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MD FiRST Newsletter
December 21, 2021
Issue 4
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Dear Board Members, Partners and Stakeholders,
Although the pandemic continues to drag on, 2021 was another successful year for Maryland FiRST. For the first time since the start of this effort, all Maryland counties, Baltimore City, Annapolis and Ocean City are now either Primary, Limited Primary or Interoperable Users of Maryland FiRST. This is a significant accomplishment towards achieving interoperable communications throughout the state.
On the project side we pushed forward with Phase 5. The Phase 5 infrastructure buildout has been completed and coverage testing within all 5 counties was a success. Once the new Ethernet backhaul within Phase 5 is fully tested and operating at a public safety standard we will go live for operational users.
We continue to add new RF sites as part of our Coverage Improvement Program, creating a new simulcast cell in Carroll County and taking other actions to improve the overall resiliency of the network.
The Maryland FiRST staff and partner MD FiRST agency staff have done yeoman’s work in building out and operating this Statewide public safety radio system. I am truly thankful for everyone's efforts, the collective teamwork, and continued collaboration of all Maryland FiRST partners and look forward to continued success in 2022.
I wish you and yours a happy and safe Holiday Season and a Happy New Year,
Norm
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2021 Major Accomplishments
MD FiRST Capital Project
Phase 5 - Calvert, Charles, Prince George’s, Montgomery County, St Mary’s Counties
- Equipment Installations completed in all 5 counties
- Coverage Testing completed in all 5 counties
- Testing, troubleshooting and burn-in of backhaul equipment in process; 2022 go-live for operational users
MD FiRST Operations
- CEN Redesign Completed - Remaining punch list items will be completed as Phase 5 is stood up
- RF Site UPS Battery Refresh - Phases 2 & 3 completed
- NRX Logger Replacements/Upgrades Complete
- Site inventory audit program developed; audit activities have been initiated and are underway Statewide
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 Coverage Test Field Teams - Montgomery County CATP
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System End-of-Year Statistics
Primary Users: 24,188 – 7.9% increase from 2020
Interop Users: 50,724 – 14.9% increase from 2020
Total Push-to-Talks (PTT): 32,284,178– 13.9% increase from 2020
Total Interop PTTs: 542,120 – 3.8% decrease from 2020
Total Airtime: 3,458,238 minutes – 38% increase from 2020
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Coverage Improvement Efforts
2021 Successes
Crisfield (Somerset Co) - new ASR; DoIT/Somerset Co partnership
Table Rock (Garrett Co)- new ASR
TV Hill (Baltimore City) - new simulcast site adding to Baltimore Co Simulcast Cell; DoIT/MTA partnership
Safety Drive (Queen Anne’s Co) - Antenna height move
Westminster (Carroll Co) - Conversion of existing ASR to Prime Site/Simulcast Cell
2022 Planned Activities
Sykesville and Taylorsville (Carroll Co) - new RF subsites adding to new Carroll Co simulcast cell
Swallow Falls (Garrett Co) - new RF site adding to Garrett Co Simulcast Cell
Klej Grange (Worcester Co) - Raise TX antenna, swap from directionals to omnis
LaVale (Allegany Co) - new RF site adding to Alle-Gar Simulcast Cell
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Radio Control Board
New Primary/Limited Primary Users
United States Capitol Police
Washington County
Maryland Fire & Rescue Institute
New Interoperability Users
Prince George’s County
Arlington Co (VA)
Veterans Affairs MD Health Care System Police
NOAA (OLE) Office of Law Enforcement
New SOPs, SOGs
SOP 11 - Governance of Radio Control Board Working Groups
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Deployable Trunking
DoIT’s Public Safety Communications team was on-site providing support to the Deployable Trunking Trailer used at the 59th Presidential Inauguration in Washington, DC on January 20, 2021.
The Deployable Trunking Trailer is a combined initiative of Motorola Solutions Inc., Prince George’s County (MD) Department of Emergency Communications, Maryland Department of Information Technology, and the FCC Region 20 Regional Planning Committee. The trailer is a mobile standalone P25 trunked radio system which operates independently of any existing municipal or governmental fixed public safety radio system. The trailer provides at least three (3) main benefits;
- The trailer can be inserted into an area where existing radio coverage is insufficient to conduct operations, either due to existing system limitations, or catastrophic damage to part or all of an existing system;
- The trailer enhances interoperability between multiple disparate user groups, as a standardized trunking template is used, thereby allowing hundreds of agencies to access the radio system without specialized programming to a specific public safety radio system;
- The Deployable Trunking system reduces loading to an existing home jurisdiction radio system during a large event requiring thousands of subscriber radios, as those users would roam onto the Deployable Trunking System in lieu of the home jurisdiction’s primary system.
Successful usage of the trailer at the Inauguration provided many data points which will ultimately lead to future improvements and enhancements. Among these are the adoption of a common system key and zone template, which will be published in an upcoming revision of the National Interoperability Field Operations Guide (NIFOG). This emerging technology is likely to provide its greatest benefits during large scale events, or in the aftermath of catastrophic weather events. For more information contact: Brandon Renehan, Director, MD FiRST Operations, brandon.renehan@maryland.gov (301) 758-4825, Patrick King, Assistant System Manager wpatrick.king@maryland.gov (410) 697-9704
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Deployable Trunking Utilized in 2021 Presidential Inauguration
SB235 – RSA Funds Support MD FiRST
DoIT proposed legislation in the Maryland 2021 Legislative Session designed to help fund future development of MD FiRST. SB235 amended law states that MITDP RSA (Resource Sharing Agreements) funds “shall” be used to support Network Maryland and MD FiRST. The first planned use of these funds is for tower remediation of MD FIRST T1 to Ethernet project towers. For more information contact Matt Dryer, Statewide RSA Program Manager, matthew.dryer@maryland.gov, (410) 697-9687.
4.9GHz Update
The Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) recently released a Public Notice seeking comments on the future use of the 4.9 GHz frequency band currently allotted to public safety. State agencies in Maryland are major users of this band and DoIT developed a submission to the FCC to protect our State agencies and their use of the band. In our filing, we emphasized that states should be permitted to manage the use of the band for public safety. DoIT also advocated for an expansion of permitted users of the band to include critical infrastructure users; such as energy, water and wastewater, healthcare as well as public health, transportation, chemicals and biosciences. MSP, DNR, SHA, MIEMSS, as well as, the District of Columbia Interoperability Coordinator, the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP), the Iowa Statewide Interoperable Communications System Board (ISICSB), the South Carolina Department of Administration and the state of Washington all agreed to be part of the DoIT Joint Filing. Separately and apart from the Joint Filing submitted by DoIT, the California Department of Transportation and California Office of Emergency Services also filed comments advocating for state management of the spectrum.
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