JOFOC_Midland_09232015.pdf

FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

FAIR OPPORTUNITY EXCEPTION FOR

RESTRICTING COMPETITION TO ONLY ONE SOURCE

Orders placed under FAR Part 16 under a Multiple Award Contracts are exempt from FAR Part 6 and the policies in subpart 15.3 do not apply to the ordering process. However, an ordering activity must justify its action when restricting consideration to one schedule contractor or to an item peculiar to one manufacture in accordance with FAR 16.505. The contracting officer must provide each awardee a fair opportunity to be considered for each order exceeding $3,000 issued under multiple delivery-order contracts or multiple task-order contracts. Any vendor with a possible “or equals” may respond to this solicitation but will be treated as “Informational” only. Accordingly, the following Fair Opportunity

Exception is prepared in accordance with FAR 16.505(b) (2):

1. Identification of Agency and the Contracting Activity:

The Contracting Activity is the United States Forest Service, Chief Information Office (CIO) and the

Washington Office Acquisition Management Information Technology (WO-AQM IT) Support

Branch, Southern Region, Regional Office, 1720 Peachtree Road NW, Atlanta, GA 30309.

2. Nature and/or Description of Action Being Approved:

This action will be awarded as a Task Order under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

Tactical Communications (TacCOM), Multiple-Award Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity

(IDIQ), HSSS01-12-D-0026 Multiple award IDHQ to Midland Radio Corporation, Kansas City, Missouri

3. Description of Supplies or Services Required to Meet Agency’s Need Including the Estimated

Value:

This procurement action is for forty five (55) P25 VHF local/remote base stations to replace base stations that are currently NON-P25. P25 is the digital radio communication standard for all Federal agencies that have been mandated to comply with since 2004. The estimated cost for this action with equipment cost, overrun and delivery is $299,315.00.

The Desktop Base Stations are to replace older/failing Midland Titan NON P25 radios now in use.

These would have a built in tone remote board to use with tone remotes in place of existing Midland

Titan radios on 12v power supplies or the Base Tech II Radios with tone remote adapters in use now in various places. These would conform to APCO P25 standards that must be met for all new radio equipment purchase for use on National Forests, and provide technical support to the Forest Service technicians and installation crews. The following details the supply items and associated prices.

Item Total

Quantity

Total

VHF 146-174 MHz 110 Watt P-25

Transceiver Midland 91-1110B

35 233,975.00

VHF 136-174 MHz 5-90 Watt P-25

Transceiver Midland SDT-1090G1

20 $65,340.00

Total 299,315.00

Shipping 0

W/shipping + cost override Total $299,315.00

4. Identification of the exception to fair opportunity (one of the circumstances in 16.505 (b)(2)) and the supporting rationale, including a demonstration that the proposed contractor's unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the exception cited.

In accordance with 16.505(b)(2), this justification supports that only one awardee is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because of the supplies or services ordered are unique or highly specialized. There are already Midland STD tabletop base stations in use in the forest and this would create a much safer and quicker repair time as all bases would be the same.

Over the years through trial, error, and testing this particular Forest has fine-tuned its radio system confidentiality, integrity and availability by utilizing the requested Brand-name manufactures critical features only available through them. There are no other known radios that will meet these critical needs. For further information, contact the undersigned CO below for U.S. Forest Service Radio

System(s) Background and Premise document.

This JOFOC is specific to one Brand Name manufacturer and is invoked based on the following critical requirements:

[_ ] This Forests current radio communication system is composed of Relm, Midland or Codan

Radios and Parts. Base stations are all Midland.

