Shawano County officials made it clear Wednesday that their radio transmissions were just as clear, and that the bugs with the simulcast system were almost all fixed.
Jeff Schuh, the county’s radio specialist, and representatives from Northway Communications of Wausau informed the Public Safety Committee that the equipment needed to fix the radio tower in Bonduel had arrived well ahead of schedule, and that few issues had popped up since the new equipment was brought online Feb. 20.
It had originally been estimated that the equipment would take 10 days to arrive, but it arrived in two.
Last month, several fire chiefs from eastern Shawano County reported broken communications on the county’s new simulcast system, even when emergency crews were within a mile of the Bonduel tower. Many were concerned that if the system failed to transmit during a fire or other emergency, lives could be lost.
Scott Pagenkopf, Northway owner, said his crews have eliminated the problems with the tower and conducted tile testing — radio tests at half-mile intervals — to ensure that the tower was no longer at fault.
“We have not had any errors reported since then,” Pagenkopf said.
Schuh noted that there have been some portable equipment programming issues reported, but nothing involving the tower. One instance involved a faulty radio battery, he said.
“We have been able to isolate all problems to those radios,” Schuh said.
County Board Chairman Jerry Erdmann said he had attended a Grant Town Board meeting last week and was informed of issues that central Shawano County community was having with radio transmissions between county dispatch and town firefighters. Erdmann said the transmissions were “crackly.”
Schuh said he had no knowledge of Grant’s radio issues but said he would look into it.
Supervisor Marvin Klosterman suggested that Schuh get in contact with all fire chiefs in the county to make sure all radio problems are resolved. The fire chiefs and other officials attending Wednesday’s meeting did not report any continuing issues.
Schuh did not anticipate any additional issues with the county’s simulcast equipment.
“We’re fairly confident that the system is working properly,” he said.
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