The FirstNet Network Expands Across Arizona to Advance Public Safety Communications Capabilities on US93

Arizona’s first responders got a major boost in their wireless communications with the addition of new, purpose-built FirstNet cell sites and other network enhancements along US93

Now FirstNet is here in our area to provide first responders with state of the art communications. In rural areas like Mohave County FirstNet's Band 14 allows the use of HPUE High Power User Equipment.

HPUE like mobile routers that have 6 times the power of cell phones, that's 1.25 watts rather than 0.2 watts. Using external antennas they can expand FirstNet coverage in fringe areas to all first responders on the call. 

FirstNet is a stand alone network authorized by Congress and built  for first responders after 9-11.... The First Responder Network Authority also known as FirstNet 

In rural areas like Dolan Springs and Meadview FirstNet is working closely with local telecom providers across the country. This collaboration is helping to more quickly address rural coverage needs and expand the reach of FirstNet for the public safety community. FirstNet Equipment Grants 

Here's a couple articles on how FirstNet can reduce future capital costs for two-way radios while providing PTT Push-to-talk communications and all the advantages of broadband while increasing coverage. 

California fire district leveraging FirstNet, BeOn PTT from L3Harris to save significant LMR costs

One rural California fire district plans to lower its future LMR (Land Mobile Radio) capital costs about 60% by supplementing its VHF radio system with BeOn push-to-talk service from L3Harris delivered over FirstNet as part of a local public-private partnership that includes sharing tower sites, according to the fire chief spearheading the plan. (BeOn push-to-talk service is similar to Zello)

Arizona Leaders Gather to Discuss Public Safety Broadband

On March 27 2019, the State of Arizona held a public safety broadband forum for first responders, public administrators, and IT support personnel to discuss FirstNet and its impact on the state’s public safety broadband needs. More than 60 local, state, and federal public safety officials gathered in Phoenix to hear from government and industry leaders about the latest developments in FirstNet’s capabilities, discuss their network operational needs, and learn about recent FirstNet use cases.

Kevin Rogers, program manager for the Arizona DPS Technical Services Division, shared his experience during a FirstNet push-to-talk demonstration at the Arizona State Fair in October 2018. 

Arizona DPS deployed 50 devices to local first responders to communicate over FirstNet. The network proved successful, enabling first responders to share images to locate lost children, better track troopers, and locate counterfeit ticket sales.

LTE Set to Disrupt LMR

Mission Critical Communications 

By Frank Anderson

Tuesday, June 18, 2019 | 

A disruptive innovation creates a new market and value network and eventually disrupts an existing market and value network, displacing established market-leading firms, products and alliances.

Cellular Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks continue to mature, providing better coverage with more available bandwidth, a great migration is taking shape. Technology has advanced to provide push-to-talk (PTT) hard-coded radios and smartphone applications that transport PTT on LTE as an internet of things (IoT) device.

FirstNet for the Fire Service

As a member of the fire service, you know having the right tools improves response. Increasingly, your department relies on mobile applications to provide computer-aided dispatching, mapping tools, patient care reporting, and hazardous materials information. Unfortunately, you also know that during emergencies or large events, congestion on commercial networks can make your vital data sources unreachable or unreliable. FirstNet Equipment Grants

FirstNet provides a secure, reliable broadband connection so communications stay intact during your most critical moments.

Always-on connection, priority and preemption, innovative tools

Whether sending images of wildfires or downloading building plans, FirstNet provides fire personnel with improved network coverage and network priority, preemption, and quality of service. The FirstNet network also enables you to:

• Share images and video, or access weather and traffic data for a clearer operational picture as incidents unfold.
• Quickly and reliably connect to other agencies and jurisdictions.
• Track assets and personnel.
• Take the network along to remote locations using FirstNet's fleet of 72 dedicated network deployable assets, available at no cost to FirstNet subscribers, plus three flying Cells on Wings and an aerostat (or blimp).
• Use mapping applications that share lookout positions, escape routes, safety zones, and water sources.

