By SHARON KILPATRICK

By SHARON KILPATRICK

RaMMhuinock New* Staff Writer

The county cannot go to a radio system that depends on repeater towers without replacing all the radios being used by the sheriffs department and fire and rescue squads, according to Sheriff John Henry Woodward.

This would be quite expensive. Sheriff Woodward said that the county now uses a low band frequency system. This cannot be used with repeater towers with more than one channel, he said. The dispatch center uses two channels for the sheriffs department and three for fire and rescue, he added.

To replace all the radios would mean 10 in vehicles belonging to the department at $1,500 each and the base station at $2,000. In addition there are about 35 radios belonging to the seven fire and rescue departments which would also have to be replaced.

There are also five portable radios which would have to be replaced at $1,000 each, and each squad has about 25 pagers belonging to members that would cost about $350 each to replace.

With replacement radios the county could switch to higher frequencies that can use repeater towers, but Sheriff Woodward said it might require five towers to cover the county. Each tower would have to have a back-up power system for times when electricity is lost.

At the jail the radios are in the basement and a backup generator runs the radios and jail if the power goes down.

Radio waves in low band frequencies 'can travel along the contours of the land, Sheriff Woodward said, but the higher the mountain the harder it is for the radio waves to get over. Higher band radio waves travel by line of sight, he explained.

“If the county wants the expense we can go that way,” he said. “It will cost more money than to upgrade what we’ve got.” When the county first started using the equipment