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

Wireless Networks


Portal to a strange new world

Portal to a strange new world

APCO and RCA collaborate on curriculum that prepares RF technicians for the inevitable.
  • Written by Urgent Communications Administrator
  • 1st December 2009

One day, officials of the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials Texas chapter decided they had a problem. Plenty of end-users were attending the chapter’s annual meeting and conference, but not enough technical people. To combat this problem, they decided to develop a curriculum that would be compelling enough to attract RF technicians. They also decided it would be quite handy if the program prepared them for the future in some way. Even better would be a curriculum that ensured that they have a future.

Much is being said and written these days about the migration of mission-critical communications from an RF-centric world to one that will be dominated by IP technologies. Some believe the migration will require that the technicians of the future have skills that reflect both disciplines. Bill Keller, APCO Texas chapter immediate-past president, is one of the believers. Indeed, Keller thinks RF personnel who don’t develop IP skills will be left behind.

“We need to train and develop these guys, so that they’re able to keep their jobs,” he said. “The days of soldering transmitters onto a board and running coaxial cable, that’s not the way of the world anymore. We need to bring the radio guys into the IP world.”

Keller doesn’t think that will be too tough. While it is exceedingly difficult — if not impossible — to train an IT person on the intricacies of RF, training an RF person to handle IP is a much easier proposition, he said.

“I don’t know why it’s that way,” Keller said. “All I know is that it is.”

Keller turned to Carroll Hollingsworth, a Texas Chapter director who also is a director of the Radio Club of America. Serendipitously, Hollingsworth co-chairs the RCA’s education committee. Hollingsworth then turned to the other co-chair, Rich Biby, for help. Biby — developer of the SiteSafe RF exposure-modeling software a decade ago and currently publisher of Above Ground Level magazine, which is focused on the tower segment — is a big believer in the value of continuing education and is experienced in course development. He agrees with Keller that it’s easier to train RF people to handle IP — and he thinks he understands why.

“RF is more of an art form,” Biby said. “There’s so much to learn, and they’ve learned how to learn. Conversely, IP is more rote knowledge, and designing is more a case of connecting the dots.”

Biby also concurred with Keller’s assessment that RF technicians need to board the IP train. “They’re all going to be assimilated into this, whether they like it or not,” he said. “The RF guys have been resisting this for too long. If you want to have a job, you better do this.”

But what form should “this” take? The Keller-Hollingsworth-Biby triumvirate decided to put their collective toe in the water with a one-day seminar held at the APCO Texas Chapter’s annual meeting last summer in Galveston. They also made the crucial decision to solicit the help of an outside entity to develop the curriculum, the Electronic Technicians Association.

Their reason for doing so was simple: the ETA already had a training regimen in place and was willing to adapt it for this purpose. “It just made sense,” Keller said. “They’re experts in their field. Why re-invent the wheel?”

The course, taught by the ETA’s Tom Janca, covered only the basics of the IP world, focusing on the seven-layer Open System Interconnection, or OSI, reference model, which determines how packetized data is routed from one point to the next. “This course isn’t about doing radio over an IP system,” Biby said. “That comes next.” The end goal is to add courses on how to operate applications over an IP system — radio being one such application — and how to design and engineer an IP-based communications network, he said.

Plans already exist to bring the first course to APCO’s national conference in Houston next year, and to other regional events. Biby hopes the curriculum can be brought to local colleges and technical groups, as well.

However, before that happens, Hollingsworth said that the course will need to be tweaked based on the feedback from the Galveston participants. “It was a little over the head of some of them,” Hollingsworth said.

Keller agreed, describing the course as intense. “This was not a feel-good class,” he said. “The guys I talked with told me that it was hard and challenging. When you talk to them about OSI layers, their eyes glaze over a little.

“We’ll back off a little next year and try not to overwhelm them. We don’t want to scare anybody away.”

But Keller added that participants said the course provided information they needed. Hollingsworth said he received similar feedback. “It was quite well received. We’re very excited about this — it went exactly as we hoped it would,” Hollingsworth said.

Keller said that they were hoping for 25 participants, but 59 showed up. “It turned out to be a huge success,” he said.

As encouraging as the turnout was, even more buoying was the fact that, after the initial eyes-glazing-over period, the participants fairly quickly began to grasp the material. According to Keller, this not only bodes well for their individual futures but also for public safety communications and the first responders who rely on those systems.

