(A) Title. The title of this section of the general provision shall be: “Radio Communications Ordinance”.
(1) The purpose of this section is to provide minimum standards to insure a reasonable degree of reliable emergency services communications from within certain buildings and structures located within the county between public safety users and emergency communication centers.
(2) It is the responsibility of the County Communications Center to get the signal to and from the building site.
(3) At the time of application for the (ILP) improvement location permit, the building owner or designated tenant shall submit the required site plans and receive approval from the County Sheriff’s Office or their designated appointee. Failure to comply with the radio communications requirements shall be grounds for APC to deny the ILP application. Furthermore, the approved bi-directional amplifiers (BDA) must be installed to the satisfaction of the County Sheriff’s Office or designated appointee prior to the County Area Plan Inspectors approving any type of certificate of occupancy. If the owner or tenant finds an issue with the above requirements, a written appeal may be taken in the manner set forth in the county’s Code of Ordinances.
(C) Definitions. For the purpose of this section, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
ANTENNA. Device designed to convert electrical signals from a cable to electro-magnetic radiation in the air.
BATTERY. An electrochemical storage device consisting of either Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH), Nickel Cadmium (NiCad), or Lead (Pb).
BUILDING. Any structure, enclosed or open, public or private.
BUILDING AMPLIFIER. Any system which is designed to receive a radio signal outside of the building and radiate it throughout the building and conversely, receive a radio signal generated within the building and re-radiate a signal outside of the building.
COUNTY or MUNICIPALITY. County of Boone.
FCC. Federal Communications Center.
PUBLIC SAFETY SERVICES. Those services including, but not limited to police, fire, EMS, and public works departments.
SUFFICIENT STRENGTH. A minimum received radio signal level of 95 dBm measured either at the public safety radio infrastructure site, or received in the field by a public safety radio user.
TALK-OUT. The ability of a public safety radio network infrastructure site to transmit a radio signal of sufficient strength as to be clearly received by a public safety radio user in the field.
TALK-BACK. The ability of a public safety radio user located in the field to transmit a radio signal of sufficient strength as to be clearly received by a public safety radio network infrastructure site.
(1) Except as otherwise provided, no person shall erect, construct, or modify any building or structure or any part thereof, or cause the same to be done which inhibits or degrades adequate radio coverage for public safety services. A certificate of occupancy may not be issued for any building or structure which fails to comply with this requirement.
(2) The frequency range which must be supported shall be 806-870 MHz, or as otherwise established and required in writing by the county as being necessary for public safety purposes.
(3) For the purposes of this section, adequate radio coverage shall include the following:
(a) A minimum signal strength of -95 dBm available in 90% of the area of each floor of the building when transmitted from the closest public safety radio network site (PSRNS).
(b) A minimum signal strength of -95 dBm received at the closest PSRNS when transmitted from 90% of the area of each floor of the building.
(c) A 90% reliability factor.
(E) Amplification system allowed.
(1) Buildings and structures shall be equipped with any of the following, in order to achieve adequate radio coverage.
(a) A radiating cable system;
(b) An internal multiple antenna system with FCC type accepted (CFR Part 47,90.219) bi-directional amplifiers as needed to encompass the frequency range stated above or frequency range subsequently established by the county; or
(c) A system that has been approved by the county as being capable of providing amplification to meet the requirements of this section.
(2) The system shall be capable of operating on an independent battery and/or generator system for a period of at least 12 hours without external power input.
(a) The battery system shall automatically charge in the presence of external power input.
(b) If a battery standby system is used, these batteries shall be replaced, and disposed of properly by the owner, once every 24 months after initial system installation.
(c) Documentation shall be retained and made available for immediate inspection to assure that batteries have been replaced in accordance to this section.
(3) There shall be no connectivity between the amplification system and fire alarm system.
(4) In the event that a signal booster is employed:
(a) It shall be fully encased within a dust and water resistant case with a NEMA 4 rating or better.
(b) It shall have a four-hour safety survivability rating or greater.
(c) It shall be painted red and bear the lettering as follows: Boone County Emergency Communications Center Equipment.
(5) All proposed building amplifier systems must provide the following information to the County Emergency Communications Center:
(a) A building blueprint showing name and address of contractor, name of owner and occupant, location, including street address, point of compass, full height cross section or schematic diagram including structural member information if required for clarity and including ceiling construction and method of protection for non-metallic piping, location of partitions, location of fire walls, occupancy class and use of each area or room, a graphic representation of the scale used on all plans.
