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

Project 25


Article

Physical security continues to be an issue at radio sites

Physical security continues to be an issue at radio sites

Vandals, thieves and animals all create havoc at radio sites, a situation compounded by the fact that system operators often are limited in terms of the preventative measures they can take.
  • Written by
  • 23rd July 2013

This article is the second in a series regarding best practices for Project 25 (P25) systems that were unveiled during a workshop in Washington, D.C., sponsored by Tait Communications.

At a time when significant amounts of national and international focus are being placed on privacy issues and the hacking of networks that house sensitive information, P25 operators currently have greater concerns about the physical security of their network equipment and systems.

“We are less worried about somebody trying to hack into our system on a computer than we are somebody running into one of these equipment buildings and putting an ax to it,” said Larry Britton, radio systems specialist for Charleston County, S.C.

Fencing around tower sites and separate shelters for public-safety communications equipment was advocated by most, but it is not always an option. In New Hampshire, fencing on some mountaintop sites is prohibited, and all users of such sites have to share a single shelter, although public-safety gear can be partitioned from commercial equipment through the use of chicken-wire fencing inside the shelter, according to Paul Leary, chief of communications for the state of New Hampshire.

With budgets tight, site sharing is going to become more common, so system operators should consider carefully how they want to secure their systems’ equipment in an environment where others will be present, said David Schwartz, deputy chief of the public-safety communications division of the city of Indianapolis.

“We want to keep a closed network now, but we’re going to have to think more outside the box in the coming years,” Schwartz said.

Craig Jorgensen, former president of the P25 steering committee, echoed this sentiment.

“Economically, public safety is going to have to recognize that, in the long term, we’re going to have to have more consolidated projects with, for instance, utilities,” Jorgensen said.

 “Over the long term, some of that sharing may be in the best interests … for utilization of economic resources, as well as physical resources. I think it goes way beyond just sharing the building and goes to where we’re going to be in the future, especially as we look at FirstNet, your interconnection to FirstNet and some of those other things.”

One longtime problem for wireless-network operators has been that the high price of copper has made sites an attractive target for thieves that typically target copper that is used to ground systems in the case of a lightning strike. While painting copper a color that doesn’t shine may deter some thieves, alarms are more useful, according to Allen Holder, director of Lincoln County 911 Center in West Virginia.

“In my specific county, we took our county sites and actually put alarms on top of grounding,” Holder said. “It’s not so much an issue that they’re stealing copper; it’s what happens if, during a storm, you lose thousands of dollars in equipment from a lightning strike. Even if you don’t catch the thief, at least you know that, within a few hours of it being taken, you can get it fixed to protect your equipment.”

Borrowing a security page from the banking industry also is worthy of consideration, because thieves taking “bait copper” does not jeopardize the radio system, Holder said.

“The banks have used bait money for years,” he said. “There’s a certain slot in the drawer that pulls out, and when you give them the money, the alarm gets activated and the police come.

“In our case, we put a couple of pieces of dummy copper located outside the building, and it’s obvious that it’s copper, so they always try to steal that, and we get an alarm that it’s been stolen.”

But not all physical-security issues involve problems created by humans, Britton noted.

“It was getting ready to be the start of winter, and our big generator was just full of field mice—they were pulling insulation like leaves in there,” Britton said. “I thought, ‘If we turn this [generator] on, it’s going to burst into flames.

“It’s one of those things that we didn’t take into account, that we were going to need to put some type of fencing around the generator itself to keep critters out.”

Tags: Tait Project 25 Article

Most Recent


  • 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 […]
  • Southern Linc official discusses MCPTT migration, interoperability with new partner Catalyst
    Southern Linc—the wireless-communications carrier that is subsidiary of the Southern Company electric utility—is nearing completion of its internal migration to LTE-only mission-critical-push-to-talk (MCPTT) and is preparing to implement the LMR-LTE interoperability solution of new partner Catalyst Communications throughout its network. Ritesh Desai, product engineering manager for Southern Linc, said that Southern Company workers use the […]
  • France preparing to launch public-safety broadband network, official says
    France hopes to have first-responder personnel begin communicating over its new RRF public-safety-broadband network in two years—when the country will host the 2024 Olympics—and deliver nationwide coverage by the end of 2026, according to a French official. Guillaume Lambert, senior executive of the French Ministry of the Interior and head of the RRF—the French public-safety […]
  • Projected 5G device-to-device range falls short of LMR performance, simulator says
    Device-to-device communications in 5G—known as sidelink—promise to provide new flexibility and functionality, but its potential range is expected to pale in comparison to the land-mobile-radio (LMR) direct-mode offerings used by public-safety responders today, according to National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) research. Chunmei Liu, a researcher in the Wireless Networks Division of the Communications […]

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

  • Physical security continues to be an issue at radio sites
  • Physical security continues to be an issue at radio sites
  • Physical security continues to be an issue at radio sites
  • Physical security continues to be an issue at radio sites

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

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
UrgentComm

China-backed APT pwns building-automation systems with ProxyLogon dlvr.it/ST6q7m

30th June 2022
UrgentComm

Samsung fills its 2G hole in new challenge to Ericsson and Nokia dlvr.it/ST6hBK

30th June 2022
UrgentComm

Militarized drone swarms coming dlvr.it/ST6dNz

30th June 2022
UrgentComm

Take American City & County’s budgeting survey dlvr.it/ST6Yxb

30th June 2022
UrgentComm

Final cases made about Airwave, ESN, before CMA issues provisional decision on Motorola Solutions dlvr.it/ST4Q6X

29th June 2022
UrgentComm

Polaris Wireless: Manlio Allegra talks 911 Z-axis tech, future IoT opportunities dlvr.it/ST1384

28th 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