 

Complementing radio networks, available for agencies or BYOD
(Bring Your Own Device)

FirstNet provides high‐speed data services and non-mission-critical voice to augment the capabilities of today’s Land Mobile Radio (LMR) systems. Because many firefighters depend on their personal mobile devices on the job, FirstNet is available for qualified, individual first responders who want to transition to the FirstNet network.

For public safety, by public safety

Through a robust consultation effort, the First Responder Network Authority works with the fire service community to ensure the FirstNet network meets your needs.

FirstNet Equipment Grants

Today You Need to Know How to Take Care of You and Yours.... Because Nobody is Coming to Help

Our nation is changing and we need to change too. With the recent unrests, changes in weather, and the chance of earthquakes we need to know how to take care of you and yours because in a disaster nobody is coming at least not for a while.

Many of my blog posts talk about the need for volunteers in the LMRFD, but that's about day to day operations for fire and ambulance calls. 

The LMRFD does well on those day to day services, but to put it bluntly in a disaster we're screwed. With roads closed on a good day we have 3-4 firefighters and the volunteers, on a bad day we have 2 firefighters.

So I'm going to talk about how we can care for family friends & neighbors in those few days or weeks after a disaster.

Who would respond in a regional disaster? If our region had a major weather event or earthquake where roads are closed and normal communications are down, how would you call for help and who would respond? 

The truth is nobody is going to respond if you or your family are injured or killed in a major event, not for days, maybe weeks in more remote areas

In a major event involving Kingman, Bullhead City, the Colorado River area, and Lake Havasu City, we would be on our own for days if not longer.

It's not their fault, we chose to live here in Mohave County. Did you know our county is over 13 thousand square miles? That's a little smaller than New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, and Rhode Island  together. Get the idea when it comes to disaster response in the rural areas of our county? 

It's NOT the Lake Mohave Ranchos Fire Districts fault, it's not the county's fault, and it's not the states fault, it's our fault. We decided to live in a small rural community with limited resources that provides fire protection and ambulance service for over 2000 square miles. 

So it's our responsibility to know how to take care of our family, friends and neighbors in a disaster or anytime there's an emergency 

Everyone Needs to Take First Aid CPR/AED and basic CERT Citizens Emergency Response Team training because what you know in a disaster may literally mean the difference between life and death. This training is available online...

It would be great if the fire district had 50 volunteers in Dolan Springs and Meadview, but we have a hand full.  That's why everyone needs to take first aid and basic rescue training so we do have the ability to care for our family, friends, and neighbors, until professional rescuers can arrive.

It doesn't take much to create a real life and death emergency in Arizona. Especially in Meadview, several times in the last 8 years I've heard calls where the ambulance was unable to respond to a call in Meadview and tad to turn back because the washes on Pierce Ferry and Stockton Hill Road were both running too high and roads were closed.

Be good neighbors and be prepared... 

First Aid for Free

CERT Training Info

Lake Mohave Ranchos Fire District Web Page Looking Good...

The Lake Mohave Ranchos Fire District web page has been updated and is looking good and providing information and district documents for the community  

Take a Look Here Bookmark the page

Encryption First Responder Radio Communications Scanners and Transparency

In small communities like Dolan Springs and Meadview the police scanner is how we shares various information about fires or criminals at large in our community. The police scanner and Facebook are how we get news in small communities. 

California police agencies are being required to encrypt their radio communications. News agencies and others say encryption of radio traffic and the lack of transparency sets a dangerous precedent. 

In small communities the police scanner is how the public gets knowledge about what's going on in their community. In big cities it's the news media that shares information about fires or criminals at large, in small communities it's the people who share information.

Some agencies in the area use a digital format for their radio communications called P25. It basically does what encryption does as far as scanners, you can't listen without buying an expensive digital scanner. 

