Sunday, September 9, 2012 Franklin County emergency responders said this week they’ve been experiencing issues with sending and receiving emergency radio communications following the county’s switch to narrowband radio frequencies earlier this summer.

Jim Casey, Boles Fire chief, and Chris Miller, New Haven Ambulance chief, both said they, or their personnel, have been having issues hearing and being heard with portable and mobile radios when responding to calls.

Members of the county’s Emergency Management Communications Board floated the idea of creating a trouble ticket system so that, when issues arise, they can be logged and hopefully fixed.

“Radio is something you have to constantly be on top of and constantly talk about,” said Vince Zagarri, interim Franklin County 911 director.

Earlier this summer Zagarri discussed the narrowbanding, noting that the technology is known for causing a decrease in volume compared to the frequency ranges used by police, fire and ambulance personnel in the past.

The Federal Communications Commission has mandated a switch to narrowband channels by 2013.

In an effort to improve radio coverage, the county has been reviewing its radio tower lease sites for months.

Zagarri told the ECMB this week that there may soon be a new lease for tower equipment in the Sullivan area.

“A lot of these leases are just done on good old boy deals, done on handshakes,” Zagarri said. “We’re just trying to make it all fair to everyone.”

That lease would only be for equipment for the county sheriff’s department, however.

Zagarri said the county isn’t able to negotiate leases for other entities.

The current Sullivan tower site, located on the Sullivan Fire Department building, has radio equipment for the county’s law enforcement as well as Sullivan Fire and Missouri Baptist Ambulance.

County Counselor Mark Vincent said while the county can’t negotiate a lease for another entity, it could arrange its contract to allow for subleasing of tower space for those other emergency response groups.

Currently the county pays for tower leases around the county, including for fire and ambulance districts served by the county’s 911 dispatching center, or public safety answering point, in Union.

“Everything is funded by 911 now — the radios, the towers, the leases,” Miller said.

He said if a tower site is being paid for out of 911 funds, as opposed to simply being paid for by the county sheriff’s office, the site needs to be accessible to all of the agencies using the county’s PSAP.