November 22, 2011 | Amateur Radio & Scanning
The Norwalk City Council voted on November 17 to approve funding for “funding of the Public Safety Communications Project with Westcom” after the council met in a special session at Westcom with officials from Westcom and Motorola on October 27.
Westcom, of course, will launch a complete rebuild of their system next year, comprising of a five-site simulcast Project 25 system. With Norwalk joining as a subscriber, coverage will stretch across Dallas, Polk, and Warren counties. It appears that Norwalk will add a sixth site in Warren County that is connected to the main Westcom cell.
Westcom has also been courting the city of Ankeny to join, as their contract with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office for dispatch services will expire on September 30, 2012 and Ankeny has not yet complied with the upcoming narrowband mandate. Ankeny has not been mentioned recently in any West Des Moines city council minutes or public safety cluster minutes.
In the special Norwalk city council work session held at Westcom, a PowerPoint slide outlined the disadvantages of their current VHF radio system and dispatch services provided by Warren County, next to the advantages of the new Westcom system:
No documents from either Westcom or Norwalk suggest that encryption may be used, but 94 APX-series Motorola radios will be purchased as part of the plan, all including mobiles, portables, and control stations.
The plan also calls for mobile data terminals, to be purchased and serviced separately from the two-way radio system, as the equipment life cycle for MDT’s is shorter than the average radio lifespan.
Total equipment cost (excluding MDT’s) is estimated to be $1,231,000, including a $141,000 incentive discount from Motorola if the contract is signed by December 15. The price of accessories and mobile installations are built-in to the price.
Click here to download the notes and PowerPoint handout from the special work session.
I really think this is a good move for Norwalk and Westcom. It helps Westcom close the gap on its operational finance shortfall, and it gives Norwalk a truly cutting-edge system with reliable coverage to serve them for the next 15 years. I feel that this is just one of many agencies that will undergo radio service changes in the near future. With Norwalk’s departure from Warren County’s dispatch services, it will be interesting to see how the county will fare without Norwalk’s financial contribution.
Tags: Amateur Radio & Scanning, Ankeny Iowa, emergency management, fire, Iowa, legislation, Motorola, Norwalk Iowa, police, Polk County Iowa, Project 25, Scanning, Warren County Iowa, West Des Moines Iowa, Westcom
K0KDS on Twitter