In this case study, we discuss how Ford County, Kansas is using JPS gateways to support their existing equipment, expand dispatch reach with neighboring counties, and repurpose equipment for new solutions.

Ford County Emergency Communications, located in fabled Dodge City, Kansas (population: 27,788 in 2020), is a mid-sized Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) serving an impressive 3,297 square miles. Within this area, they work with four sheriffs’ offices, three police departments, four EMS agencies, and ten fire departments, plus a state agency and a federal partner.

One day, they opened a closet and found an ACU-T inside. They called up JPS and got it going, then linked it to a recently purchased ACU-M. From there, things really took off as they bought, used, and re-used JPS equipment to extend and add coverage in several different ways.

Challenge

Emergencies don’t stop at county lines and state-wide P25 coverage isn’t always an option. To provide the capability for operational communications on conventional frequencies and to activate tornado sirens, Ford County Emergency Communications wanted to deploy remote radio base stations into three neighboring counties. Essentially, they needed to extend the coverage area of their existing console systems by utilizing remote sites over a vast area of Kansas supporting organic PSAP regionalization efforts.

Solution

With the success of the ACU-T and ACU-M, they purchased several NXU-2B (Radio-to-RoIP) gateways, which they integrated with their Motorola CCGW, providing an air-gapped wireline connection to their P25 consoles.

About this time, JPS released the RSP-Z2. Its additional capabilities prompted the upgrade of all their endpoints with RSP-Z2s and the addition of a Z-Series Controller. This has made it very simple to integrate neighboring counties as Ford County Emergency Communications begins providing dispatch services to them. They can also use Radio over IP (RoIP) as the backbone to carry signaling traffic from their MCC7500 console to activate tornado sirens.

The benefits of the Z-Series system go beyond reaching remote locations. Ford County Emergency Communications has built out field-deployable dispatch, including a few MCC PTT mics, and can integrate Push-to-Talk over Cellular (PoC) platforms like Motorola WAVE PTX and Zello.

Results

• The RSP-Z2s and Z-Series Controller have extended existing dispatch console coverage by integrating conventional frequencies.
• The ACU-T and ACU-M have been repurposed and installed in their PodRunner, one of their mobile base stations.
• NXU-2Bs have also been repurposed and installed in fire chief vehicles to act as fireground base stations, linking back to the Z-Series. This allows them to talk on simplex fireground channels and to route audio for recording.

All in all, what Ford County Emergency Communications has accomplished serves as an example of how JPS gateways support existing equipment, expand functionality, and provide opportunities for versatile solutions.