FAQs • Cumberland County • CivicEngage

Will the types of building construction, contents of a building, or other factors influence portable coverage?: Testing conducted in the field during 2004 and 2005 revealed some coverage concerns in large commercial style buildings. Some warehouses, particularly those with metal clad exterior walls also posed some problems. Often times in warehouses coverage was affected by the type of contents and how it was rack stored. Below-grade communications also pose problems as no radio system communicates very well under ground. The best way for one to plan for communications deployment at large commercial structures is to arrange tours and understand how the radio performs in those environments. Vehicular repeater systems (VTAC) will likely be needed for operations and in some cases more than one placed in operation at different areas of larger buildings.

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800 MHz Radio Project - Coverage

1. What is the coverage of the Cumberland County radio system?: The 800 MHz radio system has a coverage of 95% probability design for 12 db attenuation (building loss) in Cumberland County. This is the standard used to design public safety radio systems. To the average user – this equates to in-building portable coverage in average residential structures. To achieve this probability a number of new radio sites were established during the infrastructure build out phase. The legacy radio system uses four radio sites – one on the northwest side of the county, one on the northeast side of the county, one on the south central side of the county, and one in the center of the county. A total of seventeen radio sites are now used to provide coverage in the 800 MHz radio system.

2. Are there areas where there is no coverage?: Even with the best designed systems it is impossible to provide 100% coverage. Factors that limit coverage include distance from the radio site, terrain, certain atmospheric conditions, adjacent channel interference, and foliage. Isolated areas of the county may not have usable mobile radio coverage, but typically in an area where this may exist simply moving the radio a short distance may result in usable mobile coverage.

3. Will the types of building construction, contents of a building, or other factors influence portable coverage?: Testing conducted in the field during 2004 and 2005 revealed some coverage concerns in large commercial style buildings. Some warehouses, particularly those with metal clad exterior walls also posed some problems. Often times in warehouses coverage was affected by the type of contents and how it was rack stored. Below-grade communications also pose problems as no radio system communicates very well under ground. The best way for one to plan for communications deployment at large commercial structures is to arrange tours and understand how the radio performs in those environments. Vehicular repeater systems (VTAC) will likely be needed for operations and in some cases more than one placed in operation at different areas of larger buildings.

4. How far outside of Cumberland County will I be able to use the radio system?: Coverage is only guaranteed inside the borders of Cumberland County. FCC requirements limit the range a radio system may operate. The coverage outside the County will be limited to the distance from the tower and terrain. A VTAC radio operating in the portable extension mode will only function a short distance outside the County as the FCC restricts their use to the County itself.