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The PSERN Project Radio Deployment is the eagerly anticipated distribution of the customer agency portable (hand-held) radios and the mobile (vehicle) radio installation. Deployment has been divided into waves to ensure that the essential daily work of radio end-users (fire, law enforcement, public works, etc.) is not interrupted and so that they can obtain their new radios as soon as possible. The Project recognizes that many agencies routinely traverse geographic areas of King County and such complexities are being built into the scheduling. Also, the Project is currently evaluating how best to conduct mobile radio vehicle installations throughout the county, to maximize efficiency and mitigate the time that vehicles will need to be out of use while radios are installed.
Radio Deployment Town Halls: To share Radio Deployment information and solicit feedback from PSERN Stakeholders, a series of Town Hall webinars will be hosted. The first webinar will be held Tuesday, May 18, 2021 at 10 am to review the Wave Schedule. Town Halls will not be recorded, but presentation slides will be available here afterward. Click here to register for the May 18th Town Hall.
Wave Schedule: The duration of each Radio Deployment Wave will vary and details of the waves, including exact start dates, wave duration, and agency assignments will be directly sent to customer agencies, when determined. These details are dependent on information that is currently being gathered. According to the current schedule however, Wave 0 is planned to begin in Fall 2021 and Wave 5 is scheduled to conclude in Fall 2022. The following is a high-level overview of the Radio Deployment Wave Schedule:
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Wave 0: The Pilot Test
- Includes a variety of end-users who will conduct pilot testing. No public safety operations will be conducted over PSERN during testing. Radio End-Users involved in this Pilot Test wave will be notified shortly.
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Wave 1: Seattle Public Utilities and Sound Transit Operations
- Includes portable radio distribution and mobile vehicle installations for Seattle Public Utilities and Sound Transit Operations (including Link Light Rail).
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Wave 2: Seattle Area & ALL Public Safety Portables in King County
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Seattle Area Portable and Mobile Deployment – Includes City of Seattle, some King County local government, and other agencies in the Seattle area.
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ALL Public Safety Portable Deployment – Includes ALL fire and law enforcement portable radio distribution within King County. PSERN radios distributed will have both KCERCS analog and PSERN digital channels to ensure interoperability and mutual aid operations throughout the entire Radio Deployment.
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Wave 3: Agencies in King County located south of I-90, not included in earlier waves
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Mobile Installations – Includes all agencies (fire, law enforcement, local government) located south of I-90
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Portable Distribution – Includes local government agencies south of I-90
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Wave 4: Agencies in King County located north of I-90, not included in earlier waves
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Mobile Installations – Includes all agencies (fire, law enforcement, local government) located north of I-90
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Portable Distribution – Includes local government agencies north of I-90
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Wave 5: Any remaining agencies in King County
- Includes portable radio distribution and mobile vehicle installations for agencies in King County that were not included in earlier waves.
More information will be shared in the June PSERN Bulletin and be uploaded to the Radio Deployment/Transition section of the PSERN Website. If you have any questions in the meantime, please email PSERN-INFO@kingcounty.gov.
The PSERN Project has been listening to stakeholder feedback and learned that some agencies are interested in retaining their current APX model radios for training purposes and/or to retain usage of VHF. Thank you to the Project Operations Board for facilitating this discussion. To accommodate this interest, it has now been determined that agencies have the opportunity to purchase (e.g. “buy-back”) their current portable or mobile radios. If an agency chooses to purchase a current radio, they will still receive their new PSERN radio, but their current radio would only be deprogrammed, not turned in to the Project.
Agencies should review the following costs and warranty considerations when determining if they want to pursue this option of retaining one or more radios:
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Radio Cost: For each retained radio (portable or mobile) the agency would be charged $350.00 ($250.00 for the radio and $100 for radio accessories).
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Programming Charge: The PSERN Project will be reusing radio IDs, so any retained radios will either need their current IDs removed or changed. If an agency wants to keep a radio they want to use on the PSERN system, it will need to be reprogrammed or, if they want to keep a radio for VHF capability, it would need to be deprogrammed. Additionally, radios that will be used on the PSERN system may need to be reflashed for compatibility with the new system. This work will need to be done by the agency’s local Radio Shop and will likely incur time and materials programming charges.
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Airtime: If an agency wants to utilize the retained radio on the PSERN system, they will need to pay airtime for that retained radio, in addition to paying airtime on their new PSERN radio. If an agency is retaining their radio for VHF purposes, this airtime charge would not apply.
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No Warranty: Retained radios would not be covered by the PSERN warranty, nor the Radio Service Agreement (RSA) extended warranty, and current radios may be past the end of their lifetime.
Details about the Radio Purchase/Buy Back Opportunity will be directly sent to agencies next week with a request that agencies inform the Project of their decision to retain radios by early June.
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