Firefighters were "sending encrypted messages over a clear channel"
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Posted on Tue, Oct. 05, 2004
Radio system falters; officials fume
By Jennifer Lin
Inquirer Staff Writer
Philadelphia Police and Fire Departments reported
radio problems Sunday, angering city officials who
thought Motorola Inc., the manufacturer of the $54
million system, had turned the corner in solving
technical problems with the two-year-old system.
At 1:30 a.m. Sunday, police and fire dispatchers
noticed that messages from officers were being cut
short. At times, they said, transmissions were
inaudible.
Also, with the police system, calls from one police
district in Kensington were migrating to a citywide
band.
Public safety officials said the problems were
intermittent but not resolved until 15 hours later,
at 4:30 p.m.
"Our members feel they can't rely on this system,"
said David Kearney, a paramedic and representative
for the firefighters' union, Local 22 of the
International Association of Fire Fighters.
"Firefighters are just waiting for something to
go horribly wrong."
Steve Gorecki, a Motorola spokesman at headquarters
in Schaumburg, Ill., near Chicago, said the problem
was caused by a faulty piece of hardware - a "timer
card" that fits into a dispatcher's console and
controls the clarity of audio.
"This was a hardware problem," Gorecki said. "It's
rare for something like this to take place."
Just Thursday, Motorola executives testified before
City Council that they were paying extra attention
to the Philadelphia system and monitoring it nonstop
by computer from corporate headquarters.
But on Sunday, it was police dispatchers - and not
Motorola technicians based in either Philadelphia or
Schaumburg - who detected the problem.
Given all of Motorola's assurances, city officials
angrily questioned why Motorola wasn't the first one
to pick up on problems Sunday.
"Motorola didn't tell us; we told them," said Deputy
Police Commissioner Charles Brennan. "We're befuddled
why it took them so long to track down the problem."
Motorola's Gorecki said there was no alarm capable
of picking up the intermittent audio problems that
were caused by a hardware problem.
Motorola's digital radio system that operates on the
800 megahertz band of radio frequency spectrum is
used widely by public safety agencies across the
country. At Thursday's City Council hearing on radio
problems, Tom O'Drain, president of Local 22 of the
firefighters' union, said firefighters in Chicago,
New York, Los Angeles and Washington have also
complained about the Motorola system.
In Philadelphia, problems began to surface this
year. The Police Department has reported at least
four episodes of interrupted radio coverage, while
the Fire Department has received increasing complaints
from the field about blocked radio transmissions.
"It's been one thing after another," said Philip R.
Goldsmith, the city managing director. While he
characterized the Motorola digital system as "far
superior" to the old radios used by fire and police,
he said the persistent problems are untenable.
"With any new system, you expect the occasional
glitch, but you want to make sure that for $54
million you're getting your money's worth," he said.
"I have serious concerns about the reliability of
the system," Goldsmith said.
Since the Fire Department switched to the Motorola
radios in October 2002, it has received 50 complaints
from fire commanders about communication problems at
fire scenes; 20 of those reports have been filed in
the last three months.
Consultants are studying whether interference from
cell-phone transmissions could be part of the
problem. Some cell-phone carriers such as Nextel
operate on radio frequencies next to public-safety
channels.
But there are issues, too, with the Motorola system
itself.
Joseph James, the city's deputy commissioner for
public property, said yesterday that city officials
have confirmed that firefighters had radio problems
at a Port Richmond house fire on Aug. 20 that killed
two firefighters.
He said firefighters at the scene experienced
trouble getting calls out because they were sending
encrypted messages over clear channels.
He also confirmed yesterday that there were problems
with the "hot mike" feature that is supposed to
immediately open a microphone for a firefighter in
distress for 10 seconds. The Fire Department
disclosed Thursday to City Council that there was
no evidence that the hot mike worked for the two
firefighters who died.
"The hot mike didn't work; we know that for a fact,"
James said. "Motorola is working to come up with a
fix."
In the face of continuing radio problems, the City
Controller's Office is launching an audit of the
city's contract with Motorola Inc.
Councilman Frank Rizzo, who cosponsored the hearings
in City Council, questioned why the city was paying
Motorola $1.5 million a year to maintain the system.
"It's not acceptable to pay maintenance on a system
that doesn't work well," Rizzo said.
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Contact staff writer Jennifer Lin at 215-854-5659
or jlin@....