(b) Make, type, model, and size of all cable, amplifiers, antennas, batteries, and the like (specification sheets).
(c) Drawings indicating the locations of the amplification equipment and associated antenna systems, cables, antennas, hangers, sleeves, braces, methods of securing cables, which includes a view showing building access to the equipment.
(d) Schematic drawings of the electrical, backup power, antennas system and any other associated equipment relative to the amplification equipment including panel locations and labeling.
(F) Owner responsibility. It shall be the responsibility of the owner of a building or structure which currently holds a certificate of occupancy or allows the building or structure to be used for any purpose other than construction, to be in compliance with this section.
(G) Inadequate radio coverage.
(1) The owner of any building or structure found to have inadequate public safety radio coverage must submit to the County Emergency Communications Center for approval a plan to correct the radio coverage deficiency.
(2) This plan must be submitted within 90 days from the date the radio coverage is found to be inadequate.
(3) The approved plan must be put into place by the owner within 120 days after the plan has been approved by the County Emergency Communications Center.
(H) Existing buildings and structures. Any building or structure existing, under construction, or for which a building permit application is pending, or has been approved as of the effective date of this section, shall not be required to comply with the provisions of this section unless the building has been modified, altered, or repaired and the costs of same exceeds 50% of the assessed value of the existing building and are made within any 12 month period or the usable floor area is expanded or enlarged by more than 50%.
(1) The evaluation process for determining the need for in-building amplification is conducted in a minimum of two phases: pre-construction and acceptance/implementation.
(2) Pre-construction phase.
(a) Before the construction of the new building, basic information can be gathered to begin the process of determining the need, type and actual implementation of augmentation to the radio system. In most cases, the following information must be known to properly design and cost estimate an in-building radio system.
(b) New building information.
1. Type/size of building—single story, multi-level, square footage, number of stories.
2. Orientation of building—above/below ground, line of sight.
3. Construction of the outer and inner walls—plaster, drywall, brick, sheet metal.
4. Proposed equipment locations—equipment rooms, cableways, conduits.
5. Building location—longitude and latitude coordinates.
6. Local building code requirements and special requirements.
7. Building blueprints and drawings.
(3) (a) Existing system information—to be supplied by County Emergency Communications Center.
1. Public safety radio network site location nearest to construction locations.
2. Donor channel frequency—specific digital channel to enhance radio coverage.
3. Grade of service required to meet coverage requirements.
4. Type of subscriber unit.
5. Number of channels and their frequencies.
6. Signal strength of donor site at the building locations.
(b) With the information above, the following steps can establish the potential need for a building amplifier.
(4) Needs determination—signal strength measurements.
(a) At the planned construction site, measure (or have measured) the signal strength of the donor control channel.
(b) If the signal strength of the donor is -95 dBm or less on the outside of the building, the probability of additional in-building coverage is high.
(c) If the signal strength of the donor is greater than -95 dBm, determine the expected signal strength of the donor by subtracting the sum of the interior losses due to walls, doors, and windows from the ambient signal outside the building. (See Table 1)
(d) If a signal strength of -95 dBm or greater is calculated at the inner most point of the building, an in-building system may not be required.
(e) If a signal strength is calculated at -95 dBm or less, an in-building system is warranted.
(f) To determine signal strengths for specific areas and evaluate the impact of the proposed building on existing structures, consult the latest County Emergency Communications District RF Survey Report.
(g) If determined that an in-building amplification system is required for either the proposed site or existing structures impacted by the proposed construction, provide placeholder in budget for cost of communication system based on results of the above.
(J) Acceptance test procedures.
(1) Acceptance testing for an in-building radio amplification system is required, upon completion of installation of the system. It is the owner’s responsibility to have the radio amplifier system functionally tested to ensure adequate two-way coverage provided on each floor of the building is in compliance with requirements as set forth in this section.
(2) A minimally acceptable test plan shall require that each floor of the building be divided into a grid of approximately 20 equal areas. A maximum of two nonadjacent areas will be allowed to fail the test.
(3) In the event that three of the areas fail the test, in order to be more statistically accurate, the floor may be divided into 40 equal areas. In such event, a maximum of four nonadjacent areas will be allowed to fail the test. After the 40 area tests, and if the system continues to fail, the owner shall repair, replace, alter, or upgrade the system to meet the coverage requirements of this section.
