After waiting two years for the Federal Communications Commission to approve its request for new radio frequencies, Island County’s 911 dispatch center got the airwaves it needed this week.

Island County Communications, or I-COM, received the go-ahead to create one new “tone-out” frequency and multiple tactical frequencies for county fire districts. Prior to the FCC approval, all of Island County’s fire communications were on one often-congested frequency. The frequency expansion is the first for the fire response since I-COM became operational March 31, 1997.

Island County also shares this frequency with Snohomish, Skagit and Whatcom counties. This crowding has caused problems in the past, with emergency calls running over the top of one another, resulting in emergency response delays in some cases.

North Whidbey Fire District 2 Chief Mick Lamar voiced concern at a district meeting in February.

“For the past six to eight weeks, there have been cases when some of our firefighters have either not received the tone-out pages at all, or the messages were garbled,” he said.

Having frequencies of their own will end that problem for Island County fire districts and departments, said I-COM director Tom Shaughnessy.

“North Whidbey shares its tone-out frequency with neighboring jurisdictions and North Whidbey and our neighbors are growing, so there’s more traffic on the air,” Shaughnessy this week.

The problem got so bad late last year that South Whidbey’s Fire District 3 switched its emergency pages to its secondary tactical frequency. The changeover solved the problem of competing emergency pages between Island County and Snohomish County.

The pages fire personnel receive give them information about the types and locations of emergency incidents such as automobile accidents and fires. Each pager is programmed to respond to a certain tone-out frequency. When the airwaves are crowded, stronger frequency signals overpower others from being heard.

Thus far, the frequency problems have not placed lives in jeopardy, Shaughnessy said.

“Enough people have been receiving the pages to cover the calls, so there hasn’t been a problem that way,” he said. “Sometimes they’ve had to contact I-COM to repeat the address or other information, but they’ve been able to do that while already enroute to the call.”

The paperwork snag that slowed the approval process of the frequencies to two years was caused by the county’s proximity to Canada. The FCC not only had to weigh the frequency needs and concerns of neighboring jurisdictions within Washington State, but also had to negotiate with Canada to ensure the new frequencies chosen would not interfere with those in use there.

The frequency expansion project, set to be completed by June 1, 2002, will occur through a mix of adjustments to current communications equipment used by I-COM, Island County fire districts and City of Oak Harbor Fire.

Newly positioned equipment such as the Race Road tower, which was brought online in February, has already begun to be configured for a frequency change, and the process can be finalized now that the frequency selections have gained FCC approval. Existing pagers will be reprogrammed. The four tactical frequencies are actually individual district frequencies that will make the switch over to countywide use.

The cost to individual Island County fire districts and the City of Oak Harbor of using the new frequencies will depend on the number of pagers to be reprogrammed and also the current status and age of the pagers used by those districts. Fire District 3 will pay only $7.50 per pager for the changeover because it purchased all new communications equipment last year. Older pagers, like those used by some in Central and North Whidbey, require $80 worth of reprogramming.

FD3’s Jerry Beck said he is glad the district was ready for the FCC decision.

“We knew this was coming,” he said Friday.

In addition to the pager reprogramming that will occur, I-COM has been working for two years to configure and position 13 transmitters and receivers throughout the county at locations such as Oak Harbor, Cultus Bay Road and Race Road on Whidbey and on Camano Island.