Posted on: Wednesday, December 4, 2002

Microwave glitches hit police radios

By Scott Ishikawa
Advertiser Staff Writer

Police switched from digital channels on their communications system to other radio frequencies after glitches occurred Sunday and Monday.

Honolulu police spokeswoman Michelle Yu said beat patrol officers switched from digital frequencies to "voice over IP" on the police radio system from about 3 to 3:30 p.m. Sunday and from 10:50 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Monday, while technicians worked on the problem.

Yu said the latest glitches involved some sort of radio interference with the city's microwave link that connects with the police digital radio system.

"The technicians had to make some adjustments to reduce the interference problem," Yu said.

Police officials said the latest glitches did not affect officer safety or response time to emergencies. The city's digital radio system and subsequent improvements cost $42 million and have had many problems.

Meanwhile, a scheduled radio channel switch yesterday for department patrol officers from digital to analog on the HPD communications system has been postponed until Dec. 9 while technicians continue to monitor the radio system, Yu said.