Leavenworth_Deadspots_Survey.pdf

Public Safety - Emergency Responder Radio System P25 Survey

Leavenworth VA Medical Center 4101 S 4th St, Leavenworth, KS 66048

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DOCUMENT Rev1.0

INDEX

Test Equipment 11

Annual Inspection 8

Requirements Overview 6

Revision Record 3

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Desired Control Channel 12

Radio Tower Sites 13

Spectrum Analyzer Measurements 14

Grid Results 15

Grid Map – Building 160 16

Building Detail 9

Conclusion 29

Grid Map – Building 122 18

Grid Map – Main Building 22

REVISION RECORD

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Issue Date Section(s) affected Description of change / Change request / Reference/Remarks

1.0 All Original Document

This report is intended to document the compliance with section 510 “Emergency Responder Radio Coverage” of International Fire Code (IFC) 2012. The computations, analysis, resulting report and conclusions were based on a practical interpretation and application of the code. A good faith effort was made to sample coverage in a comprehensive and uniform manner.

The attached analysis and report is correct to the best of our knowledge, and all calculations, assumptions and conclusions are based on generally acceptable engineering practices:

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3| CERTIFICATION

GENERAL INFO & PROJECT SUMMARY

International Fire Code 2012, NFPA 2009-2019 and future editions include the “In-Building Public Safety Radio Enhancement System” requirement.

Building and fire code requires that all new construction and/or renovations to existing building structures incorporate the enhancement for Emergency Two-way Radio Frequencies.

4.1 Minimum Signal Strength

General Building Areas such as common hallways, atriums, cafeteria, office spaces Signal strength : -95dBm > 90% of floor area radio coverage

Critical Areas such as fire control centers, fire pump rooms, exit stairs, exit passageways, elevator lobbies, sprinkler sectional valve locations, and other areas deemed critical by the AHJ, shall be provided with 99% floor area radio coverage Signal strength: -95dBm > 99% of floor area radio coverage

4.2 Power Source

The ERRS should have two independent sources of power.

Primary source shall be supplied from a dedicated branch circuit and comply with NFPA 72 Secondary source shall consist of at least 12 hour battery backup contained within a NEMA 4 rated enclosure.

4.3 Bi-Directional Amplifier (BDA)

All repeater, transmitter, receiver, signal booster components, optical-to-RF, and RF-to-Optical converters, external filters and battery components shall be contained in a NEMA4 or NEMA4X type enclosures. Such transmitters should be Class A or B to avoid any interference. The BDA should be registered in the FCC website.

GENERAL INFO & PROJECT SUMMARY

4| REQUIREMENTS OVERVIEW

4.4 Monitoring

A dedicated annunciator panel shall be provided within the fire command center to annunciate the status of all RF-emitting devices and active system components. This device shall provide visual and labeled indications of the following for each system component and RF emitting device:

1. Normal AC power

2. Loss of normal AC power

3. Battery charger failure

4. Low-battery capacity (<70%)

5. Donor antenna malfunction

6. Active RF-emitting device malfunction

7. Active system component malfunction

4.5 Testing

A grid is overlaid onto a floor area to provide 20 grid cells. Grid cells are provided with definite minimum and maximum dimensions. For most buildings, using a minimum grid dimension of 20ft and maximum grid of 80ft will suffice to encompass the entire floor area. Where a floor exceeds 128,000sqft, which is the area that can be covered by the maximum grid dimension of 80ft, it is recommended that the floor be subdivided into sectors each having an area less than or equal to 128,000sqft, and each sector can be tested individually with 20 grid cells in each sector. Signal strength measurements should be taken at the center of each grid.

4.6 Annual Tests

The AHJ should be notified in advance and should direct annual test procedures and requirements.

Note: typically, annual tests require several items to be checked, RF-emitting devices and system components should be tested to ensure that the gain is the same as it was at initial installation and acceptance. Backup batteries and power supplies should be tested under load for 1 hour to verify that they will operate properly during a power outage.

TFMComm provides annual testing and certification services.

GENERAL INFO & PROJECT SUMMARY

4| REQUIREMENTS OVERVIEW

Each of the components listed in section 4.0 should be visually inspected and tested to verify performance. Specifically, the following:

• Bi-directional amplifiers and associated filters

• Visual inspection for damage or tampering

• Inspection of all alarm history for oscillation, high temp, and fan outage events

• Inspection of operational settings for uplink/downlink gain & output power to ensure they matched original setting from the year prior

• Measurement of uplink/downlink gain and frequency response to ensure operation according to specifications

• DAS service antennas

• Visual inspection for damage or tampering

• Measurement of control channel power at each antenna location to ensure comparable function and performance to measurements from the year prior.

