Interoperability can be defined as the ability of anyone to talk with whomever they need to, whenever they need to, when properly authorized. Communications interoperability is essential to responders during emergencies and natural disasters.
There was a medical response recently that illustrated the importance of communications interoperability.
A few weekends ago, responders in Franklin County were dispatched to an off-road vehicle crash with injuries in a remote area of the county. One of the involved persons had contacted Franklin County by cell phone, but the connection was lost. His next attempt was routed to Cache County dispatch, and thankfully, through a mutual aid agreement in place for quite some time, the two dispatch agencies have radio and computer aided dispatch interoperability, allowing Cache County dispatchers to add their own comments to the call created by Franklin County. As they were now in contact with the patient, this established interoperability provided valuable information that Franklin County dispatch would not have had as they were no longer in contact with the patient who called by cell phone.
As you may know, LifeFlight expanded its operations by stationing a helicopter at Logan Regional Hospital, available 24-7 to respond when air transport is needed. It was determined that a response from Lifeflight would be helpful. Cache County dispatch made contact with the new operations base at Logan Regional Hospital, and during their pre-flight preparation a communication plan was discussed. This plan entails assigning a responder on scene to be the contact for the helicopter, and communications would occur over one to the landing zone talk groups found in the radios of the responding agencies. Franklin County has that kind of interoperability with the air medical system based in Pocatello, but the frequencies and talk groups used by Lifeflight and Utah based ground crews are not the same as used in Idaho.
I believe this was their first flight into Franklin County since the helicopter went into service at Logan, and in this instance it was determined that Cache County dispatchers would need to operate as net control, because the radio interoperability has not yet been coordinated between LifeFlight and Franklin County.
The helicopter flew to the scene as directed by Cache County dispatchers. Once there, they were able to land and establish face-to-face communication with Franklin County units, but their additional actions were to include flying over the area to provide lighting as ground based crews worked to locate the last patient and bring all patients off the mountain. Back in the air, coordination reverted back to Cache County as net control, but it would have been easier if communications interoperability was already established between the two agencies.
Thankfully, the interoperability described above exists between the two neighboring counties, allowing Cache County dispatch to fill the role of net control for air and ground crews during this incident, and they could fill that role again until actual communications interoperability between Franklin County and Lifeflight is established.
I would encourage all operators joining the net tonight to review the Cache County ARES emergency communication plan which includes the list of frequencies that will be used in an emergency, and include these frequencies in your radio programming. Being prepared in advance will establish that important communications interoperability with other amateur operators should an emergency arise in Cache County. Follow this link to view the emergency communications plan: Cache EmComm.