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Hawaii Preliminary Technical Assessment 1. Introduction /CTAP-H/HA-PR6ASSESS-00l-RO The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Office of Emergency Communications (OEC) implements programs designed to enhance the preparedness of state and local governments and agencies to effectively prevent, respond to, and recover from major terrorist incidents. The Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) grants are provided to frst responders and public safety officials in order to secure critical infrastructure and respond to acts of terrorism in urban areas across the nation. UASI funds are used to address unique equipment, training, planning and exercise needs of large, high-threat urban areas, including needs for interoperable communications between local, state, and federal first responders and public safety officials. The Interoperable Communications Technical Assistance Program (ICTAP) is funded by OEC to provide technical assistance to states and urban areas that are applying UASI funds to voice and data interoperability projects. The goal of the ICTAP program is to enable local public safety agencies to communicate during incidents. ICTAP works with other federal, state, and local interoperability efforts to enhance the overall capacity for agencies and individuals to communicate with one another. The County of Hawaii has asked ICTAP to provide an engineering review and comment on information developed to date by Macro Corporation. Given ICTAP schedule constraints, the review was focused on two documents: (1) Needs Analysis & Recommendation Report and (2) Conceptual Design Analysis & Recommendation Report. Macro has proposed a 700 MHz APCO Project 25 (P25) digital trunked system with a combination of simulcast and stand alone RF sites, a 700 MHz High Pertormance Data (HPD) system, and a VHF fire alert paging system. The County of Hawaii currently has a VHF analog conventional radio system that is at the end of its lifecycle. The County is also concerned about the pending narrow banding of the VHF public safety band and the associated costs and problems. The County is looking to replace the system to enhance both operability and interoperability on the island and add high speed data capabilities. ICTAP has been asked to provide a high level report giving general feedback and guidance on the two Macro Corp. reports. Topics include: choice of frequency band, FCC licensing, RF propagation characteristics, simulcast modulation, interoperability, P25, site selection, microwave connectivity and capacity, High Pertormance Data, and VHF Fire Alert. 1.1 Background The following list includes highlights on the current County Of Hawaii radio systems: Four separate radio systems serving the; Police, Fire, Local Government and Water o Motorola conventional VHF radio systems 0 25 KHz Wideband/Analog 0 17 tower locations 0 12 VHF Channels State Department Of Transportation (DoT) Airports Division -Motorola 800 MHz proprietary trunked system State Sherriff -Conventional 800 MHz system 1.2 New System Requirements The new communications system for the County of Hawaii should have as a minimum the following requirements: Standards based Project 25 digital trunked communications system serving all public safety and service entities. October 2008