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The following is a list of questions frequently asked by citizens. You may search for specific words or phases, or shorten the list by selecting a specific category.
800 MHz Radio Project - Coverage
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The 800 MHz radio system has a coverage of 95% probability design for 12 db attenuation (building loss) in Cumberland County. This is the standard used to design public safety radio systems. To the average user – this equates to in-building portable coverage in average residential structures. To achieve this probability a number of new radio sites were established during the infrastructure build out phase. The legacy radio system uses four radio sites – one on the northwest side of the county, one on the northeast side of the county, one on the south central side of the county, and one in the center of the county. A total of seventeen radio sites are now used to provide coverage in the 800 MHz radio system.
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Even with the best designed systems it is impossible to provide 100% coverage. Factors that limit coverage include distance from the radio site, terrain, certain atmospheric conditions, adjacent channel interference, and foliage. Isolated areas of the county may not have usable mobile radio coverage, but typically in an area where this may exist simply moving the radio a short distance may result in usable mobile coverage.
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Testing conducted in the field during 2004 and 2005 revealed some coverage concerns in large commercial style buildings. Some warehouses, particularly those with metal clad exterior walls also posed some problems. Often times in warehouses coverage was affected by the type of contents and how it was rack stored. Below-grade communications also pose problems as no radio system communicates very well under ground. The best way for one to plan for communications deployment at large commercial structures is to arrange tours and understand how the radio performs in those environments. Vehicular repeater systems (VTAC) will likely be needed for operations and in some cases more than one placed in operation at different areas of larger buildings.
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Coverage is only guaranteed inside the borders of Cumberland County. FCC requirements limit the range a radio system may operate. The coverage outside the County will be limited to the distance from the tower and terrain. A VTAC radio operating in the portable extension mode will only function a short distance outside the County as the FCC restricts their use to the County itself.
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800 MHz Radio Project - General Radio Questions and Operations
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Pricing for OpenSky radios for eligible agencies are on PA State GSA Contract 5820-06 under rider C. Specific pricing can be obtained from Roger Kohr at M/A Com at 717.565.1226 or Email or Lori Miller at 717.565.1218 or
Email
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Installation pricing is provided for under the state contract. M/A Com will require an M/A Com Authorized Service Center (ASC) to install the radio. Failure to have an ASC perform the installation will void the factory warranty. To obtain a list of M/A Com ASC please contact Robert Arney at M/A Com at 717.565.1230 or
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To avoid potential problems with factory warranties it is recommended that a M/A Com ASC perform the services. For information on the ASC please contact Robert Arney at M/A Com at 717.565.1230 or Email. It is also recommended to purchase a new install kit from M/A Com for the new vehicle. The kit includes a new antenna, power cords and CAN bus cabling for the control head. The new kit lessens the possibility of damaged wiring or cabling that could occur during a removal. Leaving the old wiring and antenna will reduce the amount of time of billable hours associated with this removal.
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Call Brian Hamilton at 717.245.8736 or Email and supply him with the serial number of the radio and unit number or individual to be assigned the new radio. Brian will then provision the radio in the system. He will call or email you back with additional instructions. Following this confirmation from Brian you will need to contact M/A Com 1.800.806.0949 and tell them you have a new radio(s) that needs programmed. M/A Com will open a work ticket. Someone from M/A Com or a M/A Com ASC will be in contact to schedule a date and time to complete the work.
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There could be a problem with the serial number and/or IP address in the network voice switch. There could also be a problem with the user ID in the system. Call Brian Hamilton at 717.245.8736 and discuss if it is something he can fix over the air or if it is something physically wrong that would require the radio to be sent back to M/A Com for repair.
