Radio Interference and Interoperability

Considering the state’s status as one of the poorest in the U.S., New Mexico’s EMS departments are facing communications issues that few others could imagine: radio interference from Mexican taxi cabs.

“The issue with Mexico is that their radio power is not regulated like ours is by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). They can run any amount of power out of any radio they want,” says Wynn O. Brannin, EMS communications manager with the New Mexico Department of Health.

Anybody who’s ever heard of Wolfman Jack—the rock ’n’ roll deejay whose broadcasts from Mexico traveled all over the U.S. in decades past—knows that. But when an ambulance responding to a multi-casualty car wreck near the border can’t get through to the hospital because a taxi driver in Juarez, Chihuahua, is talking on his radio, it creates a problem for medics and patients alike.

These problems escalated dramatically when New Mexico experienced a 600% increase in illegal border crossings during the so-called “Minuteman Project”—the controversial civilian-led border patrol in neighboring Arizona last April. “We went from a major accident every two or three months to one every day along our border,” said Brannin, “often involving 15–20 casualties at a time.”

While bandwidth interference has been an ongoing issue for first responders all over the country—finally addressed by the FCC’s mandate to reserve the 800 MHz band for public safety use only, beginning June 27—such negotiations in New Mexico constitute “international relations.” The other southern border states of Texas, Arizona and California sidestepped the potential quagmire by upgrading their systems beyond the capability of Mexican radios, says Brannin. But, while New Mexico was a pioneer in implementing UHF EMS communication systems, in place here since the 1970s, “we just don’t have the infrastructure to put up an 800 MHz trunked system to accommodate clear communications today,” he says.

Still, radio interference along the border is only part of it. Also charged with negotiating interoperability solutions, Brannin’s is also concerned about the potential for a cross-border incident. New Mexico already provides EMT training in Spanish to the ambulance services and clinic on the other side of the border, training Mexican providers to the U.S. level of EMT-Basic. “But if we ever had a cross-border incident, like say an outbreak in Chihuahua or even locally in Juarez,” he says, “we’d want to be able to set up some kind of communications system, so we could actually assist them and, vice versa, so they could assist us.”

Accidents and the attendant bleed-throughs are down again, at any rate, and Brannin is confident something can be worked out on the overall communications front with a little bit of mutual-interest diplomacy. “They’ve worked with us in the past,” he says, “and it’s usually fixed within a couple days.” —KR