The problem with the county digital paging system for first responders prompted a meeting this week with the companies responsible for the system.

Hamilton County Supervisor Rick Young expressed frustration at the supervisors’ meeting last week, focusing on what appeared to be a slow response from the service providers.

A meeting held this week focused on the issues that are slowing down the repairs.

But solutions are in the works.

“Rick Young did a good service by going around the county testing his pager, ” said Steve Coch, manager of Electronic Engineering, of Fort Dodge.

This helped identify where the problem was located, he said.

A lightning strike at the Kamrar public safety tower apparently damaged two key parts of the tower, he explained. The many storms this summer makes it hard to pinpoint when the tower was damaged, but county first responders started noticing problems several months ago.

Hamilton County Sheriff Alex Pruismann’s office was packed with problem solvers Thursday when the key partners of the countywide communication system gathered to discuss the issues with the pagers used by Hamilton County first responders.

Present were Pruismann, Coch, Luann Paper, Hamilton County 911 manager; and Dave Gordon, Motorola Customer Support manager.

The county pagers and two-way radios are Motorola products. Electronic Engineering is the Motorola service center; it contracts with Motorola to provide local service.

The meeting was in response to the Daily Freeman Journal article last week concerning the pagers. Pruismann, who had been vocal in the initial story, said he wanted to clarify the situation.

“We didn’t have the full story,” he told the room. “Some things are just beyond our control.”

The pagers were not working properly, but it was not clear then what was causing the problem.

“You have to know where you are located in the county to identify the problem,” Paper said.

Coch said, “In a normal situation, the towers are able to handle the pagers. The antenna and line, which is coax cable, at the Kamrar tower was struck by lightening.”

Pruismann explained: “There are two Hamilton County-based radio towers. These are for public safety use only.”

The towers don’t handle residential cell phone signals. The county radio towers exist for two-way radios, pagers and mobile radios (car radios). Throughout the county, each fire department, police department, the sheriffs department and the Hamilton County Conservation office have equipment that relies on these towers.

It seems like an easy solution, just order the replacements.

But, as Coch explained further, even though they now have the antennae, they still need the coax cable, which is not a normal product.

“The towers are all different and there are hundreds of different antennas,” Coch said. “These are very specific high-value materials.”

He added, “The material missing is 300 feet of coax cable.”

That particular type of coax cable is not kept on hand. It must be ordered.

Pruismann said repairs on the tower may take a month or more for the Kamrar site.

That doesn’t mean the pagers cannot be upgraded to be more effective now. One of the steps being taken by Coch is to acquire access to additional towers in neighboring counties. This has been done, but now each pager needs a firmware upgrade so those pagers can “see” those additional locations and work off those towers.

Pruismann has already scheduled October 13 for Coch to be in Webster City updating individual pagers.

“Every volunteer and first responder needs to talk to their department head to make arrangements to get their equipment updated,” he said. “If October 13 works, feel free to bring your equipment to the sheriff’s office and we will get it updated.”

“If October 13 does not work, the head of each department should make arrangements to have the pagers updated with Steve Coch directly.”

Paper handles many of the complaints from those using the pagers.

“It’s mostly in the southeast corner of the county,” she said.

Until the firmware updates are completed and the Kamrar work is finalized, Pruismann asked again for patience and understanding.

“All the parties involved are working on the issues,” he said. “We are working well as a team to resolve the issues.”

Until that time, Pruismann recommends first responders continue to monitor their pagers.

“But do not rely solely on that as the first source of getting information,” he said. “Use ‘I am responding,’ an app for cell phones or use two-way radios.”