Arlington County Finally Moving to P25 System

By this time next week, Arlington County should be using their Project 25 system for all services. (Only public works-type users are on it now, not public safety.) Here's a message from Lisa Thompson, the radio system manager:

The Emergency Communications Center (ECC) will move to its new location on Tuesday, May 20th. In order to transition the Public Safety radio users off of the old analog system onto the new digital system (which you have been using since last summer), we are asking that ALL RADIO TRAFFIC BE KEPT TO AN ABSOLUTE MINIMUM ON 5/20/08 FROM 0600 – 0900 HOURS. We need this because we will be systematically turning off radio channels on the old system and turning them ON in the new system. After the field users (police, sheriff, fire/ems), make the transition to the new radio system, ECC will be required to perform a roll call of each unit. This will unnaturally overburden the new system. After 0900, unless something unfortunate occurs, all radio channels will be up and functional, and normal operations can commence. I appreciate that this request will make operations difficult, and I thank you in advance for your cooperation. We are similarly requesting that all public safety radio users only transmit in urgent circumstances while we reduce their channel availability prior to cutover, and that they remain as silent as possible after cutover so we can assure that everyone is on the
right system.

Thank you !
Lisa Thompson
Radio System Manager