Reporter’s Notebook
Tyco Electronics Wireless Systems announced that its P25IP (P25 to the power of IP) digital communications system has been deployed in Oakland, Calif. The implementation of the P25IP network is the first stage in the city’s migration to a P25-compliant digital radio communications system, which will support Oakland’s Police and Fire Departments and a number of other city agencies.
At the annual Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) conference in Kansas City last August, a proposal to revamp the organization’s governance model fell five votes short of being approved by its membership. During APCO’s Winter Summit in February, the APCO executive council will meet to discuss the governance proposals further, APCO spokeswoman Courtney McCarron said during an interview with Urgent Communications. The executive council will try to craft the proposal in a manner that can be considered for another vote by the APCO membership at the organization’s annual conference in August, which will be held in Las Vegas, she said.
SWN Communications announced that the National Institutes of Health has expanded its use of Send Word Now for emergency communications. The system will be used to communicate time-sensitive and critical events to 35,000 emergency response personnel, employees and other users of the system across its main campus in Bethesda, Md., and to its facilities in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.
NOAA satellites were key factors in the rescues of 283 people throughout the United States and its surrounding waters in 2008, the agency announced. In each incident, NOAA’s polar-orbiting and geostationary satellites, along with Russia’s Cospas spacecraft, were involved in the international Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking system, called COSPAS-SARSAT. This system uses a network of satellites to detect and locate distress signals from emergency beacons on aircraft and boats and from handheld personal locator beacons.
BridgeCom Systems introduced the SSMC-1, which functions as a single-channel communication site that can be networked into a service provider’s wide-area network. The SSMC-1 contains the company’s CS-540 FM repeater, TL-NET repeater controller and TL-NET Ethernet gateway packaged in a rugged wheeled case. It requires a high-speed Ethernet connection to communicate on a wide-area network and supports operation in both conventional and LTR modes, according to the company.
The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International announced the approval of an American National Standard (ANS) to provide a standard data exchange for electronically transmitting information between an alarm monitoring company and a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP). The intent of this ANS is to standardize an automated, computer-to-computer exchange of data between alarm-monitoring companies and PSAPs, according to APCO.
