Radio repeater to aid fire districts

Fivemile Butte is already studded with communication towers. photo by Jim Fisher A long-awaited new radio repeater is expected to improve operations for three local fire districts and increase safety for firefighters.

The repeater will be installed on Fivemile Butte southwest of Black Butte Ranch, according to Tay Robertson, chief of the Sisters-Camp Sherman Rural Fire Protection District (RFPD). Plans are to have the new repeater working before major winter snows.

"We have the equipment on hand and FCC approval to proceed, so it should be operational very soon," Robertson said. Purchase of the repeater and additional radio equipment was financed by a federal Homeland Security grant requested by Robertson earlier this year on behalf of the Sisters-Camp Sherman, Black Butte Ranch, and Cloverdale fire districts.

"The original grant request was for $558,000 for a complete new radio system that would have given us all cross-band radios to communicate effectively among all local emergency service agencies," Robertson explained. "However, the approved grant was for $97,350. That reduced amount allowed us to purchase and soon install the repeater, plus purchase four mobile units for our command vehicles and 24 radios for individual firefighters. We also have the hardware and software for the system."

The repeater will replace the current one located on Henkle Butte northeast of Sisters. That one will be turned off, but will remain in place as a backup repeater. The new Fivemile Butte location is on a cinder cone on land owned by Ponderosa Land and Cattle Co.

A number of other repeaters and communication sites already are located there behind a gated road including one for Black Butte Ranch Fire District, another used by Deschutes County Sheriff's Office and cell phone towers.

The new repeater will benefit all three districts in their radio communications. The districts also will share the new radios. A major benefit for the Sisters-Camp Sherman Fire District will be improved communications in the Camp Sherman area.

"With our current repeater on Henkle Butte, much of the Metolius Basin is in the shadow of Black Butte. Radio communications to that area are not dependable, based on weather and specific location of the user," Robertson explained.

Robertson added that the new repeater might also improve communications for emergency medical vehicles dispatched west of the Cascades.

"I was considering acquiring a satellite phone for the safety of our units driving over the Cascades on medical assistance runs, but now I will wait to see what the new repeater will do for us there," he said.

Robertson said that he will continue to seek ways to fund the acquisition of more radio units.

"My goal is to have every firefighter who is placed in a hazard zone to be equipped with a radio," he said.

The Sisters-Camp Sherman Fire District provides fire protection to a 250-square- mile area with a yearlong population of about 4,000. That population increases to from 10,000 to 20,000 during the summer. The ambulance service district covers from halfway to Bend and Redmond to the east and halfway to Detroit and the McKenzie River area to the west.