[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Supervisors of the Township of Fairview 6-25-2007 by Ord. No. 2007-5 (Ch. 4, Part 2, of the 1991 Code of Ordinances). Amendments noted where applicable.]
This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the "Public Safety Radio Amplification System Ordinance."
The purpose of this chapter is to provide minimum standards to ensure a reasonable degree of reliable emergency services communications from within certain buildings and structures located within the Township of Fairview between public safety users and emergency communications centers.
[Amended 6-25-2007 by Ord. No. 2007-5]
The following words and/or terms shall, for the purpose of this chapter and as used elsewhere in this Code, have the meanings shown herein:
APCO
Associates Public Safety Communications Officials International.
DAQ
Delivered audio quality.
DAQ 3.4
Speech understandable without repetition; some noise distortion.
FCC
Federal Communications Commission.
NABER
National Association of Business and Education Radio.
PCIA
Personal communications industry.
SIGNAL BOOSTER
In accordance with FCC rules as of November 29, 2001, any device at a fixed location which automatically receives, amplifies, and retransmits, on a one-way or two-way basis, the signals received from base, fixed, mobile, and portable stations, with no change in frequency or authorized bandwidth. A signal booster may be either narrowband (Class A), in which case the booster amplifies only those discrete frequencies intended to be retransmitted, or broadband (Class B), in which case all signals within the passband of the signal booster filter are amplified.
YCDES
York County Department of Emergency Services.
A. 
Except as otherwise provided, no person shall erect, construct, alter, refit, change the use of or provide an addition of more than 20% of the existing floor area to any building or structure or a part thereof, or cause the same to be done, which fails to support adequate radio coverage for YCDES and/or the Fairview Township local public emergency service agencies.
B. 
Any building or structure that has not received a certificate of occupancy as of the effective date of this chapter shall comply with this section if the YCDES and/or Fairview Township determines that adequate radio coverage, as herein defined, does not exist in the building or structure. The owner of the building or structure shall be notified, in writing, of the inadequacy of the coverage and shall have a period of 90 consecutive calendar days from the date of the notice to comply with this section, including but not limited to enhancing radio coverage and bringing it to within the acceptable limits of this chapter.
C. 
For purposes of this section, adequate radio coverage shall include all of the following:
(1) 
A minimum signal strength of -95 dBM available in 90% of the area of each floor of the building when transmitted from the closest YCDES radio communications system site.
(2) 
A minimum signal strength of -95 dBM received at the closest YCDES radio communications site when transmitted from 90% of the area of each floor of the building.
(3) 
The frequency range that must be supported shall be between 500.0000 and 512.0000 MHz.
(4) 
A 90% reliability factor.
(5) 
Signal strength measurements, for the purpose of measuring the performance of a bidirectional amplifier, shall be based on one input signal adequate to obtain a maximum continuous operating output level.
D. 
The provisions of this section shall become applicable upon notification to the property owner that unacceptable levels exist. The property owner shall have 90 days from the date of notification to enhance radio coverage and bring it within the acceptable limits of these provisions.
Buildings and structures which cannot support the required level of radio coverage shall be equipped with either a radiating cable system or an internal multiple-antenna system, with or without FCC-type accepted bidirectional amplifiers as needed. If any part of the installed system or systems contains an electrically powered component, the system shall be capable of operating on an independent battery and/or generator system for a period of at least 12 hours without external power input. The battery system shall charge in the presence of an external power input.
A. 
Acceptance testing procedure.
(1) 
When an in-building radio system is required, and upon completion of installation, it will be the building owner's responsibility to have the radio system tested to ensure that two-way coverage on each floor of the building is a minimum of 90%.
(2) 
Each floor of the building shall be divided into a grid of approximately 20 equal areas. A maximum of two nonadjacent areas will be allowed to fail the test. In the event that three or more of the areas fail the test, in order to be more statistically accurate, the floor may be divided into 40 equal areas. In such event, a maximum of four nonadjacent areas will be allowed to fail the test. After the forty-area test, if the system continues to fail, the building owner(s) shall have the system altered/modified to meet the 90% coverage requirements.
(3) 
The test shall be conducted using the most current M/A-COM portable radio, or its equivalent, available to the Fairview Township public safety entity, talking though the YCDES radio system as specified by the authority having jurisdiction. A spot located approximately in the center of a grid area will be selected for the test; then the radio will be keyed to verify two-way communications to and from the outside of the building through the YCDES radio network. A minimum DAQ 3.4 will be required for this test in order to consider the test to be acceptable. Once this test spot has been selected for testing, prospecting for a better spot within the grid area will not be permitted.
(4) 
The gain values of all amplifiers shall be measured, and the test measurement results shall be kept on file with the building owner so that the measurements can be verified each year during the annual tests. In the event that the measurement results become lost, the building owner will be required to rerun the acceptance test to reestablish the gain values.
B. 
Annual tests. When an in-building radio system is required, the building owner(s) shall test all active components of the system, including but not limited to amplifiers, power supplies and backup batteries, a minimum of once every 12 months. Amplifiers shall be tested to ensure that the gain is the same as it was upon initial installation and acceptance. Backup batteries and power supplies shall be tested under load for a period of one hour to verify that they will properly operate during an actual power outage. If, within the one-hour test period, in the opinion of the testing technician, the battery exhibits symptoms of failure, the test shall be extended for an additional one-hour period until the testing technician confirms the integrity of the battery. All other active components shall be checked to determine that they are operating within the manufacturer's specifications for the intended purposes.
C. 
Five-year tests. In addition to the annual test, the building owner(s) shall perform a radio coverage test a minimum of every five years to ensure that the radio amplification system continues to meet the requirements of the original acceptance test as set forth in Subsection A of this section.
All tests shall be conducted, documented and signed by a person in possession of a current FCC technical license or a current technician certification issued by the APCO, NABER or the PCIA. All test records shall be retained on the inspected premises by the building owner(s), and a copy shall be submitted to Fairview Township and to the Executive Director of the YCDES within 30 days from the date the test was conducted.
The Township Manager or his/her designee, after providing reasonable notice to the owner or his representative, shall have the right to enter onto the property to conduct field-testing to be certain that the required minimum level of radio coverage is present.
This chapter shall not apply to single-family dwelling units, attached or detached, and multifamily dwelling units in the Residential Single, Residential Multifamily, Residential Village, and Residential Rural Zoning Districts or building(s) and/or structure(s), not to exceed 35 feet in height, that are constructed of wood frame, as long as none of the aforementioned buildings make use of any metal construction or any underground storage or parking areas. For purposes of this section, parking structures and stairwells are included in the definition of "building," and stair shafts are included in the definition of "all parts of a building," but elevators may be excluded.
A. 
Penalties. Any person who is found in violation of any provision of this chapter shall, upon conviction thereof, be sentenced to pay a fine of not more than $1,000 and/or to undergo imprisonment for a term not to exceed 90 days. Each day the violation of this chapter continues shall constitute a separate offense.
B. 
The Township, in addition to any of the remedies available to it, may take appropriate action at law or equity, civil or criminal, to enforce the provisions of this chapter, or to enjoin or otherwise restrain or prevent violation of this chapter, and this chapter shall in no way restrict any remedies otherwise provided by law.