Published: December 06, 2008 03:31 pm      

County gets communications equipment

Due to the combined efforts of State Representative Joe Dorman, BAE Systems and the National Association of State Fire Marshals, Grady County has received a donation of $65,000 worth of communication equipment.

It was announced at the Oklahoma State Fire Marshall Commission meeting in Chickasha on Friday, Dec. 5 that BAE Systems, Inc., a division of Homeland Security Solutions, has donated, installed and provided training for 10 First InterComm interoperable communication units to emergency responders in Grady County.

"We've gotten excellent response to this system," said Mike Greene, director of Homeland Security Solutions, Information Dominance Systems. "It has been called 'elegantly simple.'"

According to Dorman, effective communication is extremely important in emergency operations.

"The donation of this communication equipment will enable disparate radio systems to communicate at emergency scenes. Lack of communications between emergency first responders was addressed as early as 1935, and as emergency incidents have become infinitely more complex, technology to address this problem has not been available until recently," he said.

First InterComm Vehicle Communications Assemblies, devices about the size of a shoebox that are mounted inside first responder vehicles that link all vehicles at an incident scene, were installed in 10 Grady County emergency response vehicles.

These units allow first responders to "communicate across different VHF, UHF and 800MHz frequencies using existing equipment and hand-held radios during major disasters when radio towers may be compromised."

This equipment has been installed in agencies in the Chickasha Fire Department, the Grady County Emergency Management Director, the Grady County Emergency Management Operations Center Mobile Command Unit, the Grady County Fire Chief, the Grady County  District Fire Chief north, the Grady County District Fire Chief, central, the Grady County District Fire Chief, south, Rush Springs Fire Department, Rush Springs Emergency Medical Service and the Verden Fire Department.

"My main goal is to have adequate communications between emergency first responders at the incident scene. Lack of adequate communications is an nationwide problem," said, Oklahoma State Fire Marshal Robert Doke. "Grady County first responders will now be able to communicate with each other during any fire, car accident or large-scale disaster, expediting response times and eliminating any communication gaps."

The device, which uses standard digital technology and runs on vehicle power, "automatically creates temporary networks for interoperability."