https://urgentcomm.com/wp-content/themes/ucm_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Multimedia
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Galleries
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • Commentary
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • All Things IWCE
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • IWCE
    • Conference
    • Special Events
    • Exhibitor Listings
    • Premier Partners
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Register for IWCE
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
    • Cookies Policy
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • Mission Critical Technologies
    • Microwave/RF
    • T&D World
    • TU-Auto
  • In the field
    • Back
    • In the field
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Internet of Things
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Call Center/Command
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Network Tech
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Operations
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Regulations
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • Organizations
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
Urgent Communications
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Omdia Crit Comms Circle Podcast
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • All Things IWCE
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
    • UC eZines
    • Sponsored content
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • Conference
    • Why Attend
    • Exhibitor Listing
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Join the Event Mailing List
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
    • Cookies Policy
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • TU-Auto
  • newsletter
  • In the field
    • Back
    • Internet of Things
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Cybersecurity
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
acc.com

content


The dead zone

The dead zone

Stowe, VT, and surrounding Lamoille County include what is undeniably one of the world's favorite ski areas. But police, fire and emergency medical services
  • Written by Urgent Communications Administrator
  • 1st March 2002

Stowe, VT, and surrounding Lamoille County include what is undeniably one of the world’s favorite ski areas. But police, fire and emergency medical services have to cope with large radio coverage “dead zones” that can delay service to the public and deny backup for police officers and other public safety workers.

Lamoille County’s public safety radio communications networks are plagued by terrible coverage. It’s so bad that their 5W Motorola analog portables (UHF for police; VHF for fire and EMS) “only cover about 32% of our territory,” said Lamoille County Sheriff Roger Marcoux. “Meanwhile, our 100W mobiles do better at 54%, but that’s still not good enough.”

George Spoerl, the county’s senior dispatcher, said that as a result, “we have a very tough time. A lot of areas are very dead.”

Poor radio coverage puts the public at risk. “For instance, if you’re in a car accident, our portables often can’t reach back to dispatch to alert the hospital,” said Marcoux. “This means our people have to run back to their mobiles to get through. As you can imagine, this can be difficult at times.”

However, the danger also extends to local public safety workers — especially police, who patrol singly. “There could be a raging gun battle taking place, and yet you couldn’t get hold of anyone,” said Stowe Police Chief Ken Kaplan. “To put it mildly, this puts our officers’ lives in danger.”

A case in point: A few months ago, an off-duty police officer spotted and gave chase to two suspects in a stolen car. Both were wanted for numerous burglaries and car thefts, and both had eluded capture before.

Not surprisingly, the officer called for backup units to help corral the suspects. However, due to the Lamoille County radio system’s dead spots, it was virtually impossible to coordinate the operation.

“It was frustrating, to say the least,” said Marcoux. “The dispatcher was unable to ensure the officer’s safety, because he kept losing him. As well, the responding units couldn’t talk to each other, let alone the officer who was actually behind the suspects.

“The result was that a chase ensued that ran 25 or 30 miles, and the suspects eventually got away. Had we had better communications, they would have been apprehended.”

Tower shortage

The mountains and valleys that make Vermont so picturesque — and Lamoille such a great skiing location — make radio communications a nightmare. Lamoille County sets an example of especially difficult coverage, where a few towers must serve 461 square miles of rough terrain.

An 80-foot tower serves the town of Stowe’s UHF communications for police and VHF communications for fire and EMS. A UHF link connects the Stowe tower with the Lamoille County Sheriff’s Department’s 120-foot tower at Hyde Park. That county tower provides communications for police, fire and EMS. The Sheriff’s Department also has a 100-foot tower at Carpenter Hill that includes a UHF repeater for the Stowe Police Department and a rooftop antenna at the Cambridge Fire Department near the Smuggler’s Notch ski resort.

This complement of sites is insufficient to provide 95% coverage, the generally accepted standard for public safety network performance. To reach this goal, the region should have “several tower sites to supply the required public safety coverage levels typically required by government agencies,” reads the $35,000 “Lamoille County, VT, Public Safety Communications Study” prepared last year by RCC Consultants.

