Homeland security funds go to radio system

FAIRBANKS - Alaska collected more than $50 million from a federal homeland security grant program in the past four years with most of the money going into a unified radio system for law enforcement, the military and emergency workers.

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The money is in addition to $80 million that Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, earmarked for the "Alaska Land Mobile Radio" system in the last five defense appropriation acts.

Fairbanks and Valdez are the only communities where the radio system is used on a daily basis, but officials hope the remainder of the state will follow soon.

"It has not been finished, but it is operational," said John Madden, deputy director of the state's Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management at Fort Richardson. "There are still several gateways that need to be established to ensure that the state and local agencies can connect with each other."

The new radios will allow workers from different agencies to talk to each other during emergencies. The system organizes the agencies into groups that individual radio users can block or include with the flip of a switch.

"Turning to a new switch on the radio by someone on the ground will give them access into another talk group," Madden said. "Through this system, you could key the mic on a radio in Fairbanks and talk to another radio in Anchorage," even though the two are using different frequencies.

The system eventually will link federal, state and local security and emergency officials across the state. It is designed so if one link goes down, another takes its place.

"It can be transmitted between nodes by radio, microwave, fiber optic or satellite," Madden said.

In fact, that backup system kept the system running during the recent loss of fiber optic lines along the pipeline and railroad due to flooding, Madden said.

"It's a very simple concept, but it takes a great amount of technical effort to accomplish," Madden said. "It is the most complex radio system in the nation."

Fairbanks City Police Chief Dan Hoffman said his officers began using the ALMR last year. The Fairbanks-area troopers joined a few months ago.

"Everybody now has new radios both in their vehicles and their handhelds," Hoffman said. "Those radios all have multiple talk groups programmed into them. They can turn to different talk groups locally. We're even able to get on talk groups in Anchorage or Juneau."

Chris Storhok, grants coordinator in Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Jim Whitaker's office, said the importance of good radio contact became very apparent in 2004 during the 500,000-acre Boundary fire just 20 miles outside Fairbanks. It took too long for the various agencies to get a working system in place, Storhok said.

The annual Homeland Security spending bill for 2007 provides $1.72 billion for the Homeland Security Grant Program. That is about $45 million less than this year's total, a cut of 2.5 percent. Alaska's share dropped by 37 percent this year, according to figures on the federal Department of Homeland Security's web site.