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Portable Radios
Hey everyone. I just wanted to get a few opinions on this topic. As a firefighter with my local department, I have an issue with what our department is not going to do. Our department was awarded a FEMA SAFER grant to hire 12 new firefighters bakc in early July of this year. I was one of those 12 firefighters that were hired. After we were hired, we all recieved our uniforms and gear, but our department did not issue every new firefighter a portable radio. After many of our firefighters had an issue with not recieving radios, we went to the chief to discuss the issue. After discussing the issue with our Chief, he advised us that every firefighter does not need a radio. According to him, only our company officer and pump operaters need radios because they are in charge of our crews and our chief wants to put emphasis on crew integrity. Now, almost all of the firefighters in the department have an issue with this because it is a major safety issue that all of our firefighters don't have radios. Grant it, crew integrity is very important, but what if something went wrong? What if any one of us were seperated from the rest of our crew, or our company officer was to go down, then how would anyone call a mayday? If I could get some input on this, I would greatly appreciate it.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by T.J. on
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I totally her where your coming from, and my department is still in the transaction of getting everyone their own P.R. but we make sure every team has 2 radios at least.
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Permalink Reply by Capkurt on
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We equip our rigs with enough portables so every riding fire fighter has one. Only the officer's get one assigned to them to take home, etc. When you get off the rig you better have a portable in your hand or radio pocket because there are enough.
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Permalink Reply by PFC Harmon on
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Every member needs a radio rather you are in a house or over a bank on a rescue or god forbid get attacked by an idiot on an ems that radio is your life line. You all need to get together and get them. Stay safe
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I agree with you 100% Justin, but if you've got 100 radio's out there then you get 100 of the local volunteers all checking enroute to the firehall when they get paged, and it takes up all the radio traffic to 911, I hate that part.
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Permalink Reply by Carl Freewalt CFEI-CVFI on
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Our officers carry a radio during interior operations and they stay with there team. No radio No entry.
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True with radios come responsibility. And your members need to use common sense. If they misuse or abuse the privilege of a portable than it can be taken away and put at the staion for them to take on calls.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Schlags (Captain Busy) Retd on
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How much is your personal safety worth to you?
How about $227.00 plus shipping costs?
Just doing a quick google search for portable radios, I found this:
Kenwood TK-3202LU16P ProTalk 2-Way Portable Radio, 16 Channel UHF Radio, Exceptional 500 mW audio quality, 2 Watts of transmit power, 15 channels plus SCAN, 38 privacy codes (CTCSS), High efficiency antenna (TK3202LU16P TK-3202LU16 TK-3202LU TK-3202LU TK-3202 TK3202)
SKU: TK3202LU16P
Brand: Kenwood
$226.73
Just specify the frequencies you want YOUR portable radio programmed to. You will be better off not going on line for this and instead finding a local retailer that can do the custom programming for you.
I think this is a simple answer to your problem. Don't rely on others when it comes to your personal safety.
It's all about going home in the morning...
Stay safe,
Mike from Santa Barbara
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I totally agree Mike, and some guys around here are starting to buy their own radios, just because their department wont equip them with one.
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I forgot to mention that before we had to buy our own radios, the county only provides 3 radios for a dept of 25 to 30. I have a Moto p1225 its a great radio paid 125 bucks for and it came with a collar mike and charger. If you do buy your own stay away from maxon and icom they are junk.
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We pretty much got motorola ans kenwood, I've got a HT1000 and it works great.
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Permalink Reply by Joe Stoltz on
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Okay...
I have seen a number of responses about radios - particularly the inexpensive Vertex and Kenwood radios - now, let's talk about using them for interior attack.
I know that the "less expensive" Motorola radios have plug-in microphones that easily become disconnected in the heat of battle. I'm pretty sure the other radios have similar connector styles.
I don't think I would ever use one of these radios on an interior attack. Besides the risk of the mic becoming detached, there is the issue of not being intrinsically safe for explosive atmospheres. PLEASE, somebody tell me that these aren't being used for interior work?
We have standardized on the Kenwood TK series for mobiles and portables. Great stuff, although the portables don't seem quite as good as our old MT1000s. The TK portables can survive a good dunking and not be at all affected.
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