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The radio could be in OCF (OpenSky Conventional FM – sometimes referred to as the backup network). The following are instructions to return the radio to OTP (OpenSky Trunking Protocol or network operations): Portable: 1. Using the menu buttons on the top of the radio below the toggle switch press until you see SELMODE 2. Once there, with the sub menu buttons on the side of the radio, press until you see OTP (OpenSky Trunking Protocol) 3. The display will then be flashing A - GOTO or B - ABORT. 4. Press the A (left) top menu button to say GOTO. 5. The radio will then reboot back into OTP and then should look normal. Mobile: 1. Simply press the "C" preprogrammed button on the front of the control head and that will toggle the radio back and forth between OCF and OTP. 2. You can go through the menu if you wish. It is the same as the portable other than you use the up / down and left / right arrows. Then when you obtain what you want, press the select button. If the radio still does not connect to the network, the radio may be in need of repair. To determine if the radio is in need of repair, contact Brian Hamilton at 717.245.8736 for further help.
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800 MHz Radio Project - Mobile & VTAC
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This could mean a number of things. The best action to take is to call in an RMA to the M/A Com help desk at 1.800.806.0949.
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Press the select button (the one in the center of the arrows) until you see NO CALLS. The alias will not show up unless you are sitting on the main menu. If you are on the main menu and the alias doesn’t display but another talk group displays, you are listening to scan radio messages. A radio alias will only be displayed on the selected talk group.
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This function should be considered at any fire scene in which interior operations are required to mitigate the incident and communications could be questionable. Those situations include heavy masonry constructed buildings, metal clad buildings, warehousing with heavy rack storage, and incidents occurring below grade. Police could also consider this scenario if they are dispatched to active incidents involving interior operations. VTAC operations are not necessary for events occurring outdoors in the valley floor of the County and on the south side of the South Mountain as there is ample mobile and portable coverage. In some situations for events occurring in the finger valleys of the South Mountain in which terrain may shade the network sites, a VTAC positioned in coverage could be used to extend coverage to portables affected by the terrain shading. The face of North Mountain is more sheer on the Cumberland County side and not subject as much to the terrain shading that is posed by the South Mountain.
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A VTAC must be placed in the “standby” mode to function as a vehicle repeater. All VTAC radios are equipped with an illuminated style rocker switch labeled “Vehicular Repeater” to engage the standby function. This switch must be turned on for the repeater to work. Audible confirmation tones sound when the switch is turned on or off. Once the switch is engaged and the VTAC assigns a repeater channel, a portable then can connect to the VTAC – either on its own if the radio network is really faded, or the portable radio is forced to VTAC operations by use of the A/B portable toggle switch function.
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No. A distance and velocity parameter is incorporated to disable the repeater if the switch is left turned on. The velocity parameter is set to 35 MPH and the distance parameter is set to 1,320 feet (0.25 mile). If the switch is left on and either one of these parameters are met, the VTAC automatically disables and the audible confirmation tones will sound. You must manually return the switch to the off position prior to using the repeater again. This design is incorporated to prevent “drive by” repeaters from causing unintentional portable attachment.
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800 MHz Radio Project - Portable Batteries
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M/A Com provides a 2,100 milliamp hour (mAh) nickel metal hydride (Ni-MH) battery with the P800 and P801 model portable radios. Milliamp hours is the amount of available storage capacity associated with the battery and relates directly to the operating time of the battery between charge cycles.
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A new 2100 mAh Ni-MH battery that is properly conditioned before the first use will supply an average of 9.5 hours of operating time based on a 90/5/5 duty cycle. The duty cycle refers to 90% idle, 5% transmit, and 5% receive. Factors that can influence the actual time are age of the battery, actual transmit and receive times during use, and if the portable is operating in faded coverage that causes the portable to search for usable radio site signal. OpenSky portables constantly sample the radio network for available signal that is usable and if in faded environment the radio will search more frequently than when in good coverage. This sampling involves transmitting and receiving independent of the user’s normal portable functions. The user can see this function if they observe the LED and notice the blinking red and green indicators when not actually engaging the portable push to talk (PTT) button or when receiving voice messages.
