Daviess County will be transitioning from a legacy VHF radio system to P-25 digital.
As part of the move, first responders met with representatives from Motorola on Friday to look at compatible equipment options.
“This P-25 system will give us better coverage,” explained Jeremy Smith, Daviess County Fire Chief.
“With structure fires in rural parts of the county, we’ve always had trouble getting back to our dispatch center. This new system will allow us to get pertinent information out. It will give us more channels and afford us the opportunity to work with the city and link directly with them in a dual response.”
The City of Owensboro already operates on a digital radio system. Daviess County’s P-25 system will use four different tower sites to provide 98% coverage for vehicle radios.
Daviess County EMA Director Andy Ball said the additional radio channels will make a huge impact for his department.
“Right now, we don’t have good capability other than a single channel which is called ‘joint ops’ to be able to talk back-and-forth with various agencies,” Ball added.
“We’ll be able to talk not only among ourselves but we’ll be able to talk to the city a little bit better as well as our partnering agencies throughout the county and in neighboring counties.”
Work will begin later this year on installation of the new system. It will be used by most all county agencies, including the sheriff’s office, fire departments, the coroner’s office, emergency management, the road department, the detention center and animal control.
Click here to watch a video about the radio upgrade.
