Band Management Software

SD's switch to digital emergency radio drags on

The drive for better statewide emergency communications is clashing with funding and technology issues.

In the aftermath of the 1998 Spencer tornado, then-Gov. Bill Janklow set a goal of creating an interoperable communications system to improve the sharing of information among state and local emergency responders.

The resulting digital communications system created by the state is still a work in progress, but it has been doing its job.

Jeff Pierce, technical administrator for the state Bureau of Information and Telecommunications (BIT) in Pierre, said the state’s digital system has proven invaluable during the current flooding emergencies throughout the state.

Marrying that system to pre-existing non-digital, or analog, communications systems has proven a challenge financially as well as organizationally.

Motorola’s Smartzone system, which currently allows both systems to talk with each other, will become obsolete in 2015, forcing state and other agencies to scramble to replace the system with a new Project 25, or P25, upgrade before the deadline.

“P25” refers to communications industry standards that allow federal, state and local public safety agencies to communicate during emergencies, or to be “interoperable.”

South Dakota’s P25 will ensure interconnectivity between digital and analog systems continues, buying time as local and county systems work toward the goal of an all-digital network.

“Once we have our network upgraded, we’ll be at the industry standard rather than the proprietary Motorola system we currently have,” Pierce said.

The changeover to P25 will open up the state system to about 11 different equipment vendors, potentially lowering state equipment and software costs, he said.

The single biggest cost will be this summer’s $6 million upgrade to the network control center in Pierre, Pierce said. Beyond that, the state must also pay to upgrade software and replace radios from its original system that aren’t capable of making the jump to P25 technology — radios used by the Highway Patrol, the Department of Game Fish and Parks and other state users.

The urgency for the switchover developed because Motorola announced it will no longer support Smartzone after 2015.

The radio changes won’t happen overnight at the local level, and the new P25 system in Pierre allows for that, Pierce explained.

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The Froehlich/Kent encyclopedia of telecommunications

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