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M/A Com recommends using a battery analyzing charger to condition the battery. The battery should be placed on the charger and the conditioning button activated (see instructions provided with the analyzer charger). This function discharges and charges the battery three cycles in a controlled manner. It is important to note the voltage and available milliamp hours and record them for future reference for the individual battery. If an analyzing charger is not available, then fully charge the battery with a desk top charger before first use.
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M/A Com recommends using this function for preparation of a new battery before first use and occasionally during the life of the battery depending on service use. Ni-MH batteries do not display the “memory” conditions associated with Nickel Cadmium (Ni-Cd) batteries that sometimes required conditioning to extend battery life. For purposes of determining remaining battery life expectancy the analyze cycle (see instructions provided with the analyzer) can be used to determine available milliamp hours. This function discharges and charges the battery a single time and provides the available milliamp hours and that number should be noted for future reference.
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With each charge and discharge cycle the available life of the battery will diminish. A battery should be replaced when the available milliamp hours reaches 80% of its original rated capacity. This rating is recommended for public safety functions and for a 2100 mAh battery the replacement rating would be 1680 mAh or less. Often times a user will note decreased operating times before this replacement rating is reached and depending on their operational need, the user may want to replace the battery before this replacement rating is reached.
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There are advantages and disadvantages to both types of battery chemistries. For their physical size a Ni-MH battery has higher storage capacity than Ni-Cd battery. Ni-MH offer less duty cycles (charge-discharge) over the life of the battery, lower tolerance to cold environments, and quicker self discharge rates, but they do not exhibit memory functions with poor charging practices and provide longer operating times. Ni-CD offers more duty cycles, higher tolerance to cold environment conditions, and lower self discharge rates but can exhibit short operating time if improperly charged and shorter operating times when properly charged.
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An M/A Com OpenSky portable when first turned on will “boot up” to the radio system. This boot up is a process of the portable finding the network radio site, transmitting a data message containing the electronic serial number and IP address to the voice switch for system validation, and provisioning if this information matches the database loaded to the voice switch. If the portable and battery were left in a cold environment (20°F or less) prior to power up, the battery may not have enough electrical capacity to properly transmit the boot up information and go into shutdown. In colder conditions it is important to key the portable and battery in a warm environment before use. Most fire apparatus is equipped with DC chargers that supply a trickle charge which keeps the battery warm. This will minimize the affect associated with storing a portable and battery in a cold environment (such as a fire station bay that is not normally kept at normal room temperatures).
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Portables should not be routinely kept in desk top chargers for a period of time longer than needed to properly charge a battery (see the user’s guide associated with the desk top charger and/or portable radio). Over charging for extended periods of time will “cook” a battery and render it with short of no available duty cycles. This is not unique to the M/A Com product line. Batteries, regardless of the manufacture, will slowly self destruct chemically if exposed to charging over an extended period of time. The owners guide supplied with the charger is the best source of information on how to properly charge a battery.
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800 MHz Radio Project - Portables
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Portable radios have different operating characteristics than mobile radios. Mobile radios have higher transmitting power levels and antennas mounted on ground planes that usually are not shielded by obstructions. Portables on the other hand have lower transmitting power levels and if used with label microphones, the antennas can be shaded by the user’s body. This shading may cause attenuation to the amount of receive signal available to the portable. Portables used inside vehicles can also suffer the effects of attenuation of receive signal due to the metal construction of the vehicle.
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A quick test would be to obtain a portable that is known to work properly and has signal strength indication present. Swap antennas and see if the problem radio starts to work again. If so you have a bad antenna. Call 1.800.806.0949 and advise them that you have a bad portable antenna and it will need to be replaced (may not be covered under factory warranty). If this does not fix the problem you will need to send the radio back for RMA using the same 800 number.
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Check the A/B toggle switch position. More than likely the switch is in the B position indicating it is looking for a VTAC. If no VTAC is active or in the standby mode (rocker switch on), then the portable will not function. Switch the portable toggle switch to the A position and it should reconnect to the network.
