Copperas Cove radio upgrade | Texas-Fire.com

By Mason W. Canales in The Copereas Cove Herald
The Copperas Cove Fire Department acquired its third grant in late March to upgrade its radio communication system to allow firefighters in the field to talk to anyone.
?This will be a phase-in approach over the next five to six years,? said Deputy Fire Chief Gary Young about overhauling the city?s entire emergency communication infrastructure to comply with the Federal Communications Commission?s recommended Project 25 system. ?We are grant funding as much as we can.?

With the recently received Assistance to Firefighters grant of about $91,000, the city has collected about $360,000 from three grants since 2010, said Young.

The latest grant should purchase an estimated 25 radios for Copperas Cove firefighters, stated city documents. Radios, however, are needed for every firefighter ? about 50 people when counting deputy chiefs ? and there are other radio system upgrade costs that the city hasn?t estimated yet, said Young.

?Fortunately, the radios we are buying are backwards-compatible,? he said, noting the new equipment will communicate with the older devices.

Backwards-compatible means the new radios can send signals and pick up transmissions from the old devices. When radios are set properly, users can talk and hear the transmission from the new devices. However, if set to the Project 25 mode, the older radios only can pick up the communications but not transmit new information.

Project 25 radios send their transmissions a short distance over a digital signal. The digital signal provides a clearer transmission, and the technology also doesn?t require towers to transfer information back and forth. The radios still transmit through a tower to achieve longer distances.

?What needs to happen in emergencies is we have to be able to communicate with each other,? said Young, adding that any Project 25 radio can communicate with any other Project 25 radio. If the tower should fail for some reason, this would allow firefighters and anyone using this type of radio to communicate. That goes for any other emergency crews coming into Copperas Cove, from the county, Central Texas or from out of state.

Copperas Cove has a similar radio system to Bell County?s, which means the different entities can communicate when responding to each other?s fires and emergencies. Project 25 radios will improve communication with Copperas Cove?s neighbors and with anyone else responding to a city emergency, said Young.

Receiving the grant money should allow the city to start purchasing the radios within the next 60 days, Young said. ?We are a very grant-driven community. We show the need that we are trying to protect the community and be proactive.

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