P25  |  2021-09-09

Frederick County Awards EFJohnson Contract for New P25 Public Safety Radio System

Source: The Critical Communications Review | Gert Jan Wolf editor

EF Johnson Technologies announced that it has signed a $26.8 million contract with Frederick County, Virginia, to deploy the County's next-generation radio communications network.

EFJohnson will deliver a KENWOOD ATLAS® P25 Trunked Simulcast System Solution, featuring its unique and patented Latitude™ technology in a fully distributed network architecture for outstanding reliability, resiliency and scalability.

Emergency responders within Frederick County — including law enforcement, fire & rescue, EMS and 911 agencies — recognized that the County's existing radio network was nearing its end-of-life and unable to meet current public safety needs.

"Replacing the county's aging radio system is not only critical for public safety; it is also long overdue, according to local officials. The ATLAS P25 solution with its modern, resilient architecture will solve the county's coverage and reliability concerns while also providing the interoperability required for inter-agency coordination in an emergency, something the county does not have currently," said Mitch Urbanczyk, Vice President of Government Systems Sales at EFJohnson.

Frederick County's new turnkey solution will consist of a ten-site, six-channel, P25 UHF Phase 2 trunked simulcast system complemented with a four-site, single-channel conventional VHF simulcast system overlay. Also included are six ATLAS StarGate® dispatch consoles with integrated voice and data capabilities, to be located at the county's main 911 dispatch center. In addition, the county’s new subscriber fleet includes KENWOOD Viking® radio models, featuring a new multi-band portable and VM7000 all-band mobiles. EFJohnson has made it easy for the county to budget for future radio needs with its perpetual software license program and Vault™. Vault is a free, cloud-based asset management tool that allows the County to transfer software licenses across devices providing the county significant savings on future hardware purchases.

Charles DeHaven, Jr. Chairman of the Frederick County Board of Supervisors is pleased the project is moving ahead. “A new radio communications system has been long needed in the County. This new system will enhance the safety of our citizens, businesses, and particularly our first responders. We look forward to working with EFJohnson going forward.

We are proud to partner with Frederick County to provide a state-of-the-art P25 radio communication solution," says Rich Cagle, EFJohnson's Senior Vice President of Sales. We are excited about the opportunity to provide the KENWOOD ATLAS P25 System Solution that will give the County's first responders access to a reliable, cutting-edge radio communication network, allowing them to fulfill their mission of protecting and saving lives."

The new system will provide unified communications to agencies across the County including fire/rescue, EMS, public schools, sheriffs’ departments, and the County’s communications center. In addition, KENWOOD Viking P25 radios will provide interoperable communications to volunteer fire departments throughout the County.