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Board moves to buy VIPER handheld radios with $893,000 federal allocation, allows departments to pay upgrades
Summary
Beaufort County accepted $893,000 in congressional funding to buy about 140 handheld VIPER radios for EMS, fire and emergency management. Staff recommended Motorola as sole-source for interoperability and in-house programming; fire departments were offered an option to pay the incremental cost to upgrade single-band radios to dual-band units.
Beaufort County commissioners approved proceeding with procurement of handheld VIPER radios using an $893,000 congressional allocation intended to help county emergency services transition equipment to the statewide digital VIPER network.
Emergency management staff reviewed the background: EMS and law enforcement are already on VIPER; county fire departments currently use a VHF simulcast system. Staff recommended purchasing Motorola radios on state contract because (a) Motorola…
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