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Mobile Radio Installation Town Halls: The Project is hosting 14 separate webinars between 9/7 – 9/17 to discuss mobile radio installation with agencies. Invitations were sent to agency contacts with the request to encourage any staff involved with mobile radio installations to attend. If you have questions, please contact PSERN-INFO@kingcounty.gov.
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Lead Trainer Classes: Scheduling will begin soon for the Lead Trainer classes, which will be held in November 2021. If your agency has not yet confirmed Lead Trainers, please contact PSERN-Training@kingcounty.gov.
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Hiring for DAS Transition: Recruitment is still open for four (4) Electronic Communications Specialists to perform DAS (Distributed Antenna System) quality assurance work for the DAS transition activities. See the job posting for more information.
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Seattle Mobile Radio Installation Sites Needed: The Project is looking for mobile radio installation facilities in the Seattle area that have good lighting, power outlets, internet, covered work areas and are secure. Additionally, they need to be able to provide installation areas for up to four vehicles and adequate parking for incoming and outgoing vehicles. If you have recommendations, please contact Bob Johnson at rojohnson@kingcounty.gov.
We are excited to announce that Michael Webb has been hired as the new Executive Director for the PSERN Operator! Michael is a trained Electrical Engineer who hails from Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. He has extensive experience with LMR (Land Mobile Radio) and 9-1-1 organizations. Most recently he has had his own consulting company, focusing on communications services for local government and public safety organizations. Prior to that, he held several high-level leadership positions with E-Comm 9-1-1, in Vancouver, B.C., over the last decade. Michael is expected to start in early November.
Scheduling mobile radio installations is complicated. There are over 5000 vehicles, including fire engine rigs, police cruisers, public works trucks, and even helicopters, that will need new PSERN radios installed. Installations require that vehicles are out of service for at least two hours and the goal is to install 35 radios a day in order to deploy all radios next year. The Project will be holding Town Halls to obtain feedback. Then, beginning in October, the Project will reach out to each agency to obtain the following details:
- Vehicle prioritization within an agency
- Limitations for how many vehicles can be taken out of service per day for each category of vehicles
- Identification of vehicles needing radios installed at a special location
It is important that agencies determine this information as soon as possible so that scheduling can move forward.
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Dates are accurate as of 7/22/21:
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Site Construction: April 2016 - September 2021* (building radio towers and infrastructure)
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Programming Templates: October 2019 - November 2021 (developing/programming per radio)
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Radio Frequency Coverage Testing: March 2021 - November 2021* (testing end-user signal quality)
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Radio End-User Pilot Testing: December 2021 - January 2022 (proof of concept end-user testing)
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Radio Deployment & Transition: January 2022 - October 2022 (distribution of agency radios)
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Full System Acceptance: March 2023 (transition operations to PSERN Operator)
*Under Assessment
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As the PSERN Project continues with Coverage Testing, preparing the radio template programming, and other technical development aspects of the system, this fall will focus on preparing radio end-user agencies for a successful Radio Deployment through the following:
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September Mobile Radio Installation Town Halls – To determine a deployment schedule that balances efficiency with the ongoing public safety services agencies provide, the Project is gathering peer agencies together in Town Hall webinars to discuss the most effective scheduling strategies. Invitations have been sent to agencies for timeslots between 9/7 – 9/17. It is important that agencies participate so that logistics can be developed to best serve the variety of needs.
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October/November Deployment Scheduling - The Project will contact each agency beginning in October to schedule both portable and mobile radio deployment based on these deployment waves and all agencies should be scheduled by the end of November. The Project will then confirm those dates with the agency one month prior, one week prior, and one day prior. It is essential that agencies commit to these dates to maintain the Project schedule.
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November Lead Trainer Classes – All agency Lead Trainer classes will be occurring in November 2021. These in-person classes will be presented by both Motorola and PSERN Technical Team members so that Lead Trainers will be able to learn about the new radio features and functions, as well as how they will be used on the PSERN System. Lead Trainers can then schedule their internal agency training to ensure staff are familiar with the new equipment before the radios are deployed. Lead Trainers will be contacted soon to schedule their classes.
All PSERN radios will be deployed with both the current King County Emergency Communication System (KCERCS) analog and PSERN digital systems to ensure interoperability across agencies. Additionally, the system will process both analog and digital interoperability talk groups, so even when agencies transition to all-digital at the end of their assigned wave, analog users will be able to interoperate with them. The transitions are seamless from a system perspective.
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