Oct 23, 2020

800 MHz communication installation deadline is Dec. 31, 2020

Posted Oct 23, 2020 5:45 PM

By AMY RICKER
Great Bend Post

The deadline to switch the current EMS Communication System from UHF  to 800 MHz is looming.  

Installed in 1989, the UHF or ultra-high-frequency system was limited as only one person at a time would have the ability to talk. There was also no indication as you were talking, if you were being heard by anyone. The only way to tell was if you received an answer or not.   

In 2013, the FCC pushed out the narrow banding mandate and then the quality of the UHF system suffered so dramatically, there were times the officers’ speech was not clear and could not be understood.  In fact, Great Bend is the last city in the area to get on the 800Mhz system.  

911 Communications Director Dena Popp says the largest hurdle has been financing. 

“The challenge has been over the last 4 years since I’ve been involved is the funding piece. It is outrageous and a very expensive system. But large amounts of agencies across the state are going to this. An example is the shooting in Lyons last week. They were all on 800 MHz, so if Barton is on UHF frequencies, we couldn’t talk to them. We would have to wait to get onsite and literally talk person-to-person. If you’re in a standoff situation, that’s not always feasible,” explains Popp.  

Popp says that when the process of upgrading the communication began, figuring out the locations for repeaters wasn’t a simple decision.  

“We started looking at different locations and we ended up looking at the mobile radio tower south of Great Bend. They were gracious enough and had no problem with us being on there as we already had UHF equipment on there already. But then that turned into where that tower is a narrow-based tower and we may have to put an eight-foot microwave dish along with the three-foot microwave dish and the tower was not structurally going to support that. So, we’ve just been trying to figure out in the last week what is a different option and still make this work with everyone involved in using this system," says Popp. 

Popp says the goal in Barton County is to have 95% coverage as that is the coverage number that most counties across the state are trying to hit.  

Deadline to have the new 800 MHz system installed is December 31, 2020 and despite going into weather that may limit the technicians’ ability to climb and work on the towers, Popp says everything is being done to help ensure the target date will be hit.