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â FCC licenses will allow public-safety system to progress
ELIZABETHTOWN — The Federal Communications Commission's recent OK of new public-safety radio channels means Essex County can proceed with its radio-system upgrade.
The county plans to replace its failing radio infrastructure, parts of which are 60 years old, with a new, digital network using interlinked VHF high-band channels.
Essex County couldn't go forward with the new radio network until the FCC granted licenses for the 33 VHF high-band radio frequencies the system will use.
The county paid $495,600 in 2008 to buy the frequencies from Motorola, which held the previous licenses. The frequencies came pre-approved for use in northern New York.
Part of the project's $10 million cost is for site development and civil engineering, along with new radio equipment for the County Enhanced 911 center in Lewis. Included in the total is $1.3 million to replace fire department, police and ambulance mobile radios in the county, estimated to be 400 pieces of equipment.
Despite Canadian objections, the FCC granted approval and assigned the county call letters WQLI541 but added special conditions, such as lower power to prevent interference with Canadian users.
"It's a step in the right direction," County Emergency Services Director Donald Jaquish said. "We were granted all the frequencies we requested on high-band. It's good news for the radio project."
To achieve better coverage, the county will add use of towers on Gore and Whiteface mountains, and other locations to be selected later, to already-in-use sites on Belfry Mountain in Moriah and Mount Defiance in Ticonderoga.
The County Board of Supervisors just authorized buying six Daniels Electronics radio base stations for the project at a cost of $83,000. The radios are $13,250 each, plus installation costs.
One transmitter is needed quickly for Belfry Mountain, where a tube-type unit is failing, and the others will be used later for low-band paging in the new system.
Wells Communications of Plattsburgh will install the new transmitter on Belfry.
"It does make sense to go ahead with this purchase," County Manager Daniel Palmer said. "There is additional savings by purchasing them (base radios) all now."
The county didn't go to bid for the radios because Wells is the only dealer for Daniels in the area.
"The county manager stated this is a sole-source purchase," County Attorney Daniel Manning III said. "There is no other supplier we can buy from in the area."
E-mail Lohr McKinstry at: lmckinstry@pressrepublican.com
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