Door County Information Systems Director Tim Ullman says it took a lot of planning but thanks to the Communications Advisory Technical Subcommittee (CATS), 80-90% of the radios that first responders, county maintenance workers and other Door County public employees use to communicate have been narrowbanded.
In 2007, the Federal Communications Committee (FCC) mandated that all public safety and business industrial land mobile radio systems operating in the 150-512 MHz radio bands begin operating using at least 12.5 kHz efficiency technology instead of 25 kHz efficiency technology by January 1 of this year. The FCC wants to ensure more efficient use of the spectrum and assure greater access for everyone.
Ullman says the CATS committee began planning the project in 2009 to ensure the county budgeted for the project, but most of the actual work to narrowband about 800 radios has been done over the past six months.
Ullman expects the remaining radios to be narrowbanded within the first quarter of the year without going over the budget.
