Commissioners approve VHF radio system upgrades

Nov. 15—LENOIR — The Caldwell County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to approve upgrades to the radio system used by county emergency services.

During the Caldwell County Board of Commissioners meeting on Monday, Nov. 14, Communications Director Jason Pennell presented to the board a request to approve ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funding to upgrade the VHF (very high frequency) radio simulcast system for emergency services.

"The current radio system we have is 15-ish years old, and it's getting worse every year," said Pennell. "The only updates the county's ever done for VHF is antennas, where they've been struck by lightning. We've had to replace those. You can imagine with equipment that old, finding parts is becoming a challenge. We've been fortunate, they've been able to piecemeal some of the parts to get them working, but other than that it's becoming a challenge to get that equipment."

Pennell said that several parts of the county, such as Collettsville, Grace Chapel, Yadkin Valley, and Brown Mountain Beach Road, do not currently have reliable coverage.

"We're hoping by updating this current VHF system, which is also a microwave system, that will increase the coverage tremendously in the county for our fire departments," Pennell said. "We're asking to try to update that system hopefully to last us another 15 to 20 years."

He explained that, while most fire departments continue to use VHF, there are still a few that use VIPER (Voice Interoperability Plan for Emergency Responders), North Carolina's statewide mission-critical radio system that is comprised of over 230 sites that span the entire length of the state.

"Emergency Services uses it 100% daily," said Pennell. "The Caldwell County Sheriff's Office, Lenoir Police Department, they use Viper exclusively."

"Do we ever see doing away with VHF?" asked Chairman Randy Church. "If we moved to a new paging system, would it page in the VIPER system?"

"The only way is if we can have the ability to page on VIPER, and last I heard they had not got that worked out," said Pennell. "I don't think anybody can do paging on VIPER. Not that I've heard."

"Modern communications systems, because call volume is going up, there's multiple calls and multiple agencies responding, you want to have a layered system," said County Manager Donald Duncan. "You want VIPER and VHF to be layered together."

Church asked how many repeater stations there are in the county. Pennell said there are five: one on 321 North, one at Beaut Mountain off Zacks Fork, one at Hibriten, and one at the sheriff's office in Granite Falls.

"That would be brand new equipment, from coax cables to what they call quantar equipment," Pennell said. "All of that will be replaced at all five sites."

Church next asked, "Is that then going to enhance anything? Is it going to make it more user-friendly and able to use it in some of these other areas?"

"It should," Pennell replied. "That's what we're being told."

"If I understand this correctly, the funding for this is going to come out of ARPA funds?" asked Commissioner Robbie Wilkie.

Pennell answered, "Yes. There should be no local funds for it, it would be all out of ARPA funding."

Commissioner Donnie Potter asked when the work is expected to be completed and the new system up and running.

"You're looking at a 12-month lead time, from the time we placed the order," Pennell said. "One question we asked was, 'How long would communications be down during that transition?' Just long enough to turn the old site off and the new site on."

The board voted unanimously to approve the ARPA funds to enhance and upgrade the county's current VHF system for the amount of $1,304,074.

Church said that he hopes the upgraded system "carries us another 15 years."