All told, Lamoille County encompasses 10 towns and 23,233 people, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. However, during winter weekends and holidays, the population swells considerably as people flock to Stowe and Smuggler’s Notch — named for the caves that held smuggled goods during the War of 1812 and booze during Prohibition.

“For instance, in Stowe our normal population is 4,200, but on weekends it swells to anywhere from 20,000 to 25,000,” Kaplan said.

Not surprisingly, most of these tourists are on the slopes, where ski patrols are always active. Unfortunately, when things go wrong, it’s not always easy to get the word out.

“We have a fair number of back-country and high-angle rescues,” said Neil Van Dyke, Stowe’s director of emergency services.

“However, in much of the region, we’re not able to speak directly to the dispatcher from the field. We tend to set up a mobile relay truck to help out, but even with that, coverage can be spotty at times.”

Marcoux added: “We have a real problem in the ski area. We desperately need to have a tower there.”

To make matters worse, many tourists enjoy Lamoille County so much that they buy land in suitably picturesque and isolated locations. In many cases, the homes they’re building are in dead zones. In fact, the county’s population rose 17.7% percent from 1990 to 2000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In contrast, Vermont’s population growth for the same period was 8.2%.

So why not build new towers and fix the coverage problem? Despite its tourist areas, Lamoille County isn’t exactly rich. According to the Census Bureau, the county’s median household income is $33,418.

Beyond money, there’s also the question of NIMBY, or “not in my back yard.” Vermont is noted for its landscape, which is why many of its residents don’t take kindly to new towers. This explains why an effort to raise a 160-foot tower on Carpenter Hill has spent five years in legal wrangles. The radio equipment for this tower, which has already been purchased, has languished in storage for several years.

Ironically, the RCC study has given the Garfield Hyde Park Neighborhood Alliance, which opposes the tower, the ammunition they need to defeat it. Because the study says the proposed tower would only improve coverage by 1%, “it’s not like this thing is going to save lives,” Garfield resident Eric Beckstrom was quoted as saying in the Stowe Reporter.

Attempts at solutions

Despite this unintentional unhelpful observation, the RCC survey offers two options. The first is to do nothing, which the RCC study says “is not the recommended approach.” The second, which RCC and the county’s public safety agencies do endorse, is to take a three-phase approach to the problem.

In Phase I, which would cost anywhere from $946,000 to $1.2 million, the county would build a new 100-foot tower and transmission facility at the existing Carpenter Hill site. In addition, a new transmission site would be constructed on Madonna Peak at the Smuggler’s Notch Resort. Mounted on the peak’s chair lift machine at 3,647 feet, the antenna would vastly improve coverage in this part of the county. What’s more, the whole permit hassle could be avoided because this phase relies on existing structures. Throw in some microwave links and countywide channel reorganizations, plus other related equipment, and radio coverage would improve in Lamoille County.

But it wouldn’t improve enough. That’s why Phase II calls for three more transmission sites, including three 180-foot towers at a cost between $1.7 million and $2.4 million. Phase III would expand microwave links and improve portable radio performance for an additional $1 million to $1.3 million.

So what’s happening? Not much. The problem is money, said Marcoux. “Right now, if we could get $900,000, we could do Phase I and attach a microwave dish and antenna at Madonna Mountain.”

Given the current state of the economy, it’s unlikely that either the county or state governments will allocate the necessary funds for Phase I, let alone Phases II and III. That’s why Marcoux and his colleagues are hoping to get some funds from the federal government’s Homeland Security budget.

“We don’t know what the criteria or the process will be,” said Neil Van Dyke. “But we’ve had a pretty strong indication that something’s coming.”

The county’s public safety agencies hope so. After all, how can an agency do its job when two-thirds of its territory is in a radio dead zone?


Careless is a freelance telecommunications writer based in Ottawa, ON, Canada. His email address is [email protected].