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To rule out if it is a portable or lapel microphone problem take the lapel microphone off of the radio and see if the portable performs normally using the PTT on the side of the radio. If it seems to be okay without the lapel microphone connected, then it is a probably a defective lapel microphone. To further verify a defective lapel microphone try a lapel microphone from another portable that you know works. If this lapel microphone functions on the portable in question, the original lapel microphone is defective and needs replaced. Call 1.800.806.0949 for a warranty replacement.
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The fire police have their portable radios programmed that the A/B toggle switch is in stealth mode. This means that if the switch is in the B position the back light, tones, and indicator light are extinguished but the speaker is still operational and can still talk. Simply move the switch back over to the A position.
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The original design of the P801 and P800 portables included a function called “stealth mode”. This function was engaged by moving the toggle switch to the B position. In “stealth mode” the portable’s backlighting and LED functions were disabled as well as the side tones such as the grant and deny tones. When the A/B switch was modified in software to force VTAC engagement it was not possible to enable the backlighting and LED functionality. This would require hardware modifications at the factory. The side tones do function in the B position and the grant and deny tones are audible when in the B position.
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800 MHz Radio Project - Project
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The legacy radio systems using the low band radio frequencies are extremely dated technology. It is subject to interference by electronic devices. At times during certain atmospheric conditions subject to “skip” that injects foreign co-channel radio transmissions into our radio system masking our traffic from the County public safety providers. The trend of major manufacturers not building new base stations, mobile radios and portable radios using this bandwidth were the driving reasons. In 1995 the Office of Emergency Preparedness tasked SE Technologies to do a complete evaluation of the public safety radio system. SE Technologies report documented concerns with the technology in use at the time of the report and recommended seeking FCC licenses in the 800 MHz bandwidth and deploying a new radio system using trunking technology. The 800 MHz bandwidth was recommended since few if any frequencies were available in VHF high band or UHF band. Trunking technology was recommended for the efficiencies and flexibilities of not having to use designated radio frequencies for individual voice paths.
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Cumberland County evaluated formal proposals from a number of manufacturers. After a lengthy evaluation period the Commissioners rejected all proposals. In the interim the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (CoPA) announced the development of a new statewide radio system using 800 MHz OpenSky trunking technology developed my M/A Com. This afforded an opportunity to leverage state GSA pricing. The OpenSky trunking technology was leading edge utilizing Voice over IP (VoIP) wireless networking protocol. This cellular design using VoIP promoted more system efficiencies than the competitor’s offerings at the time of the award by the CoPA. Cumberland and Lancaster County’s quickly formed alliances with the CoPA and announced development of their own county radio systems using this technology. The alliance formed lasting partnerships that included shared radio facilities and ability to allow selected users to “roam” between the systems. Most functions associated with the user’s radios can be downloaded over the air without the need to deploy technicians to the agency site to make changes.
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Yes, if mutual permissions are granted. Following the loading of R6 Cumberland County and the CoPA will test roaming between the systems. Selected talk groups will be considered for roaming on the state system and agreements developed to allow for the roaming capabilities. Cumberland and the CoPA have already discussed deploying “global profile 15 and global profile 16” in Cumberland County radios. These two global profiles are loaded in every CoPA OpenSky radio deployed in the state and are intended to support interoperability in the event of a major event. Once deployed in Cumberland radios the ability to interoperate with the state will exist.
