To: All Ulster County Emergency Services
From: Art Snyder
Date: March 31, 2014
Re: News and Information
CAD view-only access – I have been asked by the law enforcement community
to grant view-only CAD access for current fire and EMS incidents to those
police agencies with a dispatch center. This would allow their dispatcher
to retrieve information (such as nature and location) of incidents within
their area of responsibility. There would be no ability to research closed
calls, nor would there be the ability to add/change/delete the current
incidents. I stated that before approval would be granted, I needed to find
out if there was opposition. Any agency that does not wish law enforcement
to have this view-only access, please send me a letter or e-mail by May 1.
I will have someone from area law enforcement address your concerns
directly with you.
Central Hudson – There has been some concern recently about Central Hudson
requesting fire department approval to restore electric service to a
fire-damaged building. Central Hudson management agrees this is a building
department function and will reinforce this with staff.
Low band paging – As a follow up to previous discussions about low band
paging, I am pleased to report that the FCC has granted us a license
modification that allows for an increase in the number of pagers on
frequency 155.220 MHz. This will allow us to simultaneously dispatch fire
departments over both 33.48 and 155.220. The short term plan is to provide
this service on a one to one basis (for example, a department that is
dispatched off the Kingston tower on 33.48 will also be dispatched off the
Kingston tower on 155.220). Unfortunately there will have to be some
modifications in call dispatching procedures until a fully simulcast
solution is put into place. For example, to avoid interference we may have
to sequentially dispatch some agencies responding to the same incident.
This is an unavoidable consequence until a fully simulcast solution is
installed (which is the long term plan). To provide full simulcast of all
155.220 tower sites on all calls requires new base stations, a new
microwave system and other enhancements – a complex and very expensive
project. However, this is part of the overall upgrade to our radio system
anyway, so while very pricey, it is not unexpected. No part of this project
is wasted money – the migration to a simulcast VHF high band paging
solution, and all other radio system enhancements, are being developed and
implemented not as stand-alone solutions, but rather with an eye toward
integrating them into a complete, interoperable radio system for all of
Ulster County’s emergency services. Motorola’s decision to discontinue
offering Minitor pagers in VHF low band simply hastened this move. There is
no need to notify our office when you organization begins to purchase high
band pagers – we will be implementing the 33.48/155.220 simulcast on or
around May 1st for all departments. The only change you may notice is the
sequential paging that may be necessary to avoid interference. As
departments begin to purchase new high band paging equipment, tell your
vendor to use the same tones and timing on high band that is currently used
for low band. Low band paging will sunset by May 1, 2016. This gives
agencies over two years and two full budget cycles to replace their low
band paging equipment.
The Hudson – The NYS DOH has given Part 18 approval for a mass gathering,
and the UC Health Department is close to giving their approval for the Part
7 permit. The scale of the event is such that most impacts (aside from an
increase in traffic) should be focused on Saugerties. More information will
be forthcoming.
