Capital Region Radio System

System Name	Capital Region Radio System
System Type	Project 25 Phase II
System ID	02AA
Connect Tone	?
Wide Area Communications Network	BEE00
Network Access Code	2A0/2A1/2A2/2A3
TRBO Color Code	?
NXDN RAN
Band	800MHz
County	Chesterfield, Colonial Heights, Hanover, Henrico, King William, Richmond
State	Virginia
Ownership	Public
Capital Region Radio System RR DB Entry
Capital Region Radio System Site Map from the RRDB
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Welcome to the Capital Region Radio System collaboration article, a Trunked Radio System located in Virginia.
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P25 CHID:

• CHID 0: FDMA 851.00625 BANDWIDTH 12.5kHz SPACING 6.25kHz -45.00000 OFFSET
• CHID 1: FDMA 762.00625 BANDWIDTH 12.5kHz SPACING 6.25kHz +30.00000 OFFSET

Richmond Capital Region - Radio System History

The Richmond Capital Region encompasses a core area of Central Virginia centered around the Commonwealth’s capital, the City of Richmond. In the year 2000, four jurisdictions — Chesterfield County, the City of Colonial Heights, the City of Richmond, and Henrico County — recognized the growing need for unified, interoperable communications across municipal boundaries. This led to the development and implementation of a region-wide public safety radio system. The result of their collaboration was a three-zone Motorola SmartZone trunked radio network, which provided improved coordination and interoperability among emergency services within the region.

Over the following two decades, the number of users relying on the SmartZone system steadily increased, driving up demand for additional talkgroup capacity and radio frequency resources. At the same time, support for the aging SmartZone infrastructure began to wane. The system’s proprietary architecture, limited scalability, and incompatibility with emerging industry standards created significant operational challenges. These included limited interoperability with new-generation subscriber radios and a lack of flexibility to support evolving public safety communications requirements.

Capital Region Radio System Replacement Initiative

In 2015, a new collaborative effort was launched to modernize and replace the aging SmartZone network. Chesterfield County, the City of Colonial Heights, the City of Richmond, Hanover County, and Henrico County came together to form a new partnership with the goal of deploying a next-generation, standards-based trunked radio system. This initiative, known as the Capital Region Radio System (CRRS), was designed to meet the growing needs of public safety and government users across the region for years to come.

A formal Request for Proposal (RFP) was issued, and after an extensive evaluation process, the contract for the new system was awarded to Motorola Solutions, Inc. The system is based on Project 25 (P25) standards, ensuring interoperability, efficiency, and future-proof scalability. A major technical component of the new system is its ability to interconnect with Hanover County’s existing 15-site P25 Phase I trunked system via an Inter RF Subsystem Interface (ISSI). This interface allows for seamless roaming of subscriber units between jurisdictions. In practical terms, a radio user from Chesterfield, Henrico, Richmond, or Colonial Heights can travel into Hanover County and communicate as if they were on their home network — and vice versa — without needing to switch radios or manually reconfigure channels.

Project Timeline & System Architecture

Although originally slated for a more expedited rollout by 2020, the Capital Region Radio System project has faced multiple delays since then. These setbacks have been attributed to a combination of supply chain disruptions, technical integration challenges, and delays in site construction and permitting.

In addition to these issues, a major contributing factor to the project’s prolonged timeline has been the unusual scope of work agreed to by the vendor, Motorola Solutions. Unlike most large-scale public safety radio projects, Motorola committed to installing and maintaining a substantial portion of the physical infrastructure associated with the system — including HVAC systems, tower lighting and grounding, shelter equipment, backup generators, and more. This level of vendor responsibility, while designed to streamline long-term maintenance and support, is not typically seen on radio systems of this scale and complexity. The expanded vendor involvement has added layers of logistical coordination and oversight, further contributing to project delays.

Despite these challenges, the system remains on track for completion by approximately 2026. Once fully implemented, it will consist of 51 individual radio subsites across all participating jurisdictions. The system will operate with two Zone Controllers (Radio Frequency Subsystem Controllers): one for Chesterfield, Colonial Heights, Henrico, and Richmond, and another for Hanover County, which already exists on their own P25 Phase I system. The entire network will share the System ID 02AA, currently used by Hanover.