DALTON, Ga. — Dalton Fire Chief Todd Pangle recently visited his son at the University of Alabama, Huntsville, and “just out of curiosity” took his fire department portable radio with him.

“One of our trucks got a call while I was in Dade County on my way and I could hear it,” he said. “My radio did not tone out of service until I was out of Dade County and up above the Tennessee state line.”

Whitfield County switched to a new digital 911 radio system in August, and Pangle is among the first responders who say the improvement over the analog system it replaced, which used 40-year-old technology, is dramatic.

“There’s no comparison,” Pangle said. “We can talk portable to portable better than we could talk mobile to mobile before. So far, we have found no dead spots for communication. Previously, we had multiple dead spots. Even in residential calls, we would find that guys inside were having trouble communicating with people outside.”

Pangle said one of the biggest dead spots was in one of the worst possible places: Hamilton Medical Center.

“I could walk in the front door of the hospital, look out the door at guys outside and not be able to communicate with them,” he said. “A couple of weeks ago, we went up there and tested things out. We actually went down into their switchboard room, which is completely encapsulated in concrete and its downstairs in the service area. We were able to talk to people outside as clearly as you and I are right now.”

Pangle says such clear communications will improve safety for first responders as well as improve his department’s ability to coordinate on the scene and fight fires.

Dalton Police Department spokesman Bruce Frazier says the radios are “crystal clear from anywhere in the city.”

“I’ve spoken to a lot of officers and I haven’t heard any complaints about areas where they’ve had any trouble getting a strong signal. Everyone is really happy with them,” he said.

Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Gary Stephens says reception could be spotty on the edges of the county under the old radio system but he has driven all over the county and hasn’t found a dead spot with the new system. He says he was recently near the Tennessee state line and was able to talk clearly to dispatch.

“In the previous situation, I probably would have gone back to my car and used my phone, if I had phone service,” he said.

He said sheriff’s deputies and the Whitfield County Fire Department recently responded to an ATV accident in the Chattahoochee National Forest in the northwest part of the county.

“We all went to the first responders channel. As I was riding in, we could talk to the firefighters who were there, and in the past there would have been no radio service at all in that area,” he said.

Whitfield County Fire Chief Ed O’Brien says the new system is “exceeding our expectations.”

The new system, which cost some $12 million, was the top priority under the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) approved by voters in 2015. It serves all county first responders as well as those of Dalton, Cohutta, Tunnel Hill and Varnell.

The new system is part of the Tennessee Valley Regional Communications System (TVRCS), which includes 10 counties in Tennessee and Catoosa, Dade and Walker counties in Georgia. By joining the system, the county was able to utilize existing towers and only had to erect three of its own.

“I want to personally thank the citizens of the county for voting in the SPLOST and making this possible,” said Whitfield County Emergency Management Director Claude Craig. “I was with the sheriff’s office in 1974 when we changed our communications system from what was called low band to VHF. We stayed with that system for 43 years. We had band-aided it and patched to the point where we could not band-aid anymore.”

Craig says the new system improves the safety of first responders. It is encrypted, meaning that only those on the system can hear communications and track the movements of first responders.

He says it will also improve the safety of county residents.

“Just one example, there’s much less chance a sheriff’s deputy or police officer will have to ask dispatch to repeat an address because they couldn’t hear it. That might not seem like much of a delay, but in an emergency, every second can count,” he said.

Pangle says the new system has been a “great investment.”

“I know it cost a lot, but from my perspective, it was worth every penny, and I really thank the taxpayers and voters for allowing us to make that investment,” he said.