Communication Towers Palm Beach Co Fl

OpenSky communication breakdown causes problem during police chase

A Palm Beach Gardens police officer was on the hunt for a bleeding man accused of repeatedly stabbing his date last week, and his OpenSky radio didn't work.

The county's helicopter was overhead at Northlake Boulevard and Florida's Turnpike. The officer was talking to the county's dispatcher.

"Gardens, we can't read you," the dispatcher said. "You're coming in very statically and there's an echo."

Several times, the officer's voice was stuck on repeat - "duh, duh, duh, duh" - like a skipping record.

"I can see you," the chopper pilot said, "but unfortunately I can't understand you."

And later: "I don't know if we got a bad patch or what but you all are kind of stuttering. That's what it seems like, all garbled and stuttering when you're transmitting."

The issue of communications between law enforcement agencies, spurred by 9/11, drove the move by cities in Palm Beach County to set up the OpenSky network. While OpenSky is operating in Palm Beach Gardens, Palm Beach, Jupiter and Juno Beach, the rest of the county uses Motorola.

To allow communications with the county, OpenSky relies on a computer gateway, but gateway connections are prone to problems as conversations overlap. Issues with the OpenSky gateway are among the technical issues cited by West Palm Beach computer systems manager Lee Menke in reports uncovered by The Palm Beach Post.

The Gardens officer abandoned his portable radio for his car radio, but that didn't work much better. When asked about the problem, he told county dispatch: "It's probably the radio. I'm having problems transmitting with my own dispatch at this location."

Ernie Carr, a police colonel who oversees the city's OpenSky radio system, said the transmissions to Gardens dispatch were for the most part fine, with only two or three calls repeated.

The problem, he said, stems from interference from a nearby Nextel cellphone tower. Nextel, however, cannot commit to a date to address the issue, Carr said.

But he conceded that the Nextel fix may not eliminate the problem zone near Northlake Boulevard and Florida's Turnpike.

To improve coverage, Carr said, Palm Beach Gardens will install an $85,000 cell tower in that area.

West Palm Beach Mayor Jeri Muoio, who is increasingly skeptical of OpenSky, said, "That's always the solution - add another tower."

But on that Sunday night at the Gables Montecito apartment complex, before the suspect was captured, the only solutions were time-­consuming and uncertain.

Mobile Marketing Company | Mobile Marketing Tips | Mobile ...

1. Mobile Email – Invite customers to join your email list by adding sign-up links to your website or texting in their email addresses.

2. Mobile Internet – It is essential to make your website user friendly on mobile devices. Then, increase mobile visitors by including your website’s address or a QR code in all of your advertising.

3. Mobile Search – Since most people use mobile search to find a nearby service, add mobile-friendly maps and directions on your website. Encourage customers to check in on a social media service when they visit your location to allow their friends to find them.

4. Text Messages – Attract customers by asking them to opt-in to your text messaging list. Secure a short phone number and opt-in keyword, then use the service to send out timely text messages.

5. Multimedia Messages – Similar to text messaging but with the addition of photos and sound, use the same text messaging techniques to build your list but send out messages with greater multimedia content.

6. Mobile Advertising – Place ads on various outside mobile sites and include your ads on all of your mobile communications, such as emails and text messages.

Zoning news

Standard directory of advertising agencies

Visual communication, images with messages

Television & cable factbook

Hurricane Andrew, ethnicity, gender, and the sociology of disasters