By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
The Great Bend Fire Department and Police Department received the green light to move forward with a major upgrade to their communications.
In January 2018, the Barton County Sheriff’s Office announced they would be switching their radio system to the 800 MHz system in July 2018. The Sheriff’s Office and other first responders in Barton County were able to do that with the Kansas 800 radio tower located north of Great Bend near Barton Hills.
Fire Chief Luke McCormick says the plan was to have all county agencies
switching over from the 400 MHz to 800 by 2020, and Great Bend is last to
transfer.
"The current UHF radios used by Fire and Police departments are 15 years old," said McCormick. "The life expectancy of public safety radios is 8-10 years."
McCormick says both the Fire and Police Departments have started to experience
an increase in radio repairs and failures.
The 800 MHz system is designed to connect to other agencies across the state with 95% coverage area in Kansas while in a vehicle. This would assist Great Bend to communicate with other agencies in the state during mutual aid or statewide disasters.
The current UHF
radios are not compatible with the 800 system, meaning the Great Bend first
responders’ communication with other agencies in the county is challenging as
well.
"Our radios will not work on the system infrastructure that Barton County plans on upgrading," said McCormick. "We are not able to communicate directly with law enforcement. Most other law enforcement agencies in the county, except for the Great Bend Police Department, have switched to the 800 system."
Over the past two years, Great Bend has worked with Motorola Solutions to
determine the specs for the 800 radios. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Great
Bend was able to secure a 5% discount of $28,137.61. The Fire and Police
Departments will receive 40 new radios each for $534,614.60. Pagers will cost
$21,088.50 and installation into the departments’ vehicles is not to exceed
$15,000.
Citizens with scanners will not be able to keep up with law enforcement and first responders over the radio once the transition to the 800 MHz system takes place unless they upgrade their scanners.