Yakima County WiFi for Public Safety: SeattleWireless TV has a lengthy segment in its December 2003 show on how Yakima County (WA) is using WiFi (802.11b) for law enforcement data networking. It's after the segment on a New Zealand wireless treasure hunt. Use the Media Player or RealPlayer links to watch.

NCIC/NLETS through a Spillman system to the state, local applications, and Internet access are in use. VPN and 128-bit WEP helps provide security. Frequency management and a rising WiFi "noise floor" are challenges. Coordination with other government and private users of the spectrum has been key. Replacement of CDPD and Frame Relay backbone has resulted in ongoing savings.

Study Points Out Radio Interoperability Problems: (7/22/2002) "Arlington County's response to the Sept. 11 attacks on the Pentagon was successful in spite of big communications problems, says a new independent study commissioned by the county."

Police call for remote button to stop cars: "After speed cameras, road humps and mobile phone bans, there could be more bad news for Britain's motorists. Police are urging Ministers to give them the power to stop vehicles by remote control."

DHS Grant Announcement (11/13/2003): "The Department of Homeland Security is pleased to announce an additional $725 million dollars from the FY '04 Budget for the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI), for grants to urban areas within the United States to help enhance their overall security and preparedness level to prevent, respond and recover from acts of terrorism."

APCO URGES CAUTION ON SMART RADIO EFFORTS: "APCO International responded today to the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) public notice initiating a proceeding on cognitive 'smart' radio systems (ET Docket 03-108) released yesterday."

SAFECOM e-gov description: This official description of SAFECOM is posted on the President's E-Government Initiatives web site.

IEEE Incident Management Working Group (P1512): The IEEE 1512 working group has a good body of work defining standard message sets that will have far-reaching effects on public safety interoperability.

DSRC Home: "5.9 GHz DSRC (Dedicated Short Range Communications) is a short to medium range communications service that supports both Public Safety and Private operations in roadside to vehicle and vehicle to vehicle communication environments."

Cover Pages: OASIS Emergency Management TC Approves Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) Draft (10-30-2003): "The Common Alerting Protocol is 'a simple but general format for exchanging all-hazard emergency alerts and public warnings over all kinds of networks. "

InfoWorld: AMD slips in new lower-performing Athlon 64: "Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) released a new Athlon 64 processor this week that is a little different than its older brother launched in September. But it comes at a price that will help AMD's 64-bit technology find its way into lower-priced desktops."

Nextel's CEO to Head Network Reliability and Interoperability Council: "The role of the NRIC is to develop recommendations for the FCC and the telecommunications industry to insure optimal reliability, security, interoperability and interconnectivity of, and accessibility to, public telecommunications networks and the Internet."

Firehouse.com: Sept. 11 Probers Look at Emergency Radios: "Concerns about the effectiveness of emergency radios on Sept. 11 have focused on technological flaws, but probers on Tuesday identified another problem: too many people trying to talk at once."

NIST update is found here.

National League of Cities and Interoperability: The NLC homeland security working group met on 12/11 and spoke about communications interoperability, among other topics. They plan to work with the FCC on the subject.

BushLAN Looks To Future : Broadband VHF experiments down under.

eXOS Services: "Denver firm to design communications software linking response teams"