Currently, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office leases airtime on the 700/800 MHz RACOM network, while the Polk County Fire Department (made of rural departments that are dispatched by PCSO) resides on conventional VHF frequencies that are then patched to the RACOM network.

The “Assistance to Firefighters” FEMA grant would allow the county to purchase roughly 116 mobile radios, along with 217 handhelds. A decision on the grant is expected by late May. Polk County would have one year to formalize the purchase and that would allow the county to select a new radio system.

Without the text of the grant application, it is unclear whether Polk County Fire would directly join the RACOM network or create a new standalone interoperable system, although reports surfaced earlier this year of a request for proposals (RFP) for a new, leased countywide P25 fire radio system. Westcom and Des Moines will have the option to join the project.

Ankeny Fire was selected to file the proposal, as Polk County was not allowed to apply for the FEMA grant. If the grant is approved, Ankeny, Polk City, Elkhart, Saylor and Delaware townships, Altoona, Bondurant, Granger, Grimes, Johnston, Mitchellville, Pleasant Hill, Runnells and Windsor Heights would benefit from the grant.

Already there’s a thread over at RadioReference with a pretty decent chunk of talkgroups figured out. If you’ve been listening to the system, collaborate and share your notes with others. Talkgroups can be figured out by running Unitrunker or by just listening.

If you’re interested, Johnson County EMA will be holding an open house of the JECC on June 19th from 1 to 3 p.m. The JECC is located at 4529 Melrose Avenue in Iowa City. More information can be found on this PDF flier.

Here’s a video I found months ago, and just now found again buried in my draft box. Most of us are familiar with the 10-codes that were designed to abbreviate radio transmissions made by emergency personnel aren’t so great after all?

In today’s quest for interoperability, 10-codes are going by the wayside to reduce confusion among different agencies that are working together on one channel during an incident, whether it’s a high-speed pursuit, or a natural or man-made disaster. 10-codes can vary greatly among departments, and the federal government has suggested to agencies that they eliminate the 10-code system altogether.

Ill. Rep. Dan Brady

Synopsis As Introduced
Amends the State Police Radio Act. Provides that a person receiving public safety voice or data communication transmitted via the facilities of the State’s public safety radio system by wire or radio shall not, without the written authority of the originator of the communication, rebroadcast the communication via any means, including radio or Internet, or otherwise divulge or publish the existence, contents, substance, purport, effect, or meaning thereof. Provides that this provision does not apply to the public safety radio communication transmitted by any system station for the use of the general public, including Amber Alerts and other communications specifically intended for rebroadcast to the public. Provides that radio access to the public safety radio system within the State may only be accomplished upon receipt of written authorization granted by the appropriately licensed authority. Provides that a violation of these provisions is a Class A misdemeanor. Effective immediately.

The bill is proposed by Rep. Dan Brady, R-Bloomington, who has served in the assembly since 2001. He was instrumental in procuring funding for the StarCom 21 state radio system, and named named Public Official of the Year by the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police in 2004.

Two years ago, that same laboratory found that digital radios fared far worse than their analog radios on the fireground. The likely problem? Ambient noise — most notably SCBA masks, SCBA alert bells, PASS communicators, water pumps, and other ambient noises associated with working fires. The ambient noise distorts the audio, because the IMBE vocoder is generally designed to capture human voice and cut the background noise out. But when you have dozens of other competing sounds that are as loud or even louder than the human voice, the vocoder can become confused and the audio is distorted.

These radios, which were designed to help firefighters, are often blamed as a contributing cause of some firefighter injuries and even deaths when mayday calls were not heard by others on the Cincinnati-area digital radio systems. Other complaints include dead spots, an inability to override ongoing radio traffic with more urgent radio traffic (getting a busy signal instead), and a one- to two-second delay for transmitting after squeezing the push-to-talk button.

Fire departments aren’t the only agencies grappling with issues. Police departments are also suffering from dead spots in coverage that cropped up only after the digital systems were deployed.

In Philadelphia, their new Motorola radio system suffered over a dozen complete radio system failures in three years, even putting the police commissioner’s safety in jeopardy once when breaking up a street disturbance.

Similar failures are being reported all across the United States, not only with Motorola P-25 systems but M/A-Com OpenSky systems as well. In some instances, departments are bailing on their multi-million dollar digital radio systems in favor of their older analog systems.

The former Explorer cadet with the Bohemia volunteer fire department is known for constantly fiddling with radio settings, firehouse sirens and anything else he could get his hands on, sources said.

…

He’s charged with stealing two radios from a Sayville Community ambulance on Dec. 27, two portable radios from a West Sayville fire chief’s vehicle between Dec. 24 and 26, and two portable radios from an East Moriches fire vehicle on New Year’s Day.

Steven Riddle W3MOT, radio thief, stands next to a Suffolk County Police Department car (from hamsexy)

A forum thread over at RadioReference is also revealing details of several transactions that members have had with Riddle, involving mostly professional-grade Motorola radios, raising concerns that members unknowingly were purchasing stolen equipment. Fittingly, Riddle’s member icon on RadioReference was a fox in a bandit mask and black gloves. He was already once banned from RadioReference, posting under the “SCPDfan” username.

