can be manually patched at dispatch centers to the 800 MHz network allowing VHF/UHF portable or mobile users to be part of the 800 MHz talk group that it is patched to. Any unit with in range of the repeaters operational area will hear both the VHF/UHF and 800 MHz units conversation providing cross network interoperability. This patch does require a physical connection to be made (push of buttons) by a dispatcher to initiate and disconnect when completed. This allows users on VHF/UHF in other parts of the State when traveling into the Wasatch Front area the ability to manually switch their mobile or portable to an assigned frequency that is operational in the area to contact a dispatch center for connectivity to an 800 MHz network talk group for interoperability.

In the 800 MHz deployment standard, conventional repeaters are installed (called Mutual Aid Channels) to allow users of other 800 MHz system to communicate with one or multiple dispatch centers or other units that manually switch to that channel to communicate. This is another means of interoperability with non-compatible 800 MHz radios and could be used as an inexpensive 800 MHz to VHF interoperability in rural areas of Utah where needed. It would require dispatch patch to connect 800 MHz units to communicate with VHF radio units.

VHF/UHF units from other areas of the State coming to the Wasatch Front are not a problem for interoperability. UHF or 800 MHz units from the Wasatch Front going to rural Utah areas is a problem due to the fact that most of the rural wireless systems operate in the VHF band. Until 800 MHz systems are deployed in rural Utah areas, agencies must maintain two systems, VHF and 800 MHz to communicate or have interoperability in rural Utah. The users in rural Utah are going to be hard pressed to convert to 800 MHz if their VHF system is providing them the service they need.

UCAN is faced with the same problems that the wireless carriers have with respect to providing services to rural Utah. The cost to install a network to provide adequate coverage far exceeds what they can expect to recovery from the number of users on the system. It is a cost verses recovery for the commercial carriers and UCAN will be faced with the same issue as it is for everyone that tries to provide wireless Statewide coverage. The existing VHF systems provide fairly good coverage but there are areas that Public Safety personnel would like coverage, even on VHF. The economics or the money required to install that extra site and radio means that it may not happen. The end result may be that coverage in certain areas maybe marginal or non- existent. In 800 MHz that problem is compounded by the laws of physics and the attenuation of radio frequency waves in free space, trees, mountains etc that will require additional sites for 800 MHz radio network to provide comparable coverage to VHF in rural Utah.