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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 Kenneth Holley on
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We are a medium size volunteer department and have been lucky in the radio issue. A local corporation started switching their old motorola portables for a newer model. Some of the local departments (ours was one) had several boxes donated to them. All we had to do was have them cleaned up and reprogramed. We have the software to do this so it was basically a cleanup job for the most part. Now all active members have a radio to carry with them. Some of the non-active members don't like this but the chief tells them "If you come around more you might get one."
Sometimes having these radios is a double edge sword. It's good so that we can communicate on the fire ground,but is a pain when everybody tries to tell dispatch they are responding. It's hard to get across to the younger guys that they don't care unless you are a chief officer or arew the first one on scene. I have one and rarely use it unless I get to the house first and then it's "513 out at headquarters." The most I use it is during training. It is a great communication tool only if it's used correctly.
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Permalink Reply by Trey Taylor on
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Im from a small county vol fire. there are 6 paid FFs in the whole county. Every member of the dept is issued a radio & two batteries. We carry them 24/7. This in my opinon has helped us in communication. We still have times when no body goes to get a truck, but atleast we now know if someone is going or not. I think the county got them through a grant or contract with the provider.
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Permalink Reply by Ken Wagner on
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On our trucks in my dept. we have a radio for each crew member. Even though my dept is only 7 square miles we run alot of mutual aid and alot of times people are assigned to differant tasks and that is why we have a radio for each member on the truck.
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Permalink Reply by Chuck Wright on
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I agree that every person on a dept. should have a portable radio
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Permalink Reply by firechief911 on
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we are a small vol dept. we have 10 pagers and 25 pageing radios. we have 20 firemen everyone has a pager radio and about 8 have pagers too 4 of 5 officers have mobile radios in there pov .we have a porable on all but 2 trucks , they are military trucks and are 24 volt .and a mobile in every fire truck
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Permalink Reply by T.J. on
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I'd say half of our crew now has radios but everyone has a pager, so not everyone has one but when we sent in a team only one talks on the radio but we're working on everyone having a radio
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Permalink Reply by Mike Simmons on
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'Scuse me, but I'm one of those chiefs (well, I was, then I retired) you're whining about. My lightbar was 10yrs old, worked fine. I am not such an idiot who would send in a crew with 1 radio & then split em up. Nor do I care to have that many people on the radio, nor is there always money for things members want. Sometimes there is money available for needs, which takes priority over wants. When you have a 25man VFD & a budget you can't run your house on, you tend to stick to needs.Not trying to paint with too broad a brush, but too many people tend overuse or abuse radio privileges (this is not a right). So I gotta have some control over who is on a radio. On my Dept, Chief, Asst Chief, all 3 Capt's had radios, we had additional radios kept at the station for use by crew leads oscene. Not counting vehicle-mounted units, we could put up to 15 radios on a scene, if that ain't enough call out the National Guard, you got problems.
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Permalink Reply by Justin Buck on
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at our VFD each active member has there own radio, pager , and a mobil that goes in our vehicals we keep them with us 24/7
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Permalink Reply by Donnie Hood K14 on
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We upgraded our radios a few months ago to 800s Now every truck has a portable as well as all officers and the most active members.
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Permalink Reply by mike wright on
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We cant afford radios for everyone so the only ones that have them are the officers. I know this isnt the preferred method of radio assignments but this is what we are dealt with. With no money to buy more then we use what we have.
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Permalink Reply by Jay Nicholson on
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Not only your dispatch, but possibly other locals also. Here if you dial 911 on a cell, you get routed to CHP. After a busy signal, then on hold, you may finally get thru if your signal hasn't dropped. I waited on hold one time for 10 minutes. It has gotten much better though. But I still loaded the direct line to a few of the local dispatch centers. i don't want to talk to the CHP if my neighbor down the roads house is burning.
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Permalink Reply by Joey "BigShow" De Piano on
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over the last month we installed cab chargers in crew cab and each member gets off with a radio and a tool
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