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This is more challenging than interoperating with the CoPA. A number of Cumberland County neighboring counties have announced new radio systems or are in the design phases. Those designs utilize bandwidths different than Cumberland and technological protocols proprietary to the system being deployed. Currently there is no single radio design that supports different bandwidths and trunking protocols. FCC licensing requirements limit the amount of radio system coverage the county may have available in the adjoining county. Therefore it is highly likely an out of county mutual aid provider will eventually drive out of range of their home county radio system if the mutual aid request is located somewhere other than close to its border. Cumberland will have limited roaming capability on the CoPA radio system to extend some talk groups beyond the Cumberland radio foot print. Services that provide regular out of county response may find the need to procure radios on that particular county system. Cumberland County will fully support any out of county provider that provides regular mutual aid response into the county. If the service purchases OpenSky radios for use in Cumberland County – they will be provisioned with the full operational fleet maps used by the Cumberland County services. In the interim some of the legacy radio equipment will be maintained for mutual aid concerns still using Cumberland capable low band radios or UHF med radios. The current low band Fire 1 (46.06 MHz) will be maintained for out of county responding units to contact the County and it will be cross patched to the Fire 1 800 MHz talk group at transition. The current Fire 2 (46.12 MHz) will be abandoned all together due to co-channel use by Prince George’s County, Maryland; Fire 4 (46.00 MHz) will be renamed “Mutual Aid 2); and Fire 3 (46.22 MHz) will be renamed “Mutual Aid 3”. Mutual Aid 2 and Mutual Aid 3 will be cross patched to Cumberland County operational talk groups as needed. All retained low band channels will be provisioned at time of transition with tone coded squelch (“PL tone”) with notifications of the tone codes assignments sent to the adjoining county agencies. The UHF med radio system will be maintained to support regional EMS communications protocols.
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No – not at this time. We know of no scanner on the market today that can decode the digital message streams that contain the voice data packets and decode this message to voice messages. The VoIP uses proprietary software and sophisticated vocoder technology to digitize the analog voice message on the transmitting end and then decode it back to voice on the receiving end. Cumberland County will cross patch the 800 MHz dispatch talk groups for Fire 1 and EMS Dispatch to the conventional Fire 1 and Med 10 legacy channels for monitoring purposes. Fire service and EMS personnel will still use their pagers and station monitor devices used in the old system for the receipt of dispatch information. The cross patch will enable users to monitor response of units from their stations and hear the communications until units start arriving on the scene. Operational talk groups may be assigned for the incident and these talk groups will not be able to be monitored on radio scanners.
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Failures can range from minor to major, depending on the component or portion of the network affected. The new radio system is designed with redundancies at various levels and some of these are described below: Radio site failures – Occasional radio channels or sites could be lost without noticeable impact to the user and can be caused by acts of nature or normal maintenance requirements. All high profile sites have two or more channels (frequencies), and a loss of a single channel should not cause notice since each channel contains more than one voice slots. A single channel site or a complete radio site loss could reduce in building and some on street portable coverage. The radio system with its multiple site design provides overlaying mobile radio coverage in most of the county, usually from two or more sites, and VTAC operations can support portable use in a building. Voice switch failure – The radio system incorporates redundant switches – one operating as a primary and the other as a hot standby. If the primary switch should fail, the back-up will take over operations and the system outage during the failover will last 15 – 30 seconds. If a full network failure should occur, four high profile sites will revert to local repeater operations (single site trunking). The communications center is provisioned for control stations pointed to these sites and will maintain operations on the primary dispatch talk groups of Police East, Police West, Fire and EMS dispatch. A last resort option is the National Public Safety Planning Advisory Committee (NPSPAC) mutual aid plan repeaters. This plan identifies five conventional 800 MHz radio channels (one hailing and four tactical channels) to be used nationwide for mutual aid purposes. The Commonwealth of PA installed the hailing and two of the tactical channels at their Resser’s Summit radio site south of New Cumberland. Cumberland County installed the two remaining tactical channels – one at South Mountain radio site and one at Three Square Hollow radio site. The combination of these sites provides mobile radio coverage to most of the County. While the intent of this plan is to provide common communications capabilities for disparate trunking technologies it could be used for a major network outage. All of Cumberland County Police, Fire, and EMS OpenSky radios are provisioned with the NPSPAC mutual aid plan and the training program provides information on how to access this mode in the radio.
