The biggest problem anyone encountered during two weeks of field tests for Howard County's new 800-megahertz communications system was one angry dog - pretty good, considering six teams tested 500 locations throughout the county.

Aside from the dog-chasing incident (no one was injured), the critical field-testing phase went off without a hitch, officials said.

"We're very pleased with everything," said Motorola project manager Michael Ciampaglia. Ciampaglia and county officials said Motorola appears to have satisfied the $26.6 million system's contract requirements.

Only two of the 500 testing sites were questionable, Ciampaglia said, and neither location was considered critical. One site is deep within River Hill High School and one is somewhere in Elkridge, Ciampaglia recalled.

The new system uses eight towers and one building around the county and state-of-the-art digital radios to provide significantly improved coverage for police, fire and rescue units that have long been hampered by lost signals and blind spots. Five towers, each 350 feet or higher, were built for the project.

Motorola is to submit a technical report to the county late this week or early next, but Victoria Goodman, the county's public information director, said the initial results seem positive.

"It looks like we're definitely getting increased coverage," she said. "We think the technical report will confirm those results."

Ahead of schedule

The county estimated that testing would take up to a month, but the teams had completed their duties in just over two weeks, wrapping up in the first few days of June, Ciampaglia said.

"The test teams did an excellent job of getting through the buildings, which we thought might take a little longer," he said. "And people were great about letting us into their homes."

Inside buildings

To ensure the communications system penetrates public buildings and private residences, test teams had to enter the structures and check for a signal.

The ability to communicate from within buildings is the greatest difference between the soon-to-be-implemented system and the existing one, Ciampaglia said.

Gradual expansion

Now that field tests have been completed, the county will conduct functional tests, said Bradley R. Kays, communications project coordinator for the county.

Two or three small county agencies - ones that do not handle emergency calls - will use the radios for a month or so before the larger, more critical agencies convert, Kays said.

Those tests likely will take place in August, he said. Officials are aiming to convert to the 800-megahertz system by early fall.

But installing the radios in the county's vehicle fleet, including more than 300 police vehicles, will take time, Kays said. He said he expects the transition to be complete by the end of the year.