• Battery backup

• Inspect battery connections

• Test battery charger

• Test battery backup under load for at least 1 hour

• Building construction or improvements

• Visual inspection of the entire building to identify any new construction or tenant improvements that might adversely affect the RES performance

All measurements should be performed with a Handheld Radio Unit and/or with a certified and calibrated spectrum analyzer. The channel used for measurements should be 851.8500MHz.

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5| ANNUAL INSPECTION DETAILS

GENERAL INFO & PROJECT SUMMARY

6.1 FACILITY SHELL

The facility shell is 100% complete and enclosed. All doors and windows were installed at the time of the survey. Facility consist of mostly brick shell, non-insulated windows and typical drywall and concrete walls. Heavier walls are found on the lower levels where room density is higher.

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6| GENERAL BUILDING INFORMATION

BUILDING DETAIL

6.2 FACILITY CORE

Facility consist of brick walls on the outside, concrete floor, non-insulated windows, metal/wood doors, and a combination of drywall and brick walls.

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6| GENERAL BUILDING INFORMATION

BUILDING DETAIL

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TEST EQUIPMENT

The following equipment was utilized in order to analyze the current signal at the facility. A Spectrum analyzer was utilized to confirm that the control channel was active and the correct frequency was programmed into test radio.

A Tait 850mhz test handheld radio was utilized to decode and measure the receiving control channel frequency and signal strength.

• JDSU JD745 Spectrum Analyzer (view, measure, confirm any type of RF signal)

• Tait TP9400 Handheld Portable Radio

JDSU JD745

7| TEST EQUIPMENT

Tait TP9400

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8| CONTROL CHANNEL

CONTROL CHANNEL

FCC database shows that the control channels utilized for the Leavenworth County, Kansas are shown below.

The control channel 851.8500MHz was confirmed as the primary and active control channel transmitter at the time of this survey using a spectrum analyzer. Spectrum analyzer measurements picture shown in further sections.

9.1 Nearby Sites

There is one tower that provides Public Safety Radio Frequencies.

WQQD333 – control channel 851.8500 MHz (#1 strongest signal since its closest to the VA, however this site is 4 miles away)

There is one pole transmitter (#6) but it is negligible since its at a very low altitude and surrounded by buildings and also it does not transmit the frequencies such as the ones used by the VA.

RADIO TOWER SITES

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9| INCOMING SIGNAL

Customer facility

Nearest radio sites

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SPECTRUM ANALYZER

Below is a picture taken outside the VA Hospital.

Minimum hold corresponds to the worse case scenario for received signal strength.

Marker 3 is the desired frequency, as noted on the measurement the worse received signal strength at north west street level is -112dBm. Signal measured at roof of A building was in the range of -65dBm to -75dBm.

Signal level received at the roof Is healthy and strong enough to feed an In-Building Distributed Antenna System

10| SPECTRUM ANALYZER SCREENSHOTS

RESULTS

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11| WALK TEST RESULTS

Walk test results consists of drawing a grid over each floor plan and test/measure within each grid.

The areas tested are recorded and summary of results are shown below (green passes and red requires signal enhancement):

B160

B122

Basement

A B C

6 6

5 5 5

4 4 4

3 3 3

2 2 2

1 1 1

B B B

Tunnel

GRID MAP

160 - LEVEL 1

160 - LEVEL 2

122 - BASEMENT

122 - LEVEL 1

122 - LEVEL 2

122 - LEVEL 3

MAIN BASEMENT

MAIN LEVEL 1

MAIN LEVEL 2

MAIN LEVEL 3

MAIN LEVEL 4

MAIN LEVEL 5

MAIN LEVEL 6

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CONCLUSION

12.1 Overall Facility Summary : FAIL

Building does not meet the minimum requirements for two way radio communication for the Lawrence Fire Department or any other emergency agency such as Police and EMS.

12.2 Recommendations

In order to achieve reliable radio communications within the facility, it is required that a two way radio enhancement system be installed at the customer facility. There is sufficient received signal at the upper level to feed an amplification system to address this issue.

1. Main Building

• A building levels 1-6 does not require any amplification.

• however the tunnel, basement A and between B160 does require amplification

• B building requires amplification on levels B through level 2

• C building requires amplification on levels B through level 4

2. Building 160 VA Domiciliary

• Both floors require amplification

3. Building 122

• Lowest 3 floors require amplification

12| RECOMMENDATIONS