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800 MHz Radio Project - Training
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All county Police, Fire and EMS were afforded an opportunity for train the trainer program in February 2007. This training was conducted by field instructors from Harrisburg Area Community College with the training content developed jointly between the County Department of Public Safety, M/A Com and the HACC instructors that delivered the initial field users training. This program included the new features incorporated as part of Release 6 software. Those personnel who took the training were provided a CD copy of the training program that included the Power Point presentation, hand outs of the slides, and related support documents. The trainer from your agency should be contacted for the training material.
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The live system is operational for public safety communications functions. A training profile is provided in every public safety radio to use for training. The operational talk groups should not be used for this purpose.
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800 MHz Radio Project - Warranty & Maintenance
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Call M/A-Com service desk at 1.800.806.0949. If the radio needs to go back to M/A-Com for repair you need to request an RMA (return materials authorization). If a new radio needs programmed after being received call the same number but simply tell them, “I have a radio(s) that needs programmed for the first time”.
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All M/A Com radios are covered by a one year return to factory warranty that starts from date of shipment. Return factory warranty does not include removal and transport of the radio to M/A-Com. Most police radios that were placed in service prior to the December 5, 2005, transition date are now covered by an extended warranty purchased by the County in December 2006. The County will bill the local police agencies for their portion of the extended warranty near the end of 1Q2007. Warranties for Fire and EMS radios will not start until the formal transition to the 800 MHz radio system. Any radio purchased from M/A Com following transition is covered by the one year return to factory warranty starting on the date it is shipped to the customer by M/A Com.
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Contact M/A Com. The telephone number for M/A Com located in Harrisburg is 717.565.1200.
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The County plans on providing information to the services of any pricing options for technician services to support maintenance when this is added to the State GSA contract.
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Bureau of Elections
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After your Voter Registration Mail Application has been processed, you will receive a Certificate of Registration that will indicate your polling place and address. You can also contact the County Election Office for your polling place location or check our online listing of polling places.
Polling Places
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Absentee ballot applications must be received by the Election Office no later than 5:00 pm on the Tuesday prior to the primary or election. However, we highly recommend that you apply as early as possible to allow time for necessary mailings. Postmarks are not accepted.
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Anyone wishing to become a candidate for a County or municipal level elected office may pick up a petition, instructions, and an election calendar from our office. The instructions are as follows: All blank spaces, which appear at the top of the front page of each nomination petition, must be completed before signatures are obtained. Do not obtain signatures before the first legal day to circulate and file nomination petitions. Type or print the name of the candidate on the FRONT and BACK of the petition EXACTLY as the candidate wants it to appear on the ballot. Candidates who wish to use names other than a derivative of their legal name must execute a Name Change Request Form that is available at Voter Services.
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All voted absentee ballots must be received by Voter Services no later than 5:00 pm on the Friday prior to the primary or election. Postmarks are not accepted.
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All Voter Registration records are considered public documents and are available for public inspection under the supervision of the Voter Services staff.
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Each signer must be a registered elector in the same political party and political district referred to in the petition. Each signer must personally insert the information requested on the petition this includes: signature, residence as it appears on their voter registration, including municipality name, occupation, and date of signing. All information must be complete to be accepted by Bureau of Elections. Each signer may sign petitions for as many candidates for each office as they are permitted to vote for.
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You must contact the State Bureau of Elections at 717.787.5280 for the necessary paperwork and information.
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CASA
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A Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteer is a trained citizen (21 or older) who is appointed by a judge to represent the best interests of a child in court. Children helped by CASA volunteers include those in foster care for whom permanency is being addressed. Most of the children are victims of abuse and/or neglect.
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CASA volunteers undergo a thorough training course conducted by the local CASA program. Training requirements vary from program to program, but Cumberland County CASA offers 35-40 hours of training. Volunteers learn about court room procedures from the principals in the system: judges, lawyers, social workers, court personnel, and others. CASA volunteers also learn effective advocacy techniques for children, and are educated about specific topics ranging from child sexual abuse to early childhood development and adolescent behavior. In addition to the pre-service training volunteers receive, they are also expected to complete 12 hours of in-service training annually.
