By Margie Kacoha, Palm Beach Daily News
Original publication date: Aug. 14, 2011

PALM BEACH, Fla. — Gone are the old analog radios and scanners, available for years at Radio Shack. Palm Beach police now talk to each other on a digital telecommunications system called OpenSky, and Fire-Rescue will soon do the same.

While some communities are feuding over its quality, Palm Beach is pleased with the OpenSky system’s performance, officials here said.

“It has been working fine with the Police Department,” Director of Public Safety Kirk Blouin said.

The town switched to OpenSky on April 1, 2010, after joining a consortium in 1999 to identify and build a new radio system for emergency and other public safety calls. Palm Beach is one of 32 municipalities that initially joined the Municipal Public Safety Communications Consortium, or the MPSCC. Seven remain — Palm Beach, West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Atlantis, Jupiter, Juno Beach and the Palm Beach County School District — but more could decide to join later.

The cost to the town for OpenSky was slightly more than $1 million.

The MPSCC was formed for first-responder agencies to join together in replacing their soon-to-be-outdated analog systems with a digital system. The analog system’s design is about 20 years old, Fire-Rescue Deputy Chief Darrel Donatto said.

“Motorola is not making them anymore,” Donatto said. “The technology is past its lifetime.”

He said all municipalities will eventually switch to digital technology because it’s more efficient and can hold more conversations on a signal.

Faced with the need to update and upgrade, consortium members chose OpenSky, formerly known as Ma-Comm.

The City of Palm Beach Gardens made the switch in September 2009 at a cost of about $1.2 million. Neighboring West Palm Beach remains on the bubble, but its decision wouldn’t affect Palm Beach’s operation, town officials have said.

A final decision on the system is pending, according to a recent statement by Chase Scott, City of West Palm Beach spokesman. The City Commission wants more research and a complete system test first, according to Scott.

“The MPSCC is currently working with the City of West Palm Beach to develop a scope of work for additional testing,” Palm Beach Gardens Police Col. Ernie Carr, the consortium’s spokesman, said.

Some glitches

Shortly after receiving their OpenSky radios, Palm Beach police began to experience glitches that ranged from static to dropped words in transmissions to and from dispatchers.

They logged 40 incidents from May through August 2010. Some were technical and some were operator error. Police said this wasn’t unusual or alarming for some 90 new radios put into use all day, every day.

“I do not consider this to be a high number nor do I consider it unusual when introducing a new piece of advanced hardware,” Palm Beach Police Major Rick Howe said. “Many of these reports were repetitive, since different officers were experiencing some of the same issues,” he said, pointing to poor reception in the county- operated Kreusler Park. Palm Beach police oversee the parking area at the Southpark, just north of Lake Worth Municipal Beach.

Resolving issues

“We have had training issues associated with the transition to the digital system, identified some dead zones, and typical equipment issues and adjustments that I would expect with any new hardware and technologies,” Howe said. “We installed an antenna in the South End, which was very effective in correcting problems we have had going back to before the OpenSky system. We have been working with officers since April 2010 to identify and resolve any and all training or equipment issues.”

Carr said his department in Palm Beach Gardens had similar start- up experiences, calling them “minor issues during the first several weeks, issues that were ultimately corrected.”

Palm Beach Fire-Rescue has historically had difficulty transmitting and receiving communications when inside dense buildings and underground areas, including parking garages.

The department installed boosters for its mobile radios in one rescue vehicle at each of the town’s three stations and in the Battalion Commander’s vehicle. Once Fire-Rescue switches to OpenSky, responders parked outside dense building or underground will be able to boost, or strengthen, the signal by sending it to West Palm Beach. A stronger signal will immediately be sent back to Palm Beach, ensuring no interruptions or failures, Donatto said.

“We have not had that ability,” he said. “There was never an option to fix it. This technology will give us that option.”

Palm Beach Fire-Rescue has received training with the new radios, and some upper-level staff members have been trying them out, Donatto said. They will go into general use in Fire-Rescue later this month.

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