On the APCO Open Forum, we are starting to see more inquiries and discussions about narrowbanding. One thing we all have to keep in mind is the deadline: Jan. 1, 2013. This is the drop-dead date per the FCC order.

What does this mean to us as first responders? Here’s where your homework assignment starts. Locate all your radio licenses. If you are currently licensed in the VHF spectrum (150–174 MHz) or the UHF spectrum (421–512 MHz) for almost any purpose, narrowbanding will affect you.

My Agency
I have been an active volunteer firefighter for going on 39 years with a rather large department, serving in almost every elected position from chief to president, and I’m currently serving as treasurer. So I’m going to put on my firefighter hat for the remainder of this article.

My department — like yours, I’m sure — has been affected by the status of the economy. We depend on state, county and city funding along with our annual fund drive to keep operating. For the past three budget years, the department has experienced a decrease of almost $250,000 in revenue. This funding shortfall has required drastic cuts in operational expenses.

We are fortunate because the state of Delaware maintains an 800 MHz digital trunked radio system for emergency responders. But we still had to maintain our existing VHF system for alerting. When our dispatchers receive a call, they activate one of three tones, depending on the required response. Every active member is assigned a Motorola Minitor pager. Our main transmitter is housed at our headquarters, and this is our primary alerting source.

When the FCC announced the new narrowband requirements, our department — like many around us — figured this was not going to directly affect us. Our frequency is used only for alerting — no big deal. We have since contacted our radio vendor to ask what has to be done and the scope of the work necessary to bring us into compliance. Talk about an eye-opening experience.

The first part of the scope of the work is reducing our primary and backup transmitters from 25 kHz to 12.5 kHz output emission. After that has been performed, there is a level of uncertainty about performance decrease in our coverage area. We have to ensure that our members will receive the alerts anywhere in our response and out­lying areas, which is going to require the services of a good RF engineer to guide us through testing and possible recommendations, if required.

Now comes the second part of the project: the alerting device. For years, we have used Motorola’s Minitor pagers. Over those years, they have proved dependable and up to the abuse a firefighter puts them through. We currently have more than 100 pagers assigned to members. Each device has to be reprogrammed to meet the new narrowbanding requirements. The other good news we received is that the Minitor models 1–4 cannot be upgraded. Almost 50% of our pagers fall within that model range.

End result: A capital project budget line item to the tune of $20,000–25,000. Currently, our tight operating budget can’t support the expenditure. We are actively addressing the issue and looking for any funding source available to assist us.

Lessons Learned
Get all the facts, and know the direct impact narrowbanding will have on your organization. From there, prepare a game plan. In our case, it’s probably going to take almost two years to implement a plan — putting us dangerously close to the Jan. 1, 2013 deadline.

Finally, consult an expert. You don’t have all the answers, so find someone who does.

About the Author
Terry M. Whitham is the E9-1-1 administrator for the Delaware Department of Safety and Homeland Security, president of APCO’s Mid-Eastern Chapter and chair of APCO International’s 9-1-1/Emerging Technologies Committee. Contact him at [email protected].

Narrowbanding Resources

• Official FCC narrowbanding Web site: www.narrowband.us
• APCO AFC: www.apcointl.org/frequency
• Public Safety Communications online: https://psc.apcointl.org, keyword Narrowbanding

Originally published in Public Safety Communications magazine, Vol. 77(02):16, February 2011.