One of his posts that really struck a chord with me was in a thread about a MotoTRBO taxi radio system:

WTF is a taxi company doing with digital radios?? They don’t need those!!! Meet me over there with your crowbar and duffel bag!

Another post he authored on RadioReference was to sell an AED he had supposedly purchased seven months prior. Though, he may not have sold this item, as there weren’t any more posts by prospective buyers or to announce that the item has been sold.

More details are coming out on the wash in the RadioReference thread, while I can’t confirm these statements are true. People who live in the New York/Long Island region and familiar with Riddle’s doings report that he was “posing as a fire officer on the air, stating that houses were on fire that were not, and houses that were not on fire, that were.” Another user from Riddle’s area reported “pagers set off, sirens and traffic lights were activated, and overhead apparatus room doors were opened at all hours of the night [by Riddle]!”

W3MOT's hacked entry (click to enlarge)

I am confident that the hacked QRZ entry echoes the sentiments of radio hobbyists nationwide. Riddle falls into one of the many categories of people that radio enthusiasts are ashamed of.

I’ll say all of this this in bold-faced font because I think it’s incredibly important to mention: His thievery and misuse of his knowledge threatened the safety and integrity of police officers, firefighters, EMT’s, and other first responders. It is people like him that force public safety officials (and the general public) to turn up their noses at radio enthusiasts, and cause more than passing suspicion upon those carrying a police scanner or anyone that has more than one antenna on their vehicle. You can thank people like Riddle for giving agencies a reason to go digital and/or use full-time encryption. You can thank people like Riddle for states passing anti-scanner laws.

It’s likely that Riddle will get away with only a slap on the hands, with a few years of jail time and a revocation of his license. Will he be able to re-apply for a license? I don’t know. But as long as he has access to radios, it’s also likely that he’ll continue to abuse his knowledge of radio systems.

YE WQKX415
JOHNSON COUNTY, IA JECC (Rebanding not required)
[APPLICANT IS A JOINT COMMUNICATIONS CENTER FOR A COUNTY AND ALL LAW ENFORCEMENT ENTITIES WITHIN ITS BORDERS. RADIO STATION WILL BE USED FOR ESSENTIAL LAW ENFORCEMENT AND EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS.]
Control Point 1 – 4810 MELROSE AVE., IOWA CITY IA 319-356-6046
Control Point 2 – 808 UNIVERSITY CAPITOL CENTRE, 200 S. CAPITOL ST., IOWA CITY IA 319-335-5022
(link)
10/15/2009 License Issued
1 – 4529 MELROSE AVE., IOWA CITY (JOHNSON) IA (map)
854.2375 FB2 100p 490e 9K80D7W
858.9875 FB2 100p 490e 9K80D7W
859.9875 FB2 100p 490e 9K80D7W
856.7125 FB2 100p 490e 9K80D7W
854.4375 FB2 100p 490e 9K80D7W
2 – 221 N. CLINTON ST., IOWA CITY (JOHNSON) IA (map)
854.2375 FB2 79p 525e 9K80D7W
858.9875 FB2 79p 525e 9K80D7W
859.9875 FB2 79p 525e 9K80D7W
856.7125 FB2 79p 525e 9K80D7W
854.4375 FB2 79p 525e 9K80D7W
3 – .45 MI EAST OF HWY. 965, 0.12 MI. NORTH OF COUNTY ROAD PASSING OAKDALE CAMPUS, CORALVILLE (JOHNSON) IA (map)
854.2375 FB2 100p 263e 9K80D7W
858.9875 FB2 100p 263e 9K80D7W
859.9875 FB2 100p 263e 9K80D7W
856.7125 FB2 100p 263e 9K80D7W
854.4375 FB2 100p 263e 9K80D7W
4 – 4748 420TH ST. SE, IOWA CITY (JOHNSON) IA (map)
854.2375 FB2 50p 288e 9K80D7W
858.9875 FB2 50p 288e 9K80D7W
859.9875 FB2 50p 288e 9K80D7W
856.7125 FB2 50p 288e 9K80D7W
854.4375 FB2 50p 288e 9K80D7W
5 – (JOHNSON) IA Countywide
809.2375 MO 35p 35e 9K80D7W
811.7125 MO 35p 35e 9K80D7W
813.9875 MO 35p 35e 9K80D7W
814.9875 MO 35p 35e 9K80D7W
809.4375 MO 35p 50e 9K80D7W
6 – IA Land Mobile Control Station Meeting 20 Rule
809.2375 FX1 35p 50e 9K80D7W
811.7125 FX1 35p 50e 9K80D7W
813.9875 FX1 35p 50e 9K80D7W
814.9875 FX1 35p 50e 9K80D7W
809.4375 FX1 35p 50e 9K80D7W

– From Weekly Iowa grants, retrieved October 18, 2009.