City’s upgrade had a bumpy start
By Jennifer Eisenbart
Staff Writer
When the City of Burlington decided to make the switch to a digital police radio network, the original plan was to have everything operating by this spring.
That hasn’t exactly happened as scheduled, but the digital radios are in and working, with most of the upgrade now complete.
“I think we’re at about 90 percent complete,” said Police Chief Peter Nimmer. Among the last steps of the project was Wednesday’s planned replacement of the antenna on top of the police station.
“It’s just old and it’s not on the same frequency we are on,” said Nimmer.
“Not on the same frequency” seems to describe the majority of the issues encountered during the upgrade. The $80,000-plus project involved upgrading the repeater – which sends and receives the signals from the police department – plus a new base and console radio and an upgraded 911 system.
In switching everything from analog to digital, though, there “have been some problems we’ve encountered implementing the upgrade,” Nimmer said.
Among those problems was a firmware update to the hand-held radios – paid for through a separate grant – that made the radios unable to sync with the repeater.
However, Nimmer was pleased with the technical support the department has received from General Communications, which, among other things, came out and immediately fixed the issues with the hand-held radios by removing the upgrade.
Now, it’s ironing out the bugs.
“There seems to be more skip with digital,” explained Nimmer. “It picks up more radio traffic.”
Also, there are some “hiccups” with the radio, as the department has had to fine-tune the signal to make it sound right.
“It’s not the old analog system where it’s ‘plug and play,’” said Nimmer.
But throughout the problems, the department has always been able to fall back on the analog system. The end result is that there haven’t been issues in responding to any calls – at least, not from the new radios.
“The citizens never had an issue,” Nimmer said.
Now it’s just finishing the small details. Nimmer said, in addition to the antenna replacement, there are a few “tweaks” to make in the dispatch center. Other than that, the department is close.
It’s also ahead of the curve within Racine County, at least in terms of going digital. While other counties such as Kenosha, Walworth and Washington are on a digital network, Nimmer said Burlington is something of a trendsetter in Racine County.
“Everyone’s going that way,” he said. “It’s just one of those things, when you start something new, you’re the first ones to experience the problems.”
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