a s = First Responders Better 5 Prepared With New Radio Technology a (NAPSA)—Shortly after thefirst plane hit the North Towerof the World Trade Center on September “With 2.2 million first responders in the U.S. operating on a wide range of frequency bands with dif- an urgent radio call for evacuation of the entire complex. That order, given on a radio frequency used by one group of officials, was never heard by many other first responders on the ing our goal meant we needed to simplify a highly complex problem,” said Steve Nichols, a public safety industry expert with Thales Communications. “The answeris software inside a handheld radio that links, in real time, every frequency used byfirst responders.” Unlike military multibandradios, Liberty is designed to meet stringent public safety specifications but is just as rugged, with a metal case andthe ability to survive an underwater submersion of up to two meters. The radio was tested successfully by DHS at the presidential inauguration and has been used during other high-security events including the Super Bowl, World Cup and Academy Awards. Now, when the county official managing a local emergency needs to communicate the same urgent message to multiple police, fire and rescue departments on the scene, interoperable radios makethe task a one-step process. Skeptics of this new solution have argued that U.S. counties, towns andcities do not have the budgets or people to buy and manage new 11, 2001, police on the scene issued ferent modulation schemes, achiev- scene. Just minutes later, the sec- ond plane hit the South Tower. As noted in “The 9/11 Commission Report,” the call to evacuate was “given over WTC channel W,” a frequency used by only some of the scene’s first responders. As a result, the lifesaving evacuation message went unheard by many— and for some, arrived too late. Americans learned many lessons from the tragic events of September 11. One national priority, highlighted by the 9/11 Commission, was the need for “inter- operable” communications—a single radio that would enable one department, agency or singlefirst responder to communicate with officials using any of the public safety frequency bands. In response, the Departmentof Homeland Security (DHS) began research, development and deployment of a new technology that would ultimately solve the interoperability problem. State and local government officials around the U.S. are now being introduced to new radio technologies that are the direct result of the lessons learned in New York City. Courtesy of DHS Science and Technology Directorate Rescue workers have a new,better way to communicate that could save manylives. With new, interoperable, hand- held radios, federal, state, local and defense agencies can communicate using a single radio that operates acrossall public safety bands, including the VHF band used in many rural areas andthecritical marine and mutual aid channels used during large-scale incidents and in search and rescue operations. One company, Maryland-based Thales Communications, was amongthefirst to respond to the DHS requirement. Putting to work the company’s experience in the development of softwaredefined interoperable radios for the U.S. military, Thales engineered the software that makes interoperability possible. The result is known as the Liberty Multiband Land Mobile Radio. communications networksor sys- tems. But according to Nichols, achieving interoperability doesn’t haveto be expensive or complicated. “The day you get a Liberty radio, you can talk to someone on all channels,” said Nichols. “It worksright out of the box.”
