By David Eck
Enquirer contributor

COLERAIN TWP. - A new radio system going online this week is a boon for suburban Hamilton County police and fire workers, who for years have complained that that the old system was overloaded and lacked the capacity for police officers and firefighters to talk to each other on the same radio.

But the new system is expected to make it harder for scanner enthusiasts, media and others to listen to Hamilton County police calls.

The radio system carries police and fire dispatches, conversations between officers at crime scenes, communications between firefighters and police officers, and other public safety communications.

The new Motorola 20-channel, 800-megahertz ultra-high frequency digital trunked system will eliminate dead spots and provide clarity even in buildings, officials say.

Previously, fire departments had been operating on a 40-year-old low-band system, while the police departments were on a 460-megahertz very high-frequency analog system that dated to the 1970s.

But officials say they are not planning to simulcast police traffic on the old equipment, effectively shutting existing scanners out of the system. Most existing scanners cannot monitor the system.

All but a few police departments in suburban Hamilton County are being moved to the new $30 million radio system today, and the existing radio equipment is expected to go offline within a few days, said Greg Wenz, operations director for the Hamilton County Communications Center.

"At that point we'll be pretty much fully installed on the new system," Wenz said.

The switch is not expected to affect Cincinnati police or suburban fire department transmissions.

The switch has local media outlets shelling out big bucks to stay updated on police activity.

County officials are making radios available to media and other organizations who need access to the system. The cost: $2,500 to $3,700 per radio.

The radios will be modified in that the transmit function will be disabled, Wenz said.

"We have total control over who's on the system," Wenz said. "(The radios) have to be programmed. They have to be physically turned on in the system."

Several media outlets, including the Enquirer, are buying the radios in order to cover the news.

"As a television guy, if you have no video it's very difficult to tell the story," said Bob Morford, news director at WCPO-TV. "If we can't arrive in time to take pictures, it's very, very difficult to tell the story on our medium."

WCPO is spending about $10,000 to buy the radios, Morford said.

WLWT is buying one radio. "If we're in the dark, obviously so would the viewers," said Sally Macy, assistant news director at WLWT. "We'll be in good shape. A lot of the news department can hear the scanners. I think it's unfortunate for the main media outlets in the market. It's an unfortunate cost."

E-mail daveck@fuse.net