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Building owners are required to provide in-building radio coverage for fire and police in accordance with their local building codes, typically with a DAS. The entities responsible for operating radio towers in the Puget Sound area are consolidating their services under Puget Sound Emergency Radio Network, or PSERN. PSERN is imposing new DAS requirements which building owners comply with to ensure in-building radio coverage and to pass their annual fire test.

They cover various parts and pieces of your system including:

• Bi-Directional Amplifier or Active Fiber DAS Equipment (does all the heavy lifting)
  • Making sure that they have the right components to work with the new system
• Rooftop Antenna (also called a donor antenna)
  • The donor antenna connects the DAS System with the local Public Safety tower near you and provides your DAS system with the signal strength needed to make your first responder equipment work.
• Signal Bleed Through to the outside of your building
  • It is important to make sure that a DAS system is not too powerful due to the negative side effects that can arise. Handheld radios work best when connected to one signal source and communication quality decreases when multiple sources are equal in signal strength. Side effects can include distorted, weakened or completely cut out communications.

What Action Should I Take?

• Timeline
  • PSERN is going to take the place of the 4 current King County based radio networks starting at the beginning of 2022. This means that your DAS system should be assessed and modified to meet PSERN standard by a DAS vendor in quarter 3 to 4 of 2021.

A DAS system is a network of antennas providing clear and easy to understand handheld radio communication to emergency responders throughout a building’s interior.

It is comprised of a roof antenna to receive signals off of the air from a public safety radio tower and a bi-directional amplifier (BDA) to amplify those signals and rebroadcast them through a network of antennas. A good DAS system should have an up-to-date BDA with features that ensure a clean collection of public safety channels used for emergency responders with unwanted signals filtered out as well as effective full building coverage to ensure clear communication at a time when it will save lives.

Incorrectly programmed, defective or outdated BDAs and/or poorly installed cabling and antennas will create harmful interference and rebroadcast it to the whole radio network and in turn make emergency communication more difficult for the whole county.

Some buildings are much larger than one standard BDA can provide coverage too and need a more advanced system that can avoid the signal loss that comes over large distances in coaxial cabling. The solution is to have a special type of equipment that translates the radio frequencies to be sent over large distances through fiber optic cabling. This type of DAS system can be used for particularly large buildings or multiple buildings through a network of underground cabling.

Partial Systems that only provide coverage to the below ground floors can be installed if a building is very close to the radio tower and naturally gets very good coverage above ground level.

A good DAS integrator should have the following qualifications and qualities:

• GROL – General Radiotelephone Operator License granted by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission)
• Manufacturer certifications for each component of a DAS system.
• A good relationship with PSERN and the local radio board who currently controls the radio network.
  • Having a good relationship with both parties can help them guide you through a smooth transition onto project PSERN.
• Please contact Skyline for help at or call

PSERN has a public list of DAS Integrators who work in the King County area are ready to help you make your first step!