July 14, 2000

This is State Radio Project - Status Report #3. Anyone desiring copies of previous reports, please let me know and I will send them right out.

Bill Smith and I drove to Casper on June 26th and met with Kelly Corean and Les Penning of Powder River Energy, one of several REA members of a nine member co-op. The REA co-op is working toward building a trunked radio system throughout the state and would like to share resources with the state wherever possible. They are members of the National Rural Telecommunications Corporation (NRTC) have a franchise for a 40 channel block of 220 MHZ frequencies which are exclusive within the State of Wyoming. While 220 MHZ might provide better coverage in rural areas, we have some concerns about public safety applications, so there is much more to be explored and learned. In the meantime, we've agreed to share coordinates of our respective radio sites, to see if there might be some opportunity for sharing facilities, and possibly sharing microwave channels for systems control, even though each of us might be building unique systems. Bill and I felt there are some real possibilities here, so we will be continuing dialog with the REA folks.

After the presentation on Software Defined Radio (June 6, 2000), Motorola has been preparing a "Statement of Work" which would outline what they would provide the state in the way of a basic vision and cost estimate for the design, procurement, implementation, and maintenance of a statewide RF trunking communications system. A draft of the SOW was presented at yesterday's SALECS meeting, here in Cheyenne.

In the meantime, Frank Galeotos, Joe Ahern, and I determined that it would be beneficial to have as small a representative group as possible to work with Motorola in the Statement of Work Kickoff Meeting, whose purpose is to review the Statement of Work so Motorola can revise it into a basis for what is expected as the result of the vision and cost estimate document. With that in mind, the "core" group will consist of myself, as project coordinator; John Greene, Bill Smith, and Chuck Kakalecik from DOT Communications; Kelly Hamilton, chairman of SALECS; Dan Perko, President of WYAPCO; Alan Weakly, County Commissioners Association, and representing those political entities for whom county commissioners provide funding; Larry Majerus, Wyoming Association of Municipalities, and representing those political entities for whom municipalities provide funding.

The Kickoff Meeting is planned for Thursday afternoon, July 27, from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. Those of us in this session will do our level best to include the perceived needs of all potential users of the Statewide Public Safety Radio System. If any of you receiving this status report feel that you have a particular request that needs to be considered, please e-mail me with your list and I'll see that it gets included. I wish to emphasize that this kickoff meeting is to define the scope of work that is expected of Motorola, as well as define what Motorola expects from the radio project participants.

Concurrent with Motorola's finalization of the Statement of Work and preparation of the legalese for entering into a contract for the system vision and cost estimate, we will be having a presentation of the RSM McGladrey consultant's report. That will occur during the week of August 7th - specific date and time to be determined.

As soon after the consultant's report as possible, we will be going to the Governor to present our status at the moment and our plan to proceed. Funding for the Motorola Statement of Work will be identified and we should be on our way. There will be many questions of all of you in the radio community and cooperation in all aspects will be key to moving this forward in a timely manner.

Along those lines, Bill Smith and I are going to attend a Cooperative Communications Network of Colorado (CCNC) meeting at the Law Enforcement Training Facility in Douglas County, CO, next Wednesday, where we will pick up some good pointers on how they have been so successful in implementing their statewide trunked radio system.

Suggested reading: The May, 2000, issue of "The Police Chief", page 49, has an excellent article by Mike Borrego, Telecommunications Director for the State of Colorado. If we can achieve the same degree of cooperation and information sharing that Colorado has, we're sure to be successful.

Respectfully submitted,

Kent Drummond

Project Coordinator

307-777-3627