Posted on: Friday, November 22, 2002

Radio glitch not a danger to officers, HPD contends

By Scott Ishikawa
Advertiser Staff Writer

The Honolulu police radio system poses no risk to officers or the public, and a planned Dec. 2 switch from the newer digital channels is to try to fix a background noise problem, an assistant chief said yesterday.

"Had this been an officer safety issue, which it is not, we would have switched over immediately," said Assistant Chief Karl Godsey, head of the Honolulu Police Department's support services bureau. "We want to make sure when we talk we can be heard, and when we ask for help, others can hear. ... This system is never going to be perfect, but we will strive to make it the best we can."

Godsey said the temporary switch to analog frequencies will not affect officer safety or police response to emergencies.

And if the problem is fixed before that, the Dec. 2 switch will not be necessary, he said.

The city fully switched police communications from analog to digital in April to create better reception and more channels, and to thwart eavesdropping by outsiders. But the system has been sporadically plagued by communication disruptions and gaps in radio coverage.

The latest incident was on Nov. 7, when a faulty software upgrade shut down portions of the city's digital communications system for nearly nine hours.

Maj. Kenneth Simmons, commander of HPD's communications division, issued a departmentwide memo on Nov. 15 that patrol officers would switch to analog channels on Dec. 2 "until the digital software becomes acceptable for our operations."

Yesterday, police held a news conference to explain the issues more fully. Godsey said the tentative Dec. 2 switch for patrol officers to analog channels on the radio communications system is necessary while technicians work on the digital side of the city's $42 million radio system.

Technicians said the background noise problem is between patrol officers and police dispatchers.

Godsey said the department decided to temporarily change over the patrol radio communications to analog so "officers didn't have to switch back and forth on channels" during the troubleshooting work on the digital system.

Officers would make the scheduled switch from digital to analog "with the flip of a switch on their radios," he said. "But we are not switching to an old analog system as reported (in The Advertiser). We have digital and analog channels on the same communications system."

The department's specialized units and those conducting covert operations will continue to use digital radio channels, which are considered more difficult to eavesdrop on, Godsey said.

Technicians so far have linked the background noise problem to faulty "digital voice interface unit" cards in the city's main communications system. Godsey said the faulty digital voice cards haven't caused long interruptions or glitches, but have recently affected the quality of police radio transmissions and reception.

"We had some difficulty with the voice cards, something that has been ongoing for several months now," Godsey said. "Putting in these new cards will hopefully deal with the problem.

"If it works fine next week, we won't have to switch. If it doesn't, we'll make the (radio channel) switch until we find a card that works properly."

Consultant Jack Chamberlin, hired by the city to provide technical support for the radio system, believes the faulty digital voice cards are the culprit behind background noise in the radio transmissions, sometimes creating a sound similar to "a waterfall."

"Other times it makes this high-pitched sound, and we can clear the noise for awhile, but then it seems to gradually come back," Chamberlin said.

The digital voice cards could arrive today and be installed next week before the scheduled Dec. 2 radio channel changeover, Godsey said.

Godsey said the Nov. 7 glitch in which three O'ahu police districts had to switch to other radio channels was not linked to the digital voice card problem. That glitch was caused by a software upgrade that was improperly configured for the system; it has been corrected.

Gerald Hamada of the city Department of Design and Construction said technicians are trying to troubleshoot the background noise problem.

"We're going to try the replacement digital voice cards first, and see if that fixes the problem," Hamada said. "If not, we'll have to take a look at the rest of the system."

Godsey said replacing previous digital voice cards and other software has caused glitches, and in hindsight, perhaps the department should have earlier switched patrol officers to another radio channel during the technical work.

"We would like to take something right out of the box and have it work ... but there are going to be glitches, just like computers," Godsey said. "This is one of the things we got to do: tune it up and tune it up frequently."

Reach Scott Ishikawa at sishikawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 535-8110.