“Their ability to adapt to a changing environment will be important,” he said.

Hollingsworth agreed, stating that the public-safety sector today is well stocked with personnel who grasp the nuances of IP technologies but lack RF-oriented knowledge.

“Most public-safety [communications] employees are ex-military, and today’s military doesn’t train them as technicians — it’s all part and equipment replacement, and it doesn’t go much beyond that,” he said.

Keller, whose background is in IP technology, said he knows exactly what Hollingsworth is talking about. “It is very difficult for me to troubleshoot and diagnose a radio,” he said. “I don’t have those skills.”

This is all well and good, but RF personnel are going to have to go beyond educating themselves regarding IP if they hope to execute the migration. They’re also going to have to changes their attitudes; specifically, they’re going to have to set aside their animosity towards those who they perceive as interlopers, according to Biby.

“I don’t understand why the radio guys hate the IT guys,” he said. “IP is a sexy technology that works.”

He added that public-safety organizations and their employees have an obligation to speed the migration to the IP future and make it as seamless as possible.

“Doing so will make better use of taxpayer dollars,” Biby said. “So far, they’ve done a lousy job of using technology and have lost sight of the public good. We need so much more than what RF can provide.”

Related Stories

  • Mission: improbable
  • You can’t stop progress
Tags: Wireless Networks

Most Recent


  • Portal to a strange new world
    Newscan: Japanese carrier outage lasts multiple days
    Web Roundup Items from other news organizations KDDI network ‘almost restored’ as Japan assesses outage’s full impact Up to 39.15 million KDDI mobile lines affected during nationwide disruption Vendor outage affects state unemployment, job-seeking sites Supreme Court deals blow to net-neutrality fans How many satellites are too many? TSA implements ‘surge team’ to allow pipeline […]
  • FCC clears SpaceX to connect Starlink to boats, planes, other moving vehicles
    SpaceX’s Starlink satellite broadband service could soon be on the move. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has given SpaceX the green light for its Starlink satellite broadband platform to connect to boats, planes, trucks, RVs and other types of moving vehicles, effectively forging a new service path for Starlink. Today the service uses a network […]
  • Judge orders Hytera to make large royalty payment this month to Motorola Solutions
    Hytera Communications must make a lump-sum royalty payment—estimated to be $45 million—by the end of this month, based on the China-based company’s sales of DMR products that utilize Motorola Solutions trade secrets and copyrighted software during the past three years, according to a federal judge’s order. U.S. Federal District Court Judge Charles Norgle yesterday also […]
  • Sesame Solar leverages mobile solar, hydrogen to power efforts beyond the grid
    Michigan-based startup Sesame Solar recently launched the latest version of its easily deployable nanogrids that promise to deliver electric power indefinitely—without the need for diesel-powered generation—via complementary solar and hydrogen-fuel-cell technologies, according to company co-founder and CEO Lauren Flanagan. “What we’re announcing is the world’s first 100% renewable, mobile emergency-response nanogrid,” Flanagan said during an […]

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

  • The battle over connected cars drags on
  • UK officials revamp ESN plans again, target Airwave-to-LTE transition for end of 2026
  • PSCR: Dereck Orr highlights features of June 21-24 virtual event
  • FirstNet buildout on pace for March 2023 completion, AT&T official says

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

Newscan: Japanese carrier outage lasts multiple days dlvr.it/STS9JJ

6th July 2022
UrgentComm

Criminals use deepfake videos to interview for remote work dlvr.it/STRjZM

6th July 2022
UrgentComm

Tesla recalls 59,000 vehicles over emergency-call software glitch dlvr.it/STRcgT

6th July 2022
UrgentComm

Report: Reforming emergency dispatch won’t be easy, but it’s necessary dlvr.it/STRYNP

6th July 2022
UrgentComm

FCC clears SpaceX to connect Starlink to boats, planes, other moving vehicles dlvr.it/STRXGB

6th July 2022
UrgentComm

Judge orders Hytera to make large royalty payment this month to Motorola Solutions dlvr.it/STRRQc

6th July 2022
UrgentComm

Sesame Solar leverages mobile solar, hydrogen to power efforts beyond the grid dlvr.it/ST8m3K

1st July 2022
UrgentComm

Newscan: On front lines, communications breakdowns prove costly for Ukraine dlvr.it/ST7fnC

30th 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