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wireless communications wireless two-way radios public safety communications and video surveillance public safety first responders bearcom
Even superheroes need helpers, and today I want to congratulate one who responded beautifully to a communications emergency in downtown Fairbanks, Alaska. His name is John Benevento, and thanks to "Benny," the clock tower carillon in Golden Heart Plaza plays Christmas music instead of two-way radio traffic from the city's public safety agencies. According to the Fairbanks News-Miner, the carillon designed to fill the downtown square with music was beset by problems almost since the local Rotary Club put it up in 1990. Those issues, several of which were familiar to Alaskans, kept the tower quiet most of the time. Electrical conduits froze. Then an earthquake snapped the underground cable that ran to the tower from the nearby Gold Exchange restaurant. The cable was replaced by a microwave signal from another downtown building, but interference came from an unlikely source: the remote starting systems Alaskans use to warm up their frozen vehicles. Benevento told the News-Miner that it got to the point that instead of music, the tower sometimes broadcast radio traffic. He said, "In the early 2000s, they (car auto starts) started to get really bad. This was before the (Rabinowitz) courthouse was there. Now (after the courthouse) you had all kinds of people starting their cars out the windows, starting the carillon. It was a nightmare. It would turn it on and used to start to get two-way radio from the police and fire department." Benevento's superheroic remedy was a box of equipment located next to the clock tower. Stacked in the box are a controller, music storage unit, pre-amplifier, and an amplifier. A clock integrated into the system makes sure tunes are played five minutes after every bell chime, and a car heater at the bottom keeps the whole thing warm enough to work. The 78-year-old Navy veteran showed off his handiwork to a reporter recently wearing a red "bah humbug" hat. He said he doesn't much care for "Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "The Little Drummer Boy," preferring classics like "Hark the Herald Angels Sing." "It's got some Christmas music," he said, "but there should be more." But the Christmas music is playing. In the new year, it will revert to a mix of standards, jazz, show tunes, and patriotic songs. So congratulations, Benny. And Merry Christmas to all from me and everyone at BearCom!