COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- A statewide radio network that lets police, fire and other emergency workers talk to each other has passed a couple of major real-world tests and is ready for hurricane season.
Without it, people who needed to respond to disasters were like cell-phone subscribers without roaming privileges and ''No Service'' appeared on their screens.
Last August, the Palmetto 800 MHz system helped direct traffic during Hurricane Charley, State Law Enforcement Division Chief Robert Stewart said. And it played a huge role in January when law enforcement and emergency workers handled the Graniteville train collision that spilled chlorine and covered the town with deadly fumes.
Graniteville's low-lying geography made it a tough place for communications using traditional radio systems. And there was the age-old problem: radios operating on different bands, frequencies or channels. Often, they'd have to rely on dispatchers to act as go-betweens in radio conversations.
In Graniteville, the state brought in dozens of new radios that helped emergency responders lacking the communications equipment to do their jobs, said David Ruth, Aiken County's emergency services coordinator.
In all, 200 different law enforcement and emergency agencies were able to easily communicate on the system, said George Crouch, who runs the Palmetto 800 program for the state Budget and Control Board.
''I think it wouldn't have been as seamless as far as communications is concerned,'' Ruth said.
The state also brought in a mobile tower to handle the extra traffic, Crouch said. And it has a transmitter that can be carried aloft by a plane or helicopter to handle needs, Crouch said.
So far, nearly 18,000 of the new radios are in the hands of police and other emergency workers statewide, making South Carolina's system the most interoperable in the nation, Crouch said.
The system grew out of concerns law enforcement and emergency workers raised after Hurricane Hugo 16 years ago.
But the Legislature balked at the $120 million price tag needed to create a statewide radio system on its own, Crouch said. So the state turned to a private-sector partnership with Motorola Inc. to build the towers and other elements of the system. Motorola has been the system's primary owner and manager since 2001.
That was about the same time the federal government renewed efforts for compatible radio systems nationwide, an idea stemming from the 1995 Oklahoma City federal building bombing, said David Boyd, director of Homeland Security's Office of Interoperability and Compatibility.
Later that year, the need became more evident, Boyd said.
In the World Trade Center attacks, part of the firefighters' communication system failed. Although handheld radios still worked, incompatible radios kept police from calling with warnings that one of the towers had collapsed, Boyd said.
A nationwide switch to compatible systems isn't easy given the tens of billions of dollars invested over decades in older, incompatible systems, Boyd said.
''You're not going to be able to change it overnight,'' Boyd said.
How much work needs to be done isn't clear. Boyd says a state-to-state comparison of compatible systems won't be finished until the end of the year.
While most praise the Palmetto 800 network, few like the bills that come with the Motorola deal. The old systems had cost little to maintain and operate.
For instance, Stewart says the handheld radios his agents carry cost $65 a month. City police average about $14 a month for each radio and county governments about $26.50, Crouch said.
''The only problem with the 800 system is the fee,'' Stewart said. Still, Stewart said, he expects all of his field agents to have the new radios by next month.
