New wireless system improves agencies’ communications

Thursday, June 13, 2002 | 9:13 a.m.

A wireless message system, part of a new $18 million project to link government agencies, debuted today at the National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Operations Office.

The two-way radio network scattered on 10 mountaintop sites covers the Nevada Test Site and the metropolitan Las Vegas area, replacing a one-way paging system.

It is expected to free up bandwidth frequencies in the valley.

The first system of its kind in Nevada is a partnership with the National Nuclear Security Administration, a branch of the Energy Department, Motorola, Inc. and WebLink Wireless, said Kathleen Carlson, NNSA manager.

The Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, the Nevada Highway Patrol and Nellis Air Force Base can communicate on the wireless system, she said.

"The primary advantages of the system are faster access, better channel efficiency, user privacy and flexible expansion," Carlson said.

Congress mandated reducing the bandwidth of federal wireless radio channels more than a year ago. It took a year to modernize the communication system in Nevada.

A new messaging computer, 14 transmitters and receiver sites and an antenna system working in communication with a satellite downlink were installed.

The resulting network not only improves local coverage for the agencies, but offers nationwide, state-of-the-art advanced messaging services.

In addition, people can communicate no matter where they are on the Test Site, once a proving ground for U.S. nuclear weapons, Kevin Rohrer, a NNSA spokesman, said.

Motorola's aim was to design a communications system that would provide secure and flexible service at the Test Site for years to come, said Jim Tucker, a vice president of Motorola's federal government markets division.

"Obviously, no one at that time knew how the Sept. 11 tragedy would alter the importance of mission-critical and inter-operational communications," Tucker said.

The design allows many users to share a small number of communications paths.