OIL CITY, Pa. (EYT) — The Oil City Council heard a proposal from Jeff Smathers of Meadville-based Mobilcom, on behalf of police chief Robert Wenner and fire chief Mark Hicks, to upgrade the city’s EMS communication system.

“What we have been asked to do is review the communications systems for both the fire and police departments,” Smathers told the council. “There have been some issues that have come up over the years by nobody’s fault, by federal regulations in some cases and some cases, age.”

The main problem, according to Smathers, is that several years ago the FCC cut the bandwidth of the emergency communication system in half and that has shrunk the coverage areas of the system and made those areas less effective.

“You find spotty communications in some areas where they (first responders) may have to move to make communications because of a dead spot,” Smathers said. “With the (Oil City) fire department, they are basically operating truck-to-truck. They don’t have a repeating system to help in weak receiving areas. This is a challenge for any department, especially with the terrain you have here.”

Hicks described the problem his department is experiencing.

“If Rescue 7 personnel are inside a house and call us on their portable or handheld radio we can’t hear them at all at the station,” Hicks told the council. ”If they would be calling for help or assistance or police assistance that does not get out from the house to the radio. They have to go out to the vehicle and get on that, and even that is scratchy at best at times.”

Smathers said the solution is to move the fire department system to a full repeater system.

“We would convert their current base station to a full-blown repeater meaning the portable communication would go to a repeater and would be magnified by power and resent out,” Smather said.

The repeater system would only be needed for the fire department as the police department already has a repeater system. But the problem the police department is facing is more of a communications issue based upon the proximity of the officers.

“Because of the narrow banding and those bands running, we have one channel to transmit and one channel to receive,” Wenner said. “Often times, if the cars are together, say we are in pursuit, we can’t hear each other because you wash each out. So part of this would be to move us out three frequencies away from each other on our transmit and receive. The change would be dramatic, I think.”

To move the frequency, the city would need FCC approval. Smathers told the council that once they apply for the approval, they have one year after it is granted to make the change.

Another challenge facing Oil City is the system is tied to phone lines in many areas.

“What we would like to have you consider is a newer technology,” Smathers said. “It would be a radio link or a microwave link. Basically, we would be doing a wireless link between sites to basically eliminate phone issues they would have.”

Hicks said making this change is important because Verizon is backing away from the copper cable lines that the department uses for its radio system.

“The fear is that there is nobody else practicing it because it is an antiquated system that is no longer needed,” Hicks said.

Watch the entire presentation by Smathers, Hicks, and Wenner:

According to Hicks, the changeover would likely cost the city less than $50,000. Oil City Mayor Bill Moon asked if Smathers could present the council with exact figures in the near future, and Smathers agreed.

The council also wanted to know how long it would have to implement the system asking if it could be a three-year or five-year implementation.

“Three years would be ideal,” Wenner said. “But I get it; you can’t drink champagne on a beer budget, but you need what you need.”

It was also mentioned that the receivers for the new system could be placed on existing structures like one of the city’s water towers or an old radio tower.

“With the new system, I think you would see an immediate difference,” Smathers said.