Tags: content

Most Recent


  • The dead zone
    Newscan: Securing the Internet of Things is quite a challenge
    Also: EWA requests dismissal of 900 MHz applications; TIA names tech and policy priorities for 2014; IJIS Institute names Shumate Award winner; App makes bus waits more tolerable; a Blackberry comeback may be in the offing.
  • The dead zone
    Newscan: FCC certifies Carlson Wireless's white-space radio
    Also: Congress looks to revamp telecom law; Obama to place some restraints on surveillance; IEEE to study spectrum-occupancy sensing for white-spaces broadband; Major Swedish transport operator opts for Sepura TETRA radios; RFMD to partner on $70 million next-generation power grid project; NENA opens registratiuon for "911 Goes to Washington."
  • The dead zone
    Newscan: A look at the critical job of 911 dispatchers
    Also: NYC launches website for tracking 911 response times; Oregon implements 911 on pre-paid cell phones; LightSquared wants to keep spectrum assets; Harris receives multiple government orders; FCC extends rebanding financial reconciliation deadline; Zetron gear at core of communications system upgrade; Ritron debuts wireless access control system; EWA seeks policy review of VHF vehicular repeater system deployments.
  • The dead zone
    Newscan: Average peak data rates of 144 MB/s average realized in tests with CAT 4 LTE device
    Also: Verizon, T-Mobile to swap unused spectrum to improve coverage; Internet giants oppose surveillance--but only when the government does it; FCC Chairman says incentive auction will be delayed until middle of 2015; FCC chair announces staff appointments; Alcatel-Lucent names Tim Krause as chief marketing officer; New Jersey county deploys TriTech CAD system; Toronto airport deploys 26-position Zetron console system;

Leave a comment Cancel reply

To leave a comment login with your Urgent Comms account:

Log in with your Urgent Comms account

Or alternatively provide your name, email address below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • RugGear: Contributing to the future of mission-critical broadband communication review and market vision
  • Photo gallery: 2014 Communications Marketing Conference (CMC) in Tucson
  • The dead zone
    Top 5 Stories - Week of Sept. 22
  • The dead zone
    RCA plans to expand this year's Technical Symposium

Commentary


LTE and liability: Why the fire service must move forward with digital incident command

  • 2
6th May 2022

Partnership and collaboration must be the foundation for emergency communications

18th April 2022

FirstNet success means no hypothetical ‘shots’ need to be fired, Swenson says

22nd February 2022
view all

Events


UC Ezines


IWCE 2019 Wrap Up

13th May 2019
view all

Twitter


UrgentComm

Southern Linc official discusses MCPTT migration, interoperability with new partner Catalyst dlvr.it/SSr8VD

25th June 2022
UrgentComm

Newscan: NYPD’s bomb-sniffing dogs get a high-tech upgrade to keep city safe dlvr.it/SSpSD1

25th June 2022
UrgentComm

Chinese APT group likely using ransomware attacks as cover for IP theft dlvr.it/SSmJNm

24th June 2022
UrgentComm

AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile tout Z-axis support for 911 dlvr.it/SSkGxK

23rd June 2022
UrgentComm

California grants first permit to test AVs using only Lidar sensing dlvr.it/SSkG7x

23rd June 2022
UrgentComm

Buying smart solutions: Technology is now part of (almost) every government purchase dlvr.it/SSk77q

23rd June 2022
UrgentComm

France preparing to launch public-safety broadband network, official says dlvr.it/SSh12p

23rd June 2022
UrgentComm

Newscan: Law-enforcement radios failed during Uvalde school mass shooting, Texas official says dlvr.it/SSf9vM

22nd June 2022

Newsletter

Sign up for UrgentComm’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about Communications and Technology.

Expert Commentary

Learn from experts about the latest technology in automation, machine-learning, big data and cybersecurity.

Business Media

Find the latest videos and media from the market leaders.

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital and print audiences? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • American City & County
  • IWCE
  • Light Reading
  • IOT World Today
  • Mission Critical Technologies
  • Microwave/RF
  • T&D World
  • TU-Auto

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Events
  • Careers

FOLLOW Urgent Comms ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookies Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2022 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X