firefighter communications

what are your opinions about individual firefighters having radios? i believe they are a great enhncement for safety and communicating critical information. i have heard the arguments about cost and chatting issues. When i had one i remember being told i could ony talk for two reasons, acknowlodging an order and reporting an emergency. With everyone going to 800mhz radios, the VHF & UHF radios are still around and don't cost much. I know truck folks benifit more than engine folks but i still think everyone having a direct communication ability is a safety enhancment that cannot be denied

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan Halverson on April 6, 2010 at 12:30pm

I'm not going to comment on whether the radios are assigned to the person, or to the riding position, or just to the rig, because I don't really know, but I do know that there are at least 2 radios for every (yes, I mean every) member of the department, operational or administrative.

As for the chitchat, we've got tactical channels, most of which are very rarely used. If you need to talk to someone on the radio, you ask dispatch for a separate channel with the unit, and they'll give you one of the rarely used ones, for instance, the other day, one of the rigs wanted to talk to another one about something, they got a channel, turns out they were asking where people were because they had dinner plans. Go figure.

Cost isn't really an issue here, yes, we are getting hit by budget cuts, but not as much as other places.