Talk groups offer quick interoperability

Aug 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Dave Plank

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Emergency responders looking for interoperability may soon find it in an unlikely spot — 23,000 miles up.

Having operated satellite radio talk groups for the U.S. government for the past year and introducing several new regional groups in the last few months, Mobile Satellite Ventures of Reston, Va., is preparing to offer nationwide, overlapping coverage by the end of 2008.

“We will have nine overlapping regional SMART groups available for users,” said Jim Corry, vice president of government solutions for MSV, “that will be push-to-talk, one-to-one or one-to-many.”

Corry said that since the company announced the Department of Justice (DOJ) satellite mutual aid radio talk group (SMART) last August, MSV has aided the formation of two talk groups for the Gulf Coast states of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas (GSMART); two for the Mid-Atlantic states of Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, as well as the District of Columbia (MSMART); and a talk group for the Central United States Earthquake Consortium (CUSEC) dedicated to earthquake preparation and response in the central U.S. Soon, he says, that list will include operating groups in the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, West, Southwest and Northwest.

There are around 1000 active units subscribed to the DOJ talk group, in use at more than 120 public-safety agencies, Corry said. There also are three talk groups in use by the Department of Homeland Security's National Communications System, and another nationwide talk group soon will be available to hospitals and state and local agencies to deal with public health incidents.

Although most of the administration and monitoring agreements for the new talk groups have been negotiated, Corry said, at press time he couldn't disclose who the regional administrative and monitoring agencies would be.

Corry said each talk group needs an administrating agency — which sets up an e-mail address for the group, handles agencies' applications to join the group and distributes the group's operating procedures — and a monitoring agency, which “keeps an ear on” the talk group to make sure it is only being used for authorized purposes.