Dear Editor:

I have not seen anything in the Osoyoos Times regarding the latest RDOS budget and controversial fire radio communications system upgrades, but I did read about it in the Keremeos Review.

I understand that Town of Osoyoos Fire Chief Rick Jones and Mayor Stu Wells are not happy with the way that the upgrades may go and have already received a quote from Surrey fire dispatch.

I assume this would mean severing ties with Kelowna Dispatch.

I fully support this idea and hope it can proceed. One of the arguments that was stated by the person proposing radio linking (I won’t bother naming the RDOS official) versus dedicated Telus lines was that phone lines were too vulnerable.

This is not a valid excuse as other Emergency Services (RCMP, EHS) use Telus lines all over the province for this very purpose.

With what occurred this winter on Mount Kobau, high level repeater linking sites are no longer trustworthy.

Other mountain tops such as Baldy and Beaconsfield were also hit hard this winter and it won’t be the last incident.

A low level phone line can be hit and knocked out but accessibility isn’t a problem and repairs can be made swiftly. I believe that during the Mount Kobau incident it took over five days just to reach the site?

The RDOS now plans to add even one more mountain (Okanagan Mountain for example) to the mix and this is a recipe for even more failures in my opinion.

For the past 15 months, the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) has utilized internet lines to move the signal from Kelowna to the Penticton area and then out on the old radio system.

This system (sometimes called R.O.I.P. or V.O.I.P.) was touted as being state of the art when the idea was pitched back in July of 2011. However, nothing could be further from the truth and there have been quite a few failures, mostly unreported to the public.

Had proper Telus lines been used initially, rather than a third party low cost internet provider, they surely wouldn’t have been criticized in the Planetworks report that strongly suggested to replace these as soon as possible.

Dedicated Telus or even internet lines won’t presently work for the entire RDOS – the technology just doesn’t exist yet. However, for Osoyoos and some of the other larger towns, there is no reason that Telus can’t be used.

The costs would be similar to radio linking and leasing lines can be better in the long run, as radio links will fail and equipment can soon become outdated.

In the old days, all long distance calls were made across this country using mountain top microwave sites. It was quite a feat to accomplish this, however, most calls now utilize low level fibre optic lines and many of the mountain top sites have either been closed down or kept only for backup.

Another huge benefit to a dedicated line is that Osoyoos would have their own link to dispatch.

The “zoned approach plan” that is proposed means that your fire department will have to share with several others on one link and that they will have to vacate the channel once on scene and utilize a tactical channel.

When that occurs, transmissions would no longer be recorded and these recordings can be a life saver in future court cases and also helpful for training purposes.

A separate recorder would have to be purchased by each fire department at their expense. I think that it’s time to tell the RDOS where the “best fishing” is and to go it alone.

What is proposed will be nothing short of a downgrade.

I have 33 years of background radio experience, co-own and maintain two low-level repeater systems and was one of your fire dispatchers for 20 years, so I think I know a little bit of what I’m talking about.

Allan C.L. Stark

Penticton, B.C.