New Emergency radios system will be expensive

“Be prepared for sticker shock.”

That was Amsterdam District Supervisor Steve Clinton’s advice to Botetourt Fire Chief Jason Ferguson when he asked the Board for permission to send out requests for proposals (RFPs) for new emergency systems communications radios. Ferguson made the request at the January 24, 2023 Board meeting, held at the Botetourt County Administration Center at Greenfield.

The County needs upgraded radio equipment to replace an existing analog UHF system that has some components over 25 years old.

The Emergency Services Department is seeking to purchase all the necessary components from tower site develop, a microwave network and infrastructure, for a P25 radio system. The price would include all necessary hardware and software as well as radio console equipment, vehicle and portable radios and specified accessories.

The system also would include a fire station alerting component.

Since 1998, the County has been using a simulcast UHF 450Mhz Analog system with four mountain-top repeater sites and a central core site near the dispatch center in Fincastle for public safety radio. The system has outlived the technological expectation of its life expectancy. While the current system lacks redundancy and has many single points of failure, there have been very few instances of failed radio communications.

However, over time the system’s performance has degraded to a point that areas once reasonably covered by the system no longer have sufficient coverage for emergency voice communications, according to information provided to the Supervisors.

The Supervisors approved the request to move forward with pricing inquiries for the new system.                                                                                           — Anita Firebaugh, Special to The Botetourt Bee