Congratulations to NPSTC’s Newest Vice Chair, Terry Hall.  Unanimously voted in at our meeting in Orlando, Terry Hall is currently the Immediate Past President of APCO International and the Chief of Emergency Communications for the York-Poquoson-Williamsburg Emergency Communications Center located in historic Yorktown, Virginia.  Mr. Hall manages the regional 911 center and is the technical systems manager for the regional state-of-the-art Project 25 radio system that encompasses six localities covering approximately 1,000 square miles. York was the first 911 Center in Virginia, and second in North America, to develop and deploy wireless location technology, and provided the model for systems that are now being implemented and used throughout the United States.  The emergency communications center recently deployed the first office application for a large wireless carrier in text to 911. They are currently in the process of deploying a Next Generation 911 i3 solution.  He has won numerous national association awards and recognitions for his Communications Center.  Learn more here: http://www.npstc.org/contactsAndBios.jsp

Non P25  Digital Technology Hurts Interoperability, a Mission Critical Article by NPSTC Interoperability Chair, John Powell. “Close examination shows that interoperability is broken into three areas as defined by the five lanes of the Safecom Interoperability Continuum: governance, standard operating procedures, training and exercises, usage and technology. Technology is last because for proper implementation, its selection must be carefully done only after governance is established and operational decisions, including interoperability, are made with regard to how that technology will be implemented and used. Technology’s purpose is to support an operation, not drive it. Read more: http://www.mccmag.com/onlyonline.cfm?OnlyOnlineID=432

NPSTC’s Spectrum Management Vice Chair Appointed to PSCA Board:  Public Safety Coordination Associates has announced the appointment of Stu Overby, recently retired senior director-spectrum strategy at Motorola Solutions, to the company’s board of directors.  PSCA is managed by the Forestry Conservation Communications Association and the International Municipal Signal Association.

Follow the discussion on the NPSTC blog and/or Participant Listserv:  Recently the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and USDOT Secretary Anthony Foxx announced they will require automobile manufacturers to include devices in all newly manufactured light vehicles allowing the vehicles to communicate with each other. While this came as an announcement of “new” technology, the planning and testing has gone on for many years. Enclosed are links to a series of archived webinars on the technology and some of its applications. Emergency responders can look forward to many benefits from this technology being installed in vehicles and the installation of roadside devices allowing the vehicles to communicate to the infrastructure. Many of the things discussed in these webinars are not just concepts but proven technologies supported by many different test beds and test deployments. It is estimated this technology will reduce the number of unimpaired driver accidents by 80%.