(4) Talk-out and talk-back testing from the building site to the County Public Safety Radio Network shall use a three watt portable transceiver with out-speaker/microphone.
(5) A test location approximately in the center of a grid area will be selected for the test, then the radio will be keyed with a voice message used to verify two-way communication to and from the outside of the building.
(6) Once the test location has been selected, use of another test location within the grid area will not be permitted. Each test location will also require the capture of the actual signal strength (measured in units of dBm) at that location.
(7) Signal strength testing instruments are to be recently calibrated (within the past 12 months prior to testing) and of a frequency selective type incorporating an antenna similar to the ones used on the hand-held transceivers.
(8) The gain values of all building amplifiers shall be measured and the results kept on file with the owner so that building amplifier performance measurements can be verified each year during the annual tests.
(9) In the event that the measurement results become lost, the owner will be required to rerun the coverage acceptance test to reestablish the gain values.
(1) Once an in-building radio amplifier system is installed, the building owner shall test all active components of the system including but not limited to amplifier, power supplies, and back-up batteries, a minimum of once every 12 months.
(2) Amplifiers shall be tested to ensure that the gain is the same as it was upon initial installation and acceptance.
(3) Back-up batteries and power supplies shall be tested under load for a period of one hour to verify that they will operate during an actual power outage.
(4) All other radio signal radiating components shall be checked to determine that they are operating within the manufacturer’s specifications for the intended purpose.
(1) In addition to the annual test, the owner shall perform a radio coverage test a minimum of once every five years to ensure that the radio system continues to meet the requirements of the section at the time of original implementation.
(2) The procedure set forth above shall apply to such tests.
(M) Qualifications of testing personnel.
(1) All tests shall be conducted, documented, and witnessed by a person in possession of a current FCC general radiotelephone operator license or a manufacturer-authorized maintenance agent for the County Emergency Communications Center radio system.
(2) All test records shall be retained at the inspected premises by the owner and a copy submitted to the County Emergency Communications Center and the county within 30 days of when the test has been conducted.
(3) In the event the test results fail to comply with the minimum requirements of the County Emergency Communications Center and the county, appropriate repairs shall be made and additional tests conducted until tests meet the minimum requirements.
(1) County Emergency Communications Center and county personnel (or their representative), after providing reasonable notice to the owner or his or her representative, shall have the right to enter onto the property to conduct field verification to be certain that the required minimum level of radio coverage is present.
(2) The cost associated with this activity is the responsibility of the owner.
(3) Repairs or upgrades needed to correct identified amplifier system shortfalls, to bring failed systems into compliance with the technical and functional requirements of this section, are the responsibility of the owner.
(O) Property owner maintenance responsibilities.
(1) Upon verification of coverage testing results as outlined above, the owner shall be responsible for maintenance of the system.
(2) A copy of the owner’s Maintenance Contract shall be provided to the County Emergency Communications Center with the name of contractor, who will supply a 24-hour, seven-day emergency repair response within two hours after notification by either the County Emergency Communications Center and the county or the owner.
(3) The Maintenance Contract shall also contain appropriate information as to the contact personnel with phone numbers.
(4) The owner shall also be responsible for making any repairs, replacement or upgrades to the systems as directed by the County Emergency Communications Center, should the system fail or no longer work in the future.
(1) This section shall not apply to the following buildings provided they do not make use of any metal construction or any underground storage or parking areas.
(2) Any new building which is reviewed and determined by area plan staff or designated appointee to be utilized in a noncommercial capacity and does not necessitate the need for radio communications for the duration of the building regardless of future ownership.
(3) For purposes of this section, parking structures and stairwells are included in the definition of “building” and stair shafts and elevators are included in the definition of “all parts of a building”.
(1) The Fire Chief or his or her authorized designee from that jurisdiction shall render interpretations of this code and make and enforce rules and regulations in order to carry out the application and intent of its provisions.
(2) The Fire Chief or his or her authorized designee in that jurisdiction shall make and enforce rules and supplemental regulations in order to carry out the application and intent of its provisions. The Fire Chief or his or her authorized designee shall require additional safeguards consisting of special systems suitable for the protection of the hazard involved. Therefore, the County Emergency Communications Center requires that public safety radio amplification system shall be installed within certain buildings and structures within the county to provide for emergency communications to and from the Emergency Communications Center.
(R) Scope. This section covers all new construction or building remodels in the county after the effective date.
(Ord. 2010-04, passed 4-5-2010)
