Post by scannerman5555 on Jan 28, 2005 20:54:24 GMT -5
Fixing FD Communications...
The solution (and the funding to accomplish it) need to come from the county.
A couple of definites:
Portables:
The best frequency band for fireground operations is UHF. The best building penetration capabilities, the best (although still limited) choices for frequencies, minimal electrical interference, all reasons for UHF portables on the fireground.
Mobiles:
Truck-to-truck and dispatcher-to-truck communications can be accomplished by the 800 system. It would have great range, and good mutual aid options. Problems could arise from system overload and minimal talk groups because of the cops' hold on the system. The equipment will be more expensive than UHF.
Mobile comms can also work on a UHF system. FDs maintain their own systems. Departments have their own frequency. Problems exist with the development of the infrastructure (adding a repeater) and the range will not be as strong as the 800 system.
Pagers:
I don't beleive there is such a thing as an 800mhz trunking pager. So, activations would need to take place on a different system.
**If you are building a system to pager out members, you might as well build a system to run truck to truck ops.
So, all this jibba-jabba brings me back to my original point.
- A UHF channel to talk back and forth with Firecom. (Not as easy as it sounds, with a voter system and multiple transmission sites neccesary to get good coverage on the Island).
- 3 or 4 low power frequencies to use as mutual aid "sector" frequencies. Each department will have their own fireground frequencies, but in large-scale incidents, these will be used by the "second-wave" departments who wouldn't have the host fireground in their radios.
- Each department sets up and maintains their own UHF radio system. Departments program their neighboring departments' freqs intot their radios and switch to them when responding mutual aid.
The solution (and the funding to accomplish it) need to come from the county.
A couple of definites:
Portables:
The best frequency band for fireground operations is UHF. The best building penetration capabilities, the best (although still limited) choices for frequencies, minimal electrical interference, all reasons for UHF portables on the fireground.
Mobiles:
Truck-to-truck and dispatcher-to-truck communications can be accomplished by the 800 system. It would have great range, and good mutual aid options. Problems could arise from system overload and minimal talk groups because of the cops' hold on the system. The equipment will be more expensive than UHF.
Mobile comms can also work on a UHF system. FDs maintain their own systems. Departments have their own frequency. Problems exist with the development of the infrastructure (adding a repeater) and the range will not be as strong as the 800 system.
Pagers:
I don't beleive there is such a thing as an 800mhz trunking pager. So, activations would need to take place on a different system.
**If you are building a system to pager out members, you might as well build a system to run truck to truck ops.
So, all this jibba-jabba brings me back to my original point.
- A UHF channel to talk back and forth with Firecom. (Not as easy as it sounds, with a voter system and multiple transmission sites neccesary to get good coverage on the Island).
- 3 or 4 low power frequencies to use as mutual aid "sector" frequencies. Each department will have their own fireground frequencies, but in large-scale incidents, these will be used by the "second-wave" departments who wouldn't have the host fireground in their radios.
- Each department sets up and maintains their own UHF radio system. Departments program their neighboring departments' freqs intot their radios and switch to them when responding mutual aid.