boundaries is generally good, with a few pockets of bad signal area. Coverage also extends across most of the county and neighboring county, so drivers usually have radio support when they’re traveling to regional sporting events.
“When we moved to sharing our radio system with the
rest of the district, we learned that our most dense radio traffic occurs at the beginning and end of the school day as students are arriving at and departing from the buildings. This proved challenging when adding the bus radio traffic, which peaks at the same time,” Matthews explained. While the original system was undersized on repeat- ers, staff were able to add enough to attain adequate coverage. Township’s Hayes in Illinois noted that for any radios,
even simple differences among drivers can pose chal- lenges such as adjusting to where to hold the mic based on how loud or how low each person talks. “If someone naturally speaks louder than most, when the mic is closer to their mouths it’s tough to understand them,” he said, adding that’s its the opposite for someone who speaks
quieter. “I would say there”s a lot of ‘10-9’ heard from me. Or sometimes the driver forgets to turn the radio back up after turning it down for one reason or another.” Hayes added that the digital radios have had to be
serviced a bit more than the old-school, heavy-duty radios of the past. “It’s not a deal breaker, but just an adjustment,” he said. “More bells and whistles lead to the opportunity for more errors that need to be addressed.” At North Sanpete, even though the district isn’t large,
there are some areas where the signal will not reach the transportation office very clearly or at all. “I’ve con- sidered using a repeater, but have not due to the cost and availability,” Sagers said. “However, there is usu- ally another bus somewhere in between that can relay communication.” Other challenges Sagers has seen include buses losing
antennas, and drivers changing the channel or turning the volume down so that they can’t hear the office. “I ask the drivers to have their radios on while wait-
ing for students at the schools so we can get a message to them if needed, but not all drivers follow or remember,” he said. “The newer radios do have a timer that I can set so
44 School Transportation News • FEBRUARY 2025
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