[X ] This Forests current radio base station system is composed of Midland Radios and Parts

[ _ ] This Forests current radio communication system is dependent on other local, state, and federal agencies radio systems through large business(s) below:

[ _ ] Motorola [ _ ] Harris [ _ ] Kenwood [ _ ] Other:__________________

Critical Requirements:

[ _ ] Cloning - Must be clonable to existing portables on the forest

[ _ ] Control Dial - Must have a channel knob for ease of operation

[ _ ] AMBE +2 Vocoder for improved digital voice

[ _ ] Must turn on/off with accessory power from the vehicle and retains memory

[ _ ] Must be environmentally protected to IP-54 protection against dust, water and blowing rain

[ _ ] Environmentally protected to IP-67 standards (Immersion in 1 meter of water for a minimum of

30 minutes.), intrinsically safe, and batteries are operational in hazardous atmospheres

[ _ ] Must be field programmable

[ _ ] Internal speaker (Limited or no space in newer vehicles for an external speaker)

[ _ ] Keypad Interface

[ _ ] Must transmit 6 watts or greater for maximum range

[ _ ] Must be able to operate the radio with standard PPE (i.e. gloves)

[ _ ] Trunking – compatible with current system and type approved by the Forest

[ _ ] Dual Band backward compatible

[ _ ] Technical and user Training and Support based on Regional or Forest specific radio communication system

[ _ ] Accessory compatibility with current stock

[ _ ] Cell Phone Charging Adapter

[ _ ] Dual Band

[ _ ] SmartNet/SmartZone

[ _ ] Cross communication technology

[ _ ] FSM 5300 Chapter 5380 Law Enforcement Equipment para 5385.6 requires that all field going officers possess the same type standard radio.

[ _ ] Mixed Hybrid of compatible old/new radio equipment being phased out at end-of-lifecycle

[ _ ] OEM Proprietary Replacement\Spare Parts or Equipment – Sole Manufacturer no substitute

[ X ] Configuration compatibility with current radio system (cables, cards, equipment, parts)

[ _ ] Replacement for unrepair able part or equipment within the existing radio system

[ _ ] Other: _____________________________________________________________________

5. A determination by the contracting officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable.

The Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act (FASA) has established a general preference for multiple awards. Use of the TacCOM IDIQs should serve to reduce the overhead associated with multiple acquisitions by offering competitive pricing among multiple awardees. In addition, the

DHS TacCOM contract is available to multiple agencies providing the Government with buying leverage and encourages vendors to offer the best possible prices due to economies of scale. This factor is especially effective for obtaining lower volume prices. Further, DHS negotiated competitive pricing prior to award of the IDIQs and is based on discounts below GSA and

Commercial pricing based on a pre-negotiated percentage. The Government performed its due diligence in acquiring market research that supported that this methodology for acquiring goods would yield fair and reasonable pricing.

6. A Description of Market Research Conducted Among Schedule Holders and the Results or a

Statement of the Reason Market Research Was Not Conducted:

In reviewing the technical requirements and compatibility constraints of this project, the primary hurdles that limit these efforts to other than full and open competition are derived from the technology solely possessed by Midland Radio Corporation as the OEM. The market research for this requirement is based on recent RFQ’s issued (August 2014) on Electronic Posting systems

U.S. Forest Service Radio System(s) Background and Premise

The Forest Service and partnering public safety personnel require secure, dependable communications at all times. That’s why the Forest Service’s mission critical systems are designed from the ground up to deliver an extraordinary level of resilience and availability. For the end users, continuity of operations boils down to a simple statement: whenever I need my radio it works. Continuity of operations is dependent on system availability as well as maintaining the confidentiality and integrity of the network.

Confidentiality, integrity and availability all work together to provide a highly resilient and always available solution.

There are many considerations for maximizing radio communication availability to Forest Service personnel and various public safety partners. Availability measures the percentage of time when calls are successfully completed and is thee critical requirement of each Forest. Several parameters must be taken to maximize availability:

Interface – The system should be able to connect the call immediately even during events that involve large numbers of personnel. The personnel can quickly utilize the common user interface.

Coverage – The end-user will be able to access the system where needed. Other manufactures radios do not operate as well within the same coverage area as the Brand-name radio being requested as stated in

“Reliability” below.

