SouthShoreNow.ca

Lisa Brown
Lighthouse staff

 COUNTY - A new provincial emergency radio communication system announced last week will mean silence in scanner land.

 A favourite hobby of many who enjoy listening to police and other emergency chatter on their scanners will be no more once the new system gets up and running. The province plans to phase in the system over the next 18 months.

 The provincial government and MT&T announced the agreement to create the new province-wide system March 30. At a cost of $9 million, it will provide digital mobile radio communications for the RCMP and a variety of government departments. It will also be used by a number of public safety groups such as the Emergency Health Service, volunteer fire departments and Nova Scotia Ground Search and Rescue.

 The objective is to allow emergency agencies to communicate directly with each other in times of trouble. Under the current 20-year-old integrated mobile radio system, some agencies are forced to pass messages through dispatchers.

 The difficulties with that became apparent during the Swissair disaster off the Atlantic coast in September.

 Further problems are experienced by some agencies who have to switch between radio channels in their day-to-day operations. Under the new system, that will no longer be necessary.

 Another benefit will be found in improved communications in certain areas of the province where emergency agencies currently experience difficulties. Bridgewater RCMP, for example, have transmission problems in some parts of the detachment.

 "For us, going up through New Germany there are pockets where we have real difficulty in transmitting. So there's obviously a safety issue there that was a concern to us that's going to be addressed now with this new system," community policing co-ordinator Cst. Les Kakonyi explained last week.

 But tuning out scanners will have a down side, the officer added.

 "In the past, when we've had situations with lost persons, it's been effective to have people listening to scanners. They have provided us with information," Cst. Kakonyi said. "And not only with search and rescue, but there have been instances when we've had a particular individual that we've been looking for and people have picked that up on the scanner and provided tips to us.

 "It can be a nuisance at times, but there have been situations where scanners have been of some benefit to us," he added.

 The network will be managed and operated by MT&T Mobility under a 10-year lease agreement. While government is the priority anchor tenant, the system will also be shared with commercial users such as transport, courier and forestry companies.

 Infrastructure will include 62 existing transmission towers and six new ones. Volunteer fire departments and police forces around the province will receive over 1,000 radios and will be able to contract more through MT&T.