Four local emergency response agencies are getting radio upgrades, thanks to a $4.2 million federal grant to enhance mutual aid communication.

The Kenosha County Emergency Management Division, Paris Fire Department, Pleasant Prairie Fire Department and Pleasant Prairie Police Department received $59,402 to purchase the new radios.

More than 350 local emergency response agencies throughout the state are being awarded the funding, which comes from Homeland Security money and allows the purchase of nearly 3,600 new radios that will help emergency units communicate with each other across the state.

The Salem Fire Department also applied for the funding and was the only Kenosha County agency not to receive a part of the award, said Ben Schliesman, director of Kenosha County Emergency Management. He added the state received hundreds of applications for the funding from agencies in all 72 counties.

New requirements

By January 2013, all state, county and municipal emergency agencies must switch to narrow-band radios that allow for more channels. Traditionally, communication channels have operated on 25 kilohertz, but the new mandate calls for 12½ kilohertz.

“Certainly the main goal is to create communication interoperability,” Schliesman said. “The second benefit is that it allows us and it allows other people to switch to the narrow-band radios.”

Radios purchased with the funds must have at least 48 channels and be capable of accessing at least 20 statewide mutual aid channels with additional capacity for local channels.

Some police, fire and rescue agencies within the state are replacing radios that operate just one channel, according to the state’s Office of Justice Assistance.

The shared mutual aid channels should enable reliable communications among several emergency response agencies at critical times, such as large-scale disasters that cross jurisdictional lines.

Digital technology

“The benefits are pretty obvious because what they enable us to do essentially is they are digital cable,” Pleasant Prairie Police Chief Wagner said. “The radios that they are replacing are just analog capable.”

Wagner said Kenosha has a digital radio system, and several agencies the village works with in Illinois operate with digital radios.

“This enables us to communicate with those agencies,” Wagner said. “These communities are neighboring communities. It’s not uncommon for us to work together, and this certainly facilitates that.”

Roland Iwen, Paris Fire Department chief, said the new radios are needed, and the department is hoping to acquire additional radios.

“A lot of our members don’t have radios,” Iwen said. “With the added 13 radios, we should be able to distribute a radio for every member who doesn’t have one.”

Earlier this year, the state awarded the Department of Transportation a $16.3 million federal grant and federal Homeland Security grant funding to hire a contractor to build the initial phase of the state’s Wisconsin Interoperability System for Communications. The system will provide 95 percent mobile coverage in the state and function as a backbone for statewide communications.