Some people will tell you we need expensive radios with P25 to communicate with these agencies, but the law requires all first responder agencies to be able to transmit "in the clear" so when mutual aid is required all agencies can communicate. 

The LMRFD board needs to make a resolution that the LMRFD will not use any means of digitalizing or encrypting radio signals unless required by law. 

We have the right to know what's going on in our community. There's a reason all first responder radio traffic is recorded, so there's transparency and no he said, she said. We have the right to know what's happening in our community.

In 1988 I was listening to my scanner when a Spokane police officer was stung by a bee and was going into anaphylactic shock when he made one transmission calling for help. The dispatcher didn't here his call, but I did. We were only a few blocks away and responded dragging him from his patrol car opening his airway and calling for EMS.

This is another reason we need to listen to local first responders, you never know when they may need OUR help...

First Responders Law Enforcement and Marijuana It's Legal in Arizona It's Time to Get Over It....

First let me say nobody should drive when impaired to the slightest degree, let alone work or respond on calls. 

Link to Opinion Page Kingman Daily Miner Newspaper 

At the town meeting Sheriff Schuster said it's hard to find people who want to work in law enforcement today, and even harder to get people to volunteer. I'm afraid with marijuana legal in Arizona, California, and Nevada, it's going to get a lot harder. 

I told Sheriff Schuster I had been a deputy and had been POST certified in two states. That I would like to apply for the sheriff's posse, and told him I did use medical marijuana.  Sheriff Schuster if I became a member of the sheriff's posse I couldn't drive a posse vehicle because of liability. 

Marijuana is legal in Arizona for medical and recreational use, yet there's this prejudice against people who choose marijuana over alcohol, especially in law enforcement. We need to get over it....

With Suicide at epidemic levels in law enforcement and almost every officer who commits suicide under the influence of alcohol at the time, and most had a history of alcoholism maybe it's time cops had another less harmful alternative.  

A study showed Police were more likely to die by suicide than in line of duty Numbers released by Blue H.E.L.P. in January of 2020 showed that in 2019, 228 American police officers died by suicide. That research showed an increase from a study done by The Ruderman Family Foundation released in 2018. That study showed that in 2017, while 129 officers died in the line of duty, 140 died by suicide.

With law enforcement's long history of alcohol abuse, you would think alcohol use especially before the age of 21 would be the red flag for the academy, not marijuana. POST's drug policy says, "Arizona POST is concerned with past illegal drug use because it demonstrates a willingness or propensity to do illegal things".

I would be more concerned with alcohol use before the age of 21 because it demonstrates a willingness or propensity to do illegal things. For young people to obtain alcohol they must steal it, have fake identification, or convince someone who's 21 to break the law. When young people drink they also make other bad decisions like drinking and driving. All of these "demonstrates a willingness or propensity to do illegal things".

Arizona POST Police Officer Standard Training did update their drug policy in October 2020 just before legalization. Now ARS R13-4-105  #10 says, "not have illegally possessed or used marijuana for any purpose within the past two years". I guess "for any purpose" includes if a doctor prescribes it...

Anyone interested in law enforcement who tried marijuana a few times when it became legal 2020, can't even apply to be a cop in Arizona until 2023. 

Alcohol causes people to make bad decisions. At intelligence meetings in the 80's 200 narcotics investigators and undercover officers would come together from all over the state to share intelligence. The people who sold electronic intelligence equipment also shared cases of hard liquor stacked to the ceiling to help with sales. Can anyone see a problem with this? 

I had to fight with more than one drunk making arrests at bar fights or for DUI. I never had a problem arresting anyone for marijuana possession. I just tossed an Oreo cookie in the back seat and they followed it right in.

But seriously we need to get over the paranoia about marijuana in law enforcement. Today marijuana is purchased at the mall, not from a drug dealer. When you compare all the damage done to law enforcement officers, their departments, and their families, isn't it time we gave officers an alternative to alcohol?