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As a child advocate, the CASA volunteer has four main responsibilities: to serve as a fact-finder for the judge by thoroughly INVESTIGATING the current and background facts of each assigned case; to provide these facts in report form to the judge and to speak for the child in the courtroom, ADVOCATING for the child's best interests; FACILITATING communication in the case; and to continue MONITORING the case, ensuring that dependency is brought to a swift and appropriate conclusion in the child's best interests.
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In order to prepare a recommendation, the CASA volunteer talks with the child, parents, family members, social workers, school officials, health providers, and others who are knowledgeable about the child's history. The CASA volunteer also reviews all records pertaining to the child, including school, medical, and caseworker reports. The authority of the CASA volunteer to act on behalf of the child is based on the PA Juvenile Act (Title 42 Act PA C.S. Sec. 6301 et.seq.) and is delineated in the Court Order issued at the time a volunteer is assigned to advocate for a child or sibling group.
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Caseworkers are employed by the County. They work on as many as 30 cases at a time and are frequently unable to conduct a comprehensive investigation of each. The CASA volunteer is assigned to only one child or sibling group at a time. The CASA volunteer does not replace a caseworker on a case; he or she is an independent appointee of the court. The CASA volunteer can examine a child's case thoroughly, has knowledge of community resources, and can make recommendations to the court, independent of state agency restrictions.
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The CASA volunteer does not provide legal representation in the courtroom. That is the role of the attorney or Guardian ad litem. However, the CASA volunteer may provide crucial background information that assists attorneys in presenting their cases. It is important to remember that CASA volunteers do not represent a child's wishes in court. Rather, they speak to the child's best interests.
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CASA volunteers come from all walks of life, with a variety of professional, educational and ethnic backgrounds. Aside from their CASA volunteer work, nationwide 52% of the volunteers are employed in regular fulltime jobs; 82% are women and 18% are men.
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CASA volunteers offer children trust and advocacy during complex legal proceedings. They explain to the child the events that are happening, the reasons they are in court, and the roles the judges, lawyers, and social workers play. CASA volunteers also encourage the child to express his or her own opinion and hopes, while remaining objective observers.
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Yes. Locally, Judge Edward Guido was instrumental in establishing the Cumberland County CASA Program. CASA has been endorsed by the American Bar Association, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention of the U.S. Dept. of Justice. In 2006, Judge M.L. Ebert, Jr. also began hearing dependency cases, and has embraced the CASA concept.
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Preliminary findings show that children who have been assigned CASA volunteers tend to spend less time in court and in the foster care system than those who do not have CASA representation. Judges have observed that CASA children also have greater chances of finding permanent homes than non-CASA children.
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Each case is different. A CASA volunteer usually spends more time conducting research and interviews prior to the first court appearance. Once the initial investigation is complete, volunteers spend approximately 10-15 hours a month maintaining contacts and gathering information. It is recommended that CASA volunteers meet with their assigned child(ren) at least monthly.
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The volunteer remains committed to the case until it is permanently resolved, i.e., when the child is deemed to be safe and dependency is terminated. This may take from 18 to 24 months. One of the primary benefits of the CASA Program is that, unlike other court principals who often rotate cases, the CASA volunteer is a consistent figure in the proceedings and provides continuity for a child.
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Children from birth to 18 years of age who are victims of abuse and/or neglect and who have become wards of the court may be assigned a CASA volunteer.
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Children & Youth
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You can call the Agency and ask to speak to a Screener. This caseworker will take the information and a decision will be made regarding the Agency's need to respond.
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There is no law in the state of Pennsylvania regarding how old a child can be to be left alone. This agency advises callers to consider each situation individually. Things that should be considered are: age of child, length of time alone, and does the child know emergency numbers such as 9-1-1 and/or someone they should contact in case of emergency.
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No. The law protects the confidentiality of referral sources. Callers may remain confidential in all child abuse referrals regardless of their relationship to the family. Most callers may remain confidential in other reports with the e | |