replacements had been delivered. Vice Chair Dina added that the firmware push was successful.
Chairman Hayden asked if anyone had any questions. Member Baarman said the fire template
has talk groups listed that were not in the talk group list. Vice Chair Dina said he believed the
talk group list included the talk groups that were added. Member Baarman said the talk group
list does not have 100 talk groups in it, and there are 150 in DuPage. Mr. Connolly said the talk
group list was only intended to show the fire agencies the fire talk groups, so approximately 50
talk groups would not be on that list, as they are not available to fire agencies. Member Baarman
said Fire OPS 1 and 2 are missing, and Mr. Connolly said that was an error, and he has revised
the list. Member Baarman asked if there will be two ops channels per channel. Mr. Connolly
said that is correct, with spares for ACDC and DU-COMM. Member Baarman said he is
concerned that there are not the same number of agencies on each channel. Mr. Connolly said
Member Baarman is correct. Member Baarman inquired where a busy channel like Fire East
would go if they had more than two instances happening. Member Johl said the spare could be
used. That would be the decision of the agency, incident command, or the PSAPs. Member Johl
said none of these channels are exclusive, they are the primary channels; one would not have to
ask permission if someone is on another channel. Member Baarman said he understands, but
naming implies ownership. Mr. Connolly said other channels are available, and an agency and
their PSAP can move them around. Mr. Connolly said there is no perfect solution. Some
agencies may want to use FD OPS and some not; they do not know what the usage will be.
Member Johl said they will still have VHF conventional channels available, and they can be
made into the primary channel. Member Baarman said it is difficult from a PSAP perspective to
be consistent when there is not a consistent standardized way to apply it. Member Johl said they
followed the same template that was in use for the old assignments of primary Fire OPS channels
and doubled the number of available channels. Agencies still have the option to use STARCOM
or VHF. He added, if they left 14 channels for anyone to use, there would be more issues of
multiple incidents jumping on the same channel. He said this was the least operational change
other than adding more channels. Member Baarman confirmed there are approximately 10 new
talk groups. Vice Chair Dina said that is correct, but it is temporary.
Ms. Zerwin said there was a discussion in the focus groups of a concern that during transition, a
channel with one name that was not being renamed for the same purpose, would cause confusion.
She said they made a new talk group name, and once everything is cleaned up and rolled out, the
unnecessary talk groups will be omitted. Member Baarman said from a PSAP perspective,
DU-COMM's consoles are full and that during this transition, they may not have access to
something they have today. Ms. Zerwin asked what the capacity is on the ACDC side. Member
Hermes said she will have to find out. Member Baarman said he would like the revised talk
group list from Mr. Connolly.
Ms. Zerwin said Member Baarman should have known about this sooner. Vice Chair Dina
advised once everything is updated and they are ready to make the switch to Phase 2, Zones 1, 2,
and 3 will go away. Member Baarman said that is a great transition for the users in the field; it is
a good mechanism to figure out when the cutover date is. Mr. Connolly added that the extra talk
groups are not in the first three zones Vice Chair Dina talked about. They are in the new bank
and not intended for use now so DU-COMM has a choice of how soon they want to put those on
their consoles. Mr. Baarman asked if FD OPS 2 will have the same name, and Vice Chair Dina
confirmed it would.
