"The 800 MHz radio system is outdated"
I am a retired broadcast engineer and a licensed amateur radio operator. I understand radios and how they work and in my opinion, the 800 MHz radio system is not the right choice for Northern Minnesota. First- the cost: $5.4 million to $9 million for Beltrami County alone. Itasca County has spent nearly $11 Million on their new system. The other Counties in Northwestern Minnesota have also studied the unspeakably high costs for this system and can’t possibly afford to spend that kind of money on a radio system.
Ronald Vegemast, P.E. is a registered professional engineer specializing in the field of electronic communications systems. He led the engineering team that planned the 800MHz system for Minnesota, which has been named ARMER (Allied Radio Matrix for Emergency Response) and originally deployed in the twin city metro area. Mr. Vegemast has since authored a “White Paper” discussing issues he believes make construction of a statewide system unfeasible.
“I find no credible justification for expansion of ARMER throughout greater Minnesota.” * Keep in mind- this system was designed in the 1980’s and is now outdated. Emergency responders, including law enforcement are moving to data systems with computers and so called “smart phones” in their vehicles. The ARMER system will not support the use of data now or in the future
The ARMER system is simply the wrong choice. What‘s in use right now (VHF radio) is sufficient to meet the interoperability requirements for emergency responders. Because of FCC requirements, the current VHF system needs to be upgraded to “narrow band VHF” with an eventual migration to a digital narrow band VHF system that will perform well in the north woods and cost less than 20% of the proposed ARMER cost. Digital Narrow-band VHF is much cheaper and more efficient.
“I believe that some of the technical approaches incorporated into the system design for greater Minnesota are inappropriate and will result in expensive replacement, not just enhancement or additions, in the future.” *
It is my opinion that those counties now using the ARMER System will see a cost beyond what they thought. ARMER would need as many radio towers or more, than we have cell towers all over our County, in order to work. Does Beltrami County have maybe up to $11,000,000.00 to spend on an outdated system that does not work well in a forested area? You decide. As for grants, you can’t count on them; you just hope some will come through. If a grant does not come through, who pays, we do.
Itasca County, which has the 800 system, is now looking for another system, on top of what they have, just to do data so they can use computers in the car and at what cost. $?? Not know yet.
In my opinion, Sheriff Phil Hodapp and his staff have made the right choice about not spending the money to migrate to the ARMER System. It sounds like there are fourteen other counties in this region who have also made that choice. This is responsible and wise thinking on the part of our leaders in this area. Stop the runaway government spending that’s been going on. That is exactly what I, as a taxpayer, want to see.
Sheriff Phil Hodapp and his staff spent a terrific amount of time over the last two years investigating Records Management Systems, Computer Aided Dispatch, Mobile Data Platforms (in-car computers) known collectively as RMS/CAD/Mobile. The goal has been to find the best, most reliable, efficient and most economical system that will result in better safety for our citizens, officers and staff and provide economical efficiencies to help reduce overall staffing costs.
Phil said;
“We have looked at several systems and while doing this, we also understood we would not be able to fund a system completely from property tax revenue so we began searching for other funding sources. We applied for and received a technology Grant from US Dept. of Justice for approximately $44K. We searched unsuccessfully for other grants and finally requested a special appropriation from the US Congress through Senator Klobuchar's Office. This year we succeeded in securing an additional $240K in federal funds to help pay for this technology upgrade in Beltrami County.”
Last month the county board approved the purchase of all the hardware for this data project at a cost of approximately $160K. This purchase provides the computers, mounts, docking stations, GPS, printers and Driver License card readers for all the sheriff’s office squad cars. This system will be operational with the current Records Management system as soon as it is deployed. The sheriff still has $120K remaining in the technology fund and have budgeted additional funds to pay for right RMS/CAD/Mobile system that will accomplish their goals.
“Red Lake Tribal Police and Leech Lake Tribal Police use a system in use by 8 other tribal police agencies and several other Minnesota county sheriff's and police agencies in the state. We are interested in partnering with LLTPD and Red Lake Tribal Police on this project. We have successfully partnered with the LLTPD on this project already and can see advantages of sharing data across the platform.”
“Most importantly- we have sought opinions from our staff who will use the systems, dispatchers, jailers, records, deputies, police officers, crime analysts - as we have been conducting our studies and due diligence in examining the various systems being sold by vendors. We are not doing this in a black hole and when we finally choose our system it will be after reaching consensus of the user groups on their best choice.”
Sheriff Phil Hodapp has and is doing his home work on the proposed 800 MHz ARMER radio system for Beltrami County. He is also doing proper research on the future data systems and looking to the future for communications platform that are economical and effective. In the near future “Broadband” will be the platform of choice. Most importantly though, is Beltrami County continues to address the issues of interoperability between emergency services in the most economical and responsible way to continue to provide excellent public safety services to our citizens without the wasteful government spending we are all so disgusted by...
David Quam
* quotes from Mr. Vegemast