Kevin Kearns, Chair

Interference to public safety radio systems in the 800 MHz band was becoming evident in multiple jurisdictions across the country in 2000 and early 2001, largely through the diligent efforts of APCO members. Project 39 was officially launched at the APCO Conference in Salt Lake City in August 2001 to address this problem. The Project was established as a collaborative effort between APCO, other public safety associations, equipment manufacturers and carriers. The Project was originally chaired by RoxAnn Brown from Washington County, Oregon and the Technical Committee was chaired by Kevin Kearns from King County, Washington.

The Technical Committee was the main working group of the Project and it was tasked with the following objectives:

· Catalogue reported incidences of interference and characterize the root causes.

· Broaden the inventory of interference beyond voluntary reporting to determine the true magnitude of the problem nationwide.

· Identify short-term and near-term solutions or mitigation techniques and validate their effectiveness.

· Identify long-term solutions and validate their effectiveness.

The Technical Committee was composed of APCO members, equipment manufacturers and carriers in the 800 MHz band. This group adopted an aggressive work plan and biweekly conference calls that included revisiting and validating the previously published Best Practices Guide, reviewing all reported cases of interference entered into the APCO database from the APCO website, and reviewing interference problems and mitigation efforts reported by manufacturers and carriers.

By December 2001 enough information was in hand to publish an Interim Report to the FCC. This report advised that no root cause mechanisms other than those identified in the Best Practices Guide had been found, and that mitigation efforts identified in that Guide were effective in some circumstances. The report also identified the work elements that were ahead for the Project, which included the collection of a broader database of instances of interference and testing of solutions if adequate funding could be found.

Unfortunately, developing a funding mechanism for Project 39 proved to be a difficult challenge. APCO supported the effort with staff resources, conference call capabilities for the Technical Committee and a limited amount of travel for a couple of key meetings. But hopes of the manufacturer and carrier community providing cash support of the effort were not realized. Instead, they committed staff time by key experts to participate in the Technical Committee work, and that group continued their efforts with determination.

By March of 2002, the national level of attention to the interference issue had reached a crescendo. On March 14, 2002, the FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking called Improving Public Safety Communications in the 800 MHz Band (FCC 02-81 – WT Docket No. 02-55) and on March 19, 2002 Project 39 published its six-month status report at the APCO Western Regional Conference in Phoenix. The wheels were now in motion on the regulatory front to find solutions that could meet the varying competing interests.

As with any FCC regulatory process, this one required a number of filings of Comments and Reply Comments as the various stakeholders got their viewpoints on the record. At times the individual interests of public safety agencies, manufactures and carriers aligned on issues, and at times they diverged. Through all of it the Project 39 members stayed focused on factual information and providing factual technical feedback and input to their parent organizations as they developed and filed their own views with the Commission.

By early 2003 it became clear that the work of Project 39 was coming to a close. While the Project was not able to develop a broad inventory of all incidences of interference across the country it did develop enough of a record to help move the regulatory process forward. While the interference problem in the 800 MHz band is not yet solved, it is at least now fully understood and mitigation efforts in some systems have proven effective. Various alternatives for long-term solutions have been presented to the FCC for consideration and they have built an exceptionally large record for this Docket.

The APCO Spectrum Management Committee has been actively engaged in the development of all APCO filings with the FCC on this issue and will continue to lead this effort. Several Project 39 participants are also engaged in the Spectrum Committee work, so the knowledge and understanding built during the Project effort are being translated into the viewpoints APCO puts forward to the FCC as the rulemaking process continues.

I want to thank the original Project Chair, RoxAnn Brown, for here leadership in the early period of the project. I also want to thank all the APCO members who actively participated in the Technical Committee work; Joe Kuran (OR), Dave Hubbard (FL), Gary David Gray (CA), Joe Yurman (NY), Bill Cade (MO), Jim Warakois (MA) and Jim Kowalik (NH). Finally, I want to thank the manufacturer and carrier community for allowing their technical experts to participate in the process.