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RECIPIENT: Kentucky Kentucky Mutual Aid and Interoperability
In 2005, the Commonwealth of Kentucky launched the Mutual Aid and Interoperability project to correct a long recognized problem that prevented the state's first responders from communicating with one another. This lack of voice interoperability severely limited the effectiveness of agencies in times of emergencies and in situations requiring aid or assistance from neighboring agencies. The Mutual Aid and Interoperability project has corrected this problem by providing first responders with the capability of communicating with one another across boundaries in real-time. "Kentucky is committed to ensuring the safety and protection of our citizens and communities. I am proud of the state's Mutual Aid Project and this award underscores our commitment to providing our first responders with the resources and tools they need to communicate effectively. I want to compliment the many state agencies that played a key role in the development of this project and reiterate our dedication to ensuring the security of our Commonwealth's communities, first responders and families." Ernie Fletcher, Governor, Commonwealth of Kentucky
This problem of interoperability came about as populations grew and the need for support agencies increased. As these agencies requested and received frequencies for use in their day-to-day operations, they were quickly exhausted. Eventually, new frequency bands were opened to support new requirements. These frequencies were assigned according to availability and propagation characteristics. Unfortunately, this practice has resulted in a number of frequency bands (150MHz, 450MHz, and 800MHz) being used by first responders in Kentucky. In many cases, neighboring agencies have frequency assignments operating in entirely separate frequency bands, which inhibits inter-agency communication. This situation precludes a simple channel sharing plan with which local agencies could share frequencies and the benefits of communicating with each other.
Most local agencies have tried to work around this problem by instituting a policy of radio swaps, cell phone usage, or other proprietary methods. Typically, these methods limited interoperability to two or three agencies, and were expensive, cumbersome, and only marginally effective.
The Mutual Aid and Interoperability project resolved this problem by building a network that provides several common channels in each of the three frequency bands used in the commonwealth. These channels are nationally recognized, dedicated to mutual aid, and any agencies desiring to participate in their use may do so after signing a memorandum of understanding.
This project's cost was less than $2 million but has provided the means to allow all first responders to communicate with each other, in real time, with no loss of capability, at absolutely no cost. Additionally, current propagation studies have documented mutual aid radio coverage to more than 97 percent of the commonwealth.
NOMINATIONS: Click on the link to download program submission.
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