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Should all members of a department have portable radio's
I am on a small department in south west Iowa. We have 25 members and cover 2.2 sqaure miles. 22 of our 25 members live in town. Only officer's can respond to the scene and everybody else goes to the station. Our chief issued a HT 1000 portable radios to all the members . My idea was to mount chargers on the wall near the trucks if it's a fire call grab a radio on your way out the door because I dont think that all members need a radio assigned to them. But he wanted everybody to take a radio home with them even though the rules he laid out says that only officers will go enroute over the radio for all calls, EMT's /paramedics for medical, and divers for water rescue. The firefighters are not allowed to talk on the main dispatch channel only our fireground channel. I also think that there is more potential for these radios to be broken or stolen just lying around somebodys house or left in a POV. Does anybody else have an opinion on this.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Brian Dumser on
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Good job, Ray! Glad to hear that worked out.
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Permalink Reply by A.J. on
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its easy use DIMWIT Does It Matter What I Transmit. some people in our county do not do this and for the most part are set straight about their radio usage. everyone needs a radio on the fire ground medical call MVA cause its better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. stay safe.
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Permalink Reply by Phillip L Queen on
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you are missing the point. If you go down, trapped, injured or your fellow firefighter needs help you can call for help in and emergency. If you have a strong policy on use and who talks on the rado with strong rdio disapline then you will have no problem.
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Permalink Reply by sweetfire203 on
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SWCFD1 is a combination department and everyone that is a member and out of their probationary period receives a radio. There are only 4 positions that are full time and the rest are volunteer. Having our own radios makes it easier to get the right amount of response for calls. The only time you will use your radio to talk on is on a scene only the officer on call will respond with the radio to acknowledge or to copy the page and to inform dispatch that they are enroute to the station . I think that whether or not your department id paid or volunteer everyone should have their own both for saftey and for making them responsable for their own equipment.
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Permalink Reply by Amy Silva on
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By being able to take your radio home, it runs the risk of getting lost, stolen, or damaged. And some departments make the FF who lost or damaged the radio replace it out of their own pocket! Working for a company that specializes in protecting FFs and their radio equipment, I hear horror stories all the time about how expensive these portables are and what they cost to repair...so if you do get to take yours home, make sure its protected!
Stay safe,
Amy
http://www.radiotech.com
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Permalink Reply by Jenny Holderby on
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I had the same portable radio for 15 years. I have had a pager and/or radio for over 20 years. I have never lost one, had it stolen, or broken it. I have had to have repairs and general maintenance of course and more problems with chargers than the equipment itself. Over the years we have had very few radios stolen (other than those that were taken from vehicles in the 911 aftermath in NYC) or lost.
More radios are damaged by getting knocked out of fire trucks or dropped in the mud or water on the fire ground than anything else . We did have a number of new portables stolen from our fire station. They sat in the equipment room for a couple of months while the officers were waiting to decide who they would be issued to. By the time the decission was made, the new radios had been stolen.
My old Radius P-100 circa 1989 finally gave up the ghost so I do not have a radio at this point in time. I miss it after having had a radio for so long. We often use cell phones to contact each other when it is convenient but radios let everyone else know what is going on as well. They are handy tools. IF you can afford them, giving them to your firefighters.
All of our communications equipment is covered under insurance like the rest of our equipment. If something happens it will be repaired or replaced. The only time a ff is asked to replace the equipment issued to him/her is when the problem is found to be intentional neglect or abuse that caused the radio/pager to be broken.
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Permalink Reply by Firemedic01 on
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It's all a matter of responsibility. If the firefighter is responsible then give him/her a radio and have that individual sign for the radio claiming responsibility for the replacement of a lost, stolen, or damaged radio.
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Permalink Reply by howard on
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there should be a radio for every riding position on a unit , issuing a radio to every member is kindda expensive. it also makes radio traffic a nightmare. leave the radio on the unit. give members pagers. pagers do the same thing as radios. you hear the call, you respond to the station or scene you report to command / or officer and then you get a radio and an assignment. helps with accountability and will hopefully cut down on free lancing
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Permalink Reply by Allen on
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Well, this is a huge argument around our station. We are on a Dual band operation. in other words we use both the 800mhz and the VHF freq's. Our tones drop on the VHF line and our Fire Ground is normally on the 800 lines. (Don't ask, i had nothing to do with it) Now the bad part is that we are only issued 12 of the 800 radios that cost close to $3000.00 each and the Chief will only issue them out to the "People he likes" in my opion (That don't amount to squat around there). I look at it like this, if i am going in on a structure i will have a radio, if i am on a med call, i will have a radio. In other words it is a matter of not only safety but to be able to hear if people call for help while i am coming back in the area. If you don't make the calls, you dont get one. If you do, then you get one. Just my opion.
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Permalink Reply by turk182 on
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In my department the only one allowed to carry their portable is the chief.
All of our line officers are assigned portables but they stay in station with their turn-outs. We have extra's in a charge by the gear so members can grab one on their way to the trucks, also I wired to chargers behind each jump seat on the engine so the fire fighters can grab them if they do not have one.
The problem we have is when another station is calling one or two of our members start answering instead of letting the officers answer it they need to learn radio disapline. And I plan on having training classes on radion usage come the first of the year when I take over as chief.
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Permalink Reply by BillySFCVFD on
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It's my understanding that FCC rules in 2011, I think that's the year, will require all emergency freqs to be narrow band. Because of the expense, at least today prices, it might limit the amount of radios a FD has if funding is an issue. My VFD is already cringing at the future cost. Anyone got ideas on this? TCSS
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Permalink Reply by firefighter1and2 on
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All Officers and Firefighters who know how to use em and not abuse em----I got onto a firefighter once for saying my name over the air--my dept trying to get all 800 radios for each Firefighter.
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