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Portable Radios- One For Each Crew Member or Do You Have to Share Them?
Several months ago, my F.D. updated our portable radios so that each seating position had it's own portable radio. We were able to do this due to a grant. This ensures that each crew member on that rig has his/her own radio. This has greatly improved safety and communication. I was just wondering what other F.D's, (from big city to small town) are doing.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Paul Young on
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We are fortunate at both of the departments I work at, all positions have radios assigned to each position. The proven safety of each member able to communicate a MAYDAY or other emergency is well worth the cost.
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What do you do if your partner has the radio and falls into a hole, under a collapse, or some other situation where he or she has the radio and you can't reach it. How will you call for assistance? I'm not beating you up, but that is something to think about. I used to have a chief that thought the captains were the only ones on the fireground that needed to talk on the radio.
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I really like this guy.....he knows what he's talking about...
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Permalink Reply by Leslie Pederson on
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We have a radio for every position, though our guidelines are that the officer is only one that turns his/hers on, during operations. But they are within easy reach in their pockets of their gear. We are a combination department, with a small budget, and yes, I am one of the Chief Officers, I have an old light bar and my gear had the crap beat out of it, but my peoples safety far outweighs any bragging rights I think I need. I feel that for safety and firefighter survival, each member of the team should have the ability to communicate with a portable. Otherwise, you might as well throw MayDay out the window. Write grants, stay compliant with NIMS (it always helps), and train your people on interior communications, you wont have "radio abuse". Beyond bunkers, SCBA, radios are the next most important piece of equipment for every firefighter on the job.
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Permalink Reply by Kim Stellhorn on
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That would be great to have a portable for each seat, but some departments would rather have all the new and shiny toys and fancy vehicles for their vol officers to drive and cannot even afford to keep the stuff they have working. Basically will spend their capital expenditure budget but donot spendthe money to buy the toilet paper.
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Permalink Reply by Pete S on
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with today's modern grants, there is no reason that a rig should leave the station without a radio for ewach seat on it...if this is not possible that department needs to reevaluate its ability to operate, if you cannot operate safely you should not operate...you would not go into a burning bldg without an airpack, would you?
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Permalink Reply by Jose L. Gonzalez on
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Just last year, each member of every unit was issued one radio each. All tailboards on Engines, Ladders and Trucks, including medic units, all have radios. We do run into the usual radio being "misplaced" but ,all in all, each member on shift is ensured a radio. "misplaced" radios usually occur on medic units.
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Permalink Reply by Kenneth Lord on
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My twp. is slowly getting up to one portable radio per seat. Last year 12 more were purchased. But we have 13 pieces of apparatus with a total of 78 seats. Plus 4 command cars, a mechanic's truck, and investigation unit; which each carry one. So yeah, alot of radios... alot of money. I bought my own though. That way I know how old and what condition the battery is in.
P.S. My dept. is a combo 15 paid 150 Vol. dept. covering a 26.4 square mile 50,000+ resident SJ suburb. Hence all the apparatus.
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Permalink Reply by Paul Kerp on
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I am from a small volunteer dept., the active members were issued radios about 9 of us. Now if our County's communications system would work properly it would help!
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Permalink Reply by flash_fire007 on
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We are a small paid dept. in Texas, We have a radio Motorola HT1250 w/Display & keypad for every seat on the trucks and we also have individual pagers as well, On Fire Apps. the radio's have lapel mic's attached and then we have the mic loop sewn on our coat just above radio pocket. The EMS Apps. do not have lapel mic's but do have the option if they want. We are a fairly small dept. 3 stations, 11 man shift 2-Engines 2-EMS 1-Command, our minimum manpower is 9 men. For EMS we do all MICU for the city & a great portion of county, We have a small hospital here which in turn we do all the EMS Transfers either north or south 50-100 mile radius to the bigger hospitals.
Anyway my point is we had small radio repeater booster installed on our trucks fire/ems for the rural county calls, So when we go way out all we do is flip the switch on and our portables will hit the truck then hit the tower back to dispatch. Was terrible before because some area's you could not even get a cell phone signal if you got in trouble, but now a little static depending on location but most time its perfect. On another note... I have a buddy that works an even smaller Paid/Volunteer Dept. and they get issued their own portable upon employment, BUT the stipulation is they must carry it at all times on or off duty and if they are called off duty to respond they MUST??
Anyway hope this helps... I've seen it both ways and I would not want to be on any scene without my own radio...
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Permalink Reply by Bruce Mack on
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Our county is changing over from a low band system and each compamy buys it own radios to a 400mhz system and the county supplies all radios. first off we are getting better comunications, and they are supplying enough portables for the chauffer and the interior crews plus the company officers. Some other pluses are if you are experiencing radio problems they switch out units, no down time. But there are a few draw backs you now hear all communictions in the county so when someone sounds like an idiot everyone knows not just the surrounding companies. and when or if you want additional radios you have to go to the counties committee and thier decision is final. hasn't happened yet but in the future you never know.
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Everyone should have one but there should be training in place so scenes do not turn into a bunch of chaotic radio chatter that could get someone hurt. There is one class that I took that I thought was great for fireground organisation and communication. It was taught by Roger Lunt of the University of Illinois Fire Service Institute called Fireground Management for Small Career and Volunteer Fire Departments.
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