Reliability – Needs to be built-in to deliver critical voice communications. The many components involved in making the call, from the user’s radio to the repeater site, transport, infrastructure, and receiving radio are designed as an integrated part of the system design. Not all manufactures radios are able to communicate reliably with other manufactures radios. Compatibility issues exist between the various manufactures and are based on manufactures specific standards, design, engineering, components, and manufacturing methods. Standing in the same coverage spot side-by-side with another manufactures radio doesn’t yield the same positive results and is a result of these product differences.

Redundancy – Redundancy configurations should be available for key hardware and software elements in the system. An example of this is cloning of radio banks between radios and immediate availability of available bench stock or parts.

Recoverability – Failure scenarios must be understood and recovery processes put in place to be quickly executed without impacting the user such as cloning mentioned above or Spares listed below. When a radio fails to work, it is critical that it can be recovered and placed back into service.

Spares - Supporting accessories and parts on a radio fail over time and at a quicker rate than the radio itself. Having an immediately available bench stock of spares that are compatible within the existing radio systems is a critical requirement. Bench stock is not readily available for other manufactures radios on this particular Forest, other than the Brand name radio requested in this JOFOC, and would thus not allow for a quickly executed recovery as stated above.

The current radio backbone for the entire Forest Service is Daniels Electronics system. There are 9 distinct and different Regions within the Forest Service which operate on various handheld, mobile and dash mounted radio communications systems within the Daniels Radio communication backbone infrastructure. Other areas of consideration are Microwave radios systems by Harris radios and console systems from Moducom which are an integral part of this radio back-bone system. Each region has specific manufacture brand name needs based on critical manufacturer specifications and specific Forest system needs. The other consideration besides Regional differences is the service area wide maintenance standard that must be complied with.

A system as defined by Merriam-Webster’s is:

“1) a regularly interacting or interdependent group of items forming a unified whole. d. a group of devices or artificial objects or an organization forming a network especially for distributing something or serving a common purpose (a telephone system, a heating system, a highway system, a computer system)”.

A radio communication system sends signals by radio. Types of radio communication systems deployed depend on technology, standards, regulations, radio spectrum allocation, user requirements, service positioning, and investment.

The radio equipment involved in communication systems includes a transmitter and a receiver, each having an antenna and appropriate terminal equipment such as a microphone at the transmitter and a loudspeaker at the receiver in the case of a voice-communication system.

Each Forest has a regularly interacting and interdependent group of Radio items forming a unified whole or system. The parts to these systems are brand name specific antennas, batteries, chargers, mounting brackets, cables, mobile radios, portable radios, and dash mounted radios. These parts are all interchangeable within the system. For example: the batteries are all interchangeable with the specific brand name manufacture portable radios; that same battery is also compatible with specific brand name manufacture charging station; the portable radio antennas are also interchangeable with all of the same brand name manufacture portable radios. No other manufactures batteries, charging stations, cables, belt clips, mounting brackets, antennas, are compatible with that specific brand name manufactures radios (with the exception of a few aftermarket parts).

The bench stock for a given Forest only supports that specific brand name radio equipment used on that

Forest. Typically, radios are ordered to replace existing non-serviceable radio equipment of like manufacture within a Forest. The supporting equipment like batteries, antennas, and charging stations are placed back into bench stock or placed on the new replacement radio when acquired. For Radio the radio system backbone this would include spare modules, cards, transmitters, receivers, and the like.

These back-bones parts and equipment are highly specialized, patented, and proprietary to a specific manufacturer and there are no “or equals”.

Another significant consideration is other local and state agencies which operate on their own radio backbone systems which are different from the Forest Service Daniels back-bone. They support specific radio manufactures as a part of their independent system. The Forest Service has partnered with these agencies and thus requires brand name specific radios that aren’t typically purchased by the Forest

Service such as Motorola, Kenwood, and Harris in order to utilize the partnering agencies radio systems.

Typically this is needed to communicate on an ongoing basis in a localized geographical area that the

Forest Service doesn’t cover or support but radio communication is required.