Background Information

The St Clair County ETSB is currently overseeing the implementation of a new countywide radio system that will be available for use by St Clair County agencies as well as the Village of Millstadt. Other agencies may be added to the system as time goes on.

The system being installed is a state-of-the-art 700/800 Megahertz (MHz) digital trunked radio system. It will include ten tower sites located throughout the county. The initial infrastructure will support approximately 500 end-users with the potential to accommodate up to 1600 end-users. The purpose of this system is to allow for effective interoperable communications between county employees both within and between departments. The system will allow for radio communications with the Illinois State Police as well as any other state or local entity that is part of the STARCOM21 system.

Approval has also been granted for St Clair County to participate in the DOJ Interoperability Assistance Project Plan for the St Louis Metropolitan Area. This plan, sponsored by the US Dept of Justice, allows for interoperable communications between UHF, VHF, and any type of 800 MHz radios. While this DOJ system is not intended to provide the same level of interoperability for agencies throughout the entire St Louis Metropolitan Area as the St Clair County system will provide to agencies within St Clair County, the DOJ system will still provide a valuable link mechanism in the event of a cross-jurisdictional incident involving state, federal, and local public safety agencies. A critical component of the DOJ system has been St Clair County's initial plan to implement five repeated radio channels in the 800 MHz band to enhance communications between St Clair County agencies and the St Louis Metropolitan Police Dept. Once the DOJ learned of this, these five channels became the building block for the rest of the system.

• Reference Information
  • Background Information on Trunked Radio Systems
  • Paging Systems in Public Safety - White Paper
  • News Release - FCC 3rd Memorandum Opinion and Order, 2004
  • Bulletin - London Emergency Communications
  • Final Report - US Dept of Homeland Security Interoperable Communications Equipment Grant Program, St Clair and McLean Counties

• Radio Users
  • Agencies in the St Clair County Region with Access to the St Clair County Radio System through 700/800 MHz Radios
  • Agencies throughout the State of Illinois with Access to the St Clair County Radio System through ITTF Radios

Project Status

The Motorola Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) for the overall radio system infrastructure and functionality was conducted September 24, 2004 at the Motorola main factory in Schaumburg, IL. After successful testing, the elements of the radio system were crated and shipped to St Clair County for installation of the initial infrastructure for tower sites. This included pouring concrete slabs, running cables, and moving in buildings, antennas, and other equipment. The first test conversation was made from portable to portable using the prime radio site on Thursday January 6, 2005 at approximately 4 PM CST. Since then additional sites have been turned up. Radio system acceptance testing was recently completed, and the new system became operational on August 25, 2005. User training is ongoing.

• Radio Project Update Reports
  • Radio Project Update Report, April 2005
  • Radio Project Update Report, December 2004
  • Radio Project Update Report, October 2004
  • Radio Project Update Report, September 2004

Training

Radio system end-user training materials are now available on-line. Please click on the link below to download the appropriate training session.

NOTE: The training slideshows are in Microsoft PowerPoint format. If you do not have Microsoft PowerPoint, click here to download a free viewer.
The supplementary documents are in Adobe PDF format. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader, click here to download a free version of the software.

• Radio Training Slideshows
  • Basic Concepts in Radio Trunking
  • Motorola Astro XTS1500
  • Motorola Astro XTS2500 Model 2
  • Motorola Astro XTS5000 Model 2
  • Motorola Astro XTL5000 Model 4W
  
   
• Supplementary Radio Training Documents
  • Mobile Radio Safety Information
  • Portable Radio Safety Information

Photos

Motorola Radio Factory Acceptance Testing September 24, 2004 in Schaumburg, Illinois 



Construction and Equipment Installation at Radio Tower Sites in St Clair County