Friday fragments - comms news from around the web for 11 April 2014

A round-up of the week's critical communications and public safety radio news for Friday, 11 April 2014.

Triple-0 black spots blamed in NSW. The Sydney Morning Herald reports claims that poor police radio reception was responsible for the long delay in officers arriving at a home in West Wyalong, where a man was allegedly stabbed by his wife. The Police Association NSW has in the past criticised the radio network for having black spots and dropout zones.

Modernising 911. An article on the IEEE Spectrum site gives a good overview of the history of the emergency number service and efforts to modernise it for the 21st century - including the ability to use text messages, and even to send medical history data to first responders.

Testing LTE for UK first responders. Project Hydra, a joint effort between Avanti Communications, BAPCO and data specialist Quortus, is testing a portable LTE system that can be deployed where and when necessary to help locate victims from the mobile phone signals. The system remains separate from the public networks to avoid the obvious problems of overloading and security.

Alaskan amateurs exercise their skills. A disaster response exercise was held in the city of Valdez in Alaska in late March. The scenario saw all standard phone and internet communications go down, with the local amateur radio club stepping in to provide comms in conjunction with civil and military authorities. Also utilised was the transportable Alaska Land Mobile Radio (ALMR) system, which provides Alaskan public safety first responders with interoperable communications.

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