Article written by Rod Kauffman, BOMA President

Attention BOMA Members who have a DAS (Distributed Antenna System) in your buildings or should have one installed retroactively per a fire code requirement for many buildings.

The PSERN Project is upgrading the emergency radio communications system in King County. This critical network allows our fire fighters, law enforcement officers, EMS, and other first responders to communicate.

About 250-300 buildings in King County have a DAS system. Most new hi-rises are required to install them. There has been a retroactive requirement that Fire Marshals have been addressing.

September 1, 2021 is a key date as all buildings must be in compliance with the new regulations or have a signed contract to have the testing and realignment scheduled if necessary.

NOTE: There are a limited number of vendor/contractors in our market qualified to do the required testing and recommissioning which will be a back-up you will want to avoid. Learn more at PSERN’s website now: www.psern.org

Some buildings may be good to go right now while others may have significant work that needs to be done. This will be low cost for some and more expensive for others. BOMA is helping get the word out assisting PSERN and Fire Marshals. Therefore, BOMA will be announcing and hosting a webinar on the upcoming required testing and certification of your buildings DAS system in mid-January. We will announce the date and time in the next 7-10 days of that January date.

Topics that will be covered in the BOMA sponsored Emergency Radio Network Webinar in mid-January:

• The PSERN Project’s impact on emergency radio communications
• What a DAS is and where they are required
• Identifying DAS in your building
• The Project’s recommendations to prepare for the transition
• The current schedule for the transition
• Requirements and enforcement of code compliance
• More information to come
• Robust Q & A

More Information:

PSERN (Puget Sound Emergency Radio Network) is a not-for-profit formed by local governments to add cell towers and manage the testing and realignment of DAS system to towers connections.

DAS in King County buildings are required by RCW 19.27.031 and WAC 51-54A-003 (which adopts the fire code). The code describes when and how emergency radio systems are required. The Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ), usually the Fire Marshal, is responsible for enforcing the code.