FRS walkie talkies

[Deucalion]

Damit gunner, stop morphing to try to get around filters.

Re filtered again.

[Steve W.]

Sounds like most of P.A. They had big M come in and install all new gear across the state all of it P25 crap. The coverage area went from something like 85% in the worst spots to less than 60% now in the best locations. There were a couple videos out that showed them testing the system and two people were less than a mile apart and could see each other but the radios wouldn't work. Then there are the guys in NYFD who can stand on opposite sides of a brick wall and cannot talk. Just what you want for crews who will be risking it all entering a building on fire and they can't talk to the crew outside!!!

[Michael A. Terrell]

It will bite them some day when it's the family of the ones who signed the contract needs help, and they can't get it because of the crappy radios.

[David J. Hughes]

The article doesn't specify.

But the given mAhs suggest AA.

AAAs don't hold that much, C and Ds hold more.

[Steve W.]

I mentioned that to our counties Emergency services people (both the head and his deputy) and was told. "There is nothing we can do to change it" When I mentioned lawsuits and such from deaths and fires where the radio signals didn't trip our pagers or where crews couldn't talk to each other the answer was "We are not responsible for that, and we're not worried because nobody will sue us. We're just following the law"

I figure it will take a death or two in families that are involved in DC before they will start listening to the folks who use the equipment over big M and their ilk.

[Michael A. Terrell]

They sound like the German guards at the death camps. :(

I never trust any ilk.

The volunteer fire department where I lived in Ohio had no dispatcher. The phone rang at a paper mill a half mile away. They would trip the old Plectrons over a leased phone line, then turn on a W.W. II surplus air raid siren, in case the old radios weren't working. It also alerted anyone with hearing that the volunteers would be rushing to the fire house, then to the fire. That paper mill is no more, and the county took over dispatch before I left Ohio. That was before 911, and the call had to be routed to another town which was less than perfect.

[Bob La Londe]

Radio shack used to sell an FRS repeater.

[HeyBub]

Sounds like a good plan.

In our VFD, the phone was answered by a fireman who launched the page and drove the firetruck to the scene. People receiving the page went either to the fire or to the station to roll more equipment.

There's probably no limit to the procedures that have been found to work well in various communities.

By the way, about 80% of the firefighters in the US are volunteers.

[Michael A. Terrell]

I've worked with several volunteers. One had to respond to a fire where we worked, on Friday night. The Northern Electric 'Merlin' phone system caught fire, and did a lot of damage to the front offices & engineering department.

A neighbor's house burnt, and they couldn't get the tanker down the sand road because of the weight, so they ran a half mile of hose between the smaller pumper & the highway where the larger trucks were waiting. They were there for about three hours before it was out. I heard the chief tell them to Roll & carry the hose back to the highway, so I got my truck, and slowly backed out to the highway as they rolled & tossed the hose on the truck. They thanked me, but I was glad to help. I would be useless, these days, but you help where you can. :)

[Steve W.]

I thank you for that assist on behalf of my fellow Fire Fighters. You would be surprised how small things like that help. We had an auxiliary until a few years ago. They were mainly wives and folks who wanted to help but didn't want or couldn't be full responders. They would hold fund raisers and show up at calls with coffee, food and such. At 3AM when you've been dragging hose and doing interior work a cup and a cruller are VERY welcome items. Sadly they disbanded due to lack of interest by the current generation in helping the community.

Our dispatch comes through the county and with the current radio system there are many times you ask for second tones or repeats due to garbled static. This will get worse soon with the new radios going to narrow band and less than 50 watts of power.