Land Mobile Radio (LMR) Isn’t Legacy—It’s Mission-Critical

Why LMR remains essential in a modern operations stack

SUMMARY

When everything else fails—cell towers, fiber, power—voice radio is often the last system standing. For nearly two decades, Tamazari has helped utilities and public agencies make sure that system works when people’s safety, livelihoods, and communities depend on it.

Across Alaska, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Washington, Tamazari has designed, deployed, and managed land mobile radio (LMR) systems that connect first responders, utility crews, and dispatchers in environments ranging from remote wilderness to dense urban infrastructure. While each project was unique, they all shared a common purpose: ensuring clear, reliable, interoperable voice communication when failure is not an option.

CLIENT BACKGROUND

State of Alaska – Department of Military and Veterans Affairs (DMVA)

The Alaska Department of Military and Veterans Affairs oversees the Alaska Land Mobile Radio (ALMR) system—a statewide P25 trunked radio network that serves federal, state, and local public safety agencies. Built on the State of Alaska Telecommunications System (SATS) microwave backbone, ALMR is the connective tissue for emergency response across one of the most geographically challenging regions in the world. For Alaska State Troopers and other responders, ALMR isn’t a convenience—it’s how help gets coordinated across thousands of miles of wilderness.

KAMO Power

KAMO Power is a generation and transmission cooperative serving 17 member distribution cooperatives across northeast Oklahoma and southwest Missouri. In rural communities, reliable radio communications are essential to restoring power during storms, coordinating field crews, and keeping member-owned utilities running safely and efficiently.

Tacoma Public Utilities (TPU)

Tacoma Public Utilities provides water, rail, and power services to the Tacoma, Washington region, including operations at five hydroelectric dams. TPU’s communications systems must support everyday operations and remain functional during large-scale emergencies—most notably a potential Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake that could cripple Pacific Northwest infrastructure.

CHALLENGE

While the environments differed, the stakes were similar: communications had to work under extreme conditions, during emergencies, and across organizational boundaries.

Alaska DMVA

Deploying radio infrastructure across Alaska’s interior meant working in conditions few projects ever encounter. Many sites were reachable only by helicopter or bush plane. Construction windows were dictated by weather. Crews routinely encountered wildlife hazards, including being stalked by bears. Despite this, the system had to meet federal P25 interoperability standards and deliver reliable coverage for day-to-day law enforcement and emergency response across vast, sparsely populated terrain.

KAMO Power

KAMO’s legacy radio equipment was past its useful life. The cooperative needed a modern trunked system capable of serving 17 member cooperatives across more than 400 sites—without imposing an unsustainable cost burden on a member-owned organization. The new system also had to integrate cleanly with dispatch and phone operations.

Tacoma Public Utilities

TPU faced a different kind of risk: catastrophic failure. Its aging Motorola system needed replacement, but the new platform had to do more than support daily operations. It needed to function during a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake—a rare but inevitable event that would likely destroy bridges, sever power, and disrupt communications across the region. Interoperability with city and county emergency systems, redundancy, and survivability were non-negotiable.

SUCCESS CRITERIA

Across all deployments, success was defined by real-world performance:

• Reliable, standards-compliant LMR systems that crews trust

• Interoperability with partner agencies and emergency services

• Seamless integration with dispatch, phone, and operational systems

• Resilient designs with redundancy, hardened sites, and backup power

• On-time delivery despite extreme conditions

• Solutions that matched operational needs and financial realities

SOLUTION

Tamazari delivered tailored LMR architectures rather than one-size-fits-all systems.

• Alaska DMVA: Motorola ASTRO P25 trunked system integrated with the statewide ALMR network and SATS microwave backbone

• KAMO Power: Kenwood trunked radio system providing cost-effective, cooperative-wide coverage with dispatch and phone integration

• Tacoma Public Utilities: Motorola P25 system with shared-node architecture enabling interoperability with City of Tacoma and Pierce County 911

Each solution balanced reliability, interoperability, resilience, and cost—because mission-critical doesn’t always mean most expensive.

IMPLEMENTATION

Alaska DMVA / ALMR (2005)

Tamazari led the deployment of roughly 50 sites for the ALMR system. The work spanned tower infrastructure, dispatch centers, and subscriber equipment used by the Alaska State Troopers and other public safety agencies across the state.

• End-to-End Delivery - The project demanded full-spectrum expertise—from site selection and preparation to tower and shelter installation, RF and microwave deployment, dispatch console configuration, and subscriber programming. Every site had to meet federal P25 standards and perform reliably in some of the harshest conditions imaginable.

KAMO Power (2013–2015)

Tamazari managed the replacement of KAMO’s aging radio system with a modern Kenwood trunked platform spanning more than 400 sites.

• Cost-Effective Technology Selection - The Kenwood system delivered trunking benefits—capacity, efficiency, and features—without imposing unnecessary cost on a cooperative owned by its members.

• Cooperative-Wide Coverage - Substations, generation facilities, offices, and field crews across all 17 member cooperatives were connected under a unified radio system.

• System Integration - By integrating radio with dispatch and phone systems, KAMO gained a more coordinated, efficient communications environment—especially critical during outages and emergencies.

Tacoma Public Utilities (2016–2020)

As Manager of Water, Rail, and Power communications systems, Tamazari oversaw TPU’s radio infrastructure across 20 sites.

• P25 Migration - TPU transitioned from legacy Motorola systems to a modern P25 platform while maintaining operational continuity.

• Regional Interoperability Architecture - The system uses a shared Motorola node that can interconnect with City of Tacoma and Pierce County 911 during emergencies, enabling coordinated regional response when it matters most.

• Cascadia Resilience Design - A Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake would reshape the Pacific Northwest overnight. TPU’s radio system was designed with this reality in mind—using redundant paths and hardened infrastructure to ensure voice communications remain available even if power, fiber, and transportation networks fail. This resilience directly supports dam safety, water delivery, and power restoration during a regional catastrophe.

RESULTS

Alaska DMVA

• ~50 sites deployed across Alaska’s interior

• Full integration with the statewide ALMR P25 network

• Reliable coverage supporting Alaska State Troopers

KAMO Power

• 400+ sites connected across the service territory

• All 17 member cooperatives unified on a trunked system

• Hundreds of subscriber radios deployed and integrated

Tacoma Public Utilities

• 20-site P25 system supporting water, rail, and power operations

• Interoperability with City of Tacoma and Pierce County 911

• Redundant paths ensuring communications during regional emergencies

• Ongoing management entering its ninth year

LONG-TERM VALUE

These systems do more than carry voice traffic. They enable coordinated emergency response, protect public safety, and keep essential services running during crises. Standards-based P25 platforms preserve long-term flexibility, while integrated dispatch and resilient architectures ensure communications are available when communities need them most.

KEY LEARNINGS

• Mission-critical systems must match real operational needs—not marketing promises

• Extreme environments demand teams skilled in both technology and survival

• Interoperability must be designed in from day one

• Resilience for catastrophic events requires redundancy, not optimism

• Long-term stewardship delivers far more value than one-time deployments

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