PORT ANGELES — You can’t hear there from here.
Emergency communications across the North Olympic Peninsula are beset by dead spots, blocked by mountains or are simply out of range.
That will end, however, when the Olympic Public Safety Communications Alliance Network, or OPSCAN, becomes operational at the end of September.
A dream of law enforcement officers, park rangers, firefighters and even U.S. Coast Guard personnel, the network will allow first responders on a Pacific Ocean beach, for instance, to talk with colleagues on the shore of Hood Canal.
On Monday, Clallam County commissioners approved applying for a $100,000, no-match Emergency Preparedness Assistance grant to test the system under simulated crisis conditions.
That test will cap about five years of planning and purchasing for the Clallam County Sheriff’s Department, lead agency among 42 participating organizations that include the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Clallam Transit System and Olympic Medical Center.
