RMBROWN
Member
We have cdm1250 mobiles in each rig along with ht1250 portables...And i have a m1225 installed in my truck
Fire Fighters and Police Officers: What radios are you using?
- Thread starter SoCalHAM
- Start date
ParkPiggy said:
Actually if the radio is flashed for remote monitoring it can be done, but the radio has to be turned on (the old timers can leave their batteries in just leave the radio off).
As for "killing" the radios, I believe tactical inhibit has to be programmed into the "bigwigs" radio for them to be able to do it and not be at a console.
All of the above is true if on a P25 motorola system, not sure the other manufactures have those options as they are not part of the P25 standard that I am aware of.
All Motorola. Most portables are XTS2500s with a few Sabers and HT1000s running around. Most mobiles are Spectras. Currently on 450Mhz analog. The department just got a bunch of dual band Motorola mobiles (don't know what model) with the intention of replacing all mobile radios in preparation for the change to digital.
AdaFire38
Member
philyumpshus
Member
My home county is on low band with a huge mix of radios that vary by department. My FD has old GE-somethings (gray, sloped face, huge) and the new radios are all Vertex. Our portables are either Vertex or Motorola HT750s. My squad at school is on normal VHF and everything is Motorola, I think they're Astros.
Nokia/EADS THR880, the network is a fully digital TETRA network.
Terrestrial Trunked Radio - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
FireEMSPolice
Member
Station 3
Member
At my PD we are using Motorola LTS 2000 right now we are going to switch to Digital in 2013 so we are not buying any new radios for now.
When I first got on our FD I had a VHF MT1000, that was a tough radio. It had been run over by the 6x6 brush truck once, I just washed it off and went back to work. With the narrow-banding coming up I bought a VHF JT1000, but recently found out it won't do all narrow-band frequencies. I got a really good deal on a like new MTS2000 and will start using it once the we get our repeater and the new County-wide frequencies set up.
Last edited by a moderator:
jprleedy4680
Member
Sheriff's office I work for:
MOT XTL5000 W-Series Mobiles (Went to 800 just as the last Astro Spectras were produced)
MOT XTS5000 II Portables
PD I am a cadet for:
MOT XTL2500 Mobiles
MOT XTS2500 II Portables
Fire department I am a member of:
Kenwood TK 90-series dual-head mobiles (front-line apparatus)
Assorted Kenwood and Motorola Portables
Ancient Midland, EF Johnson, and Ritron mobiles in some apparatus. :hopeless:
(HB VHF)
MOT XTL5000 W-Series Mobiles (Went to 800 just as the last Astro Spectras were produced)
MOT XTS5000 II Portables
PD I am a cadet for:
MOT XTL2500 Mobiles
MOT XTS2500 II Portables
Fire department I am a member of:
Kenwood TK 90-series dual-head mobiles (front-line apparatus)
Assorted Kenwood and Motorola Portables
Ancient Midland, EF Johnson, and Ritron mobiles in some apparatus. :hopeless:
(HB VHF)
bunnyfurr said:
Now I don't think that there is a big difference between ICOM commercial and the Ham versions, besides P25 and the frequency they are operation on.
And I love my ICOM ham hand held, and I know that a lot of units in the area here have ICOM, the problem might be between the radio and the chair.
Our older rigs still have HT1000 VHF DN models. Newer rigs have HT1250's Our Chiefs carry EX600's but have HT1250's in the cars. I personally have an XTS5000 M III VHF FPP as the department radio tech. We are going on the County/statewide 800 system with APX7000E VHF/800 and staying on VHF. When that happens the HT1000's will be retired and the 1250's will be placed in a rack charger in the Battalion chiefs suburban as spare fireground radios.
County wide we are using RACOM's EDACS 800 network. All depts are issued Harris P7250 Portables and Harris M7200 Mobiles. My FD still has the old VHF Moto HT1000 and various Kenwoods for fireground use as the old fireground frequencies are multi-cast through the 800mhz system as well. All the 800mhz radios belong to the Scott County Emergency Communications Center or SECC. The radios are loaned out to all area services including public works, sheriff, local PD's, EMS, and Fire. Everbody does not have their own radio's yet on FD's though. County is still working on the funding for more.
I was using 2 of my own XTS5000 700/800 frequency until the county comm center decided they didnt want people to use their own equipment. The Fire Department I volunteer for is using HT1250's the private ambulance company is using something from the Saber series that is big and ugly. I've got the 2 XTS5000's sitting around if anyone is interested in buying them. Going to loss an @$$ load of money on them :suicide:
kadetklapp
Member
My issued county radio is an XTS5000 model 2 in 800 MHz
My issued part-time radio is an XTS2500 model 2, currently loaned out to one of our reserves who didn't have a radio. In my car we have an XTL1500. Possibly the worst P25 Type II mobile on the market. Hate it.
My issued part-time radio is an XTS2500 model 2, currently loaned out to one of our reserves who didn't have a radio. In my car we have an XTL1500. Possibly the worst P25 Type II mobile on the market. Hate it.
Wow. I see a lot of XTS and XTL out there....
At my fire department, we use a mix of radios on two different bands, VHF for fire, fire police, and police, and UHF for EMS and mutual aid fire:
VHF Mobiles - Motorola GM300 & CDM1250, Kenwood TK760
VHF Portables - Motorola P1225 & HT1250, handful of unknown type Kenwoods
UHF Mobiles - Motorola CDM1250
UHF Portables - Motorola HT1250
My issued portable is a VHF HT1250.
At my first full-time job, we don't use mobiles at all (for an EMS service! It sucks). We simply use Vertex Strandard VX-351 portables.
At my second full-time job (another EMS service), we use a mix of HT1250's coupled with Motorola MCS2000 mobiles, Spectra mobiles and bases, and a couple Minitor II pagers thrown in for good measure.
Luckily, I also have a UHF HT1250 that I carry at all 3 places.
Now, the township that borders our borough that we run with quite often has just upgraded to a UHF conventional repeater (not even narrowbanded yet), but they are using Motorola XTS1500 V1.5 portables and XTL2500 mobiles and bases.
At my fire department, we use a mix of radios on two different bands, VHF for fire, fire police, and police, and UHF for EMS and mutual aid fire:
VHF Mobiles - Motorola GM300 & CDM1250, Kenwood TK760
VHF Portables - Motorola P1225 & HT1250, handful of unknown type Kenwoods
UHF Mobiles - Motorola CDM1250
UHF Portables - Motorola HT1250
My issued portable is a VHF HT1250.
At my first full-time job, we don't use mobiles at all (for an EMS service! It sucks). We simply use Vertex Strandard VX-351 portables.
At my second full-time job (another EMS service), we use a mix of HT1250's coupled with Motorola MCS2000 mobiles, Spectra mobiles and bases, and a couple Minitor II pagers thrown in for good measure.
Luckily, I also have a UHF HT1250 that I carry at all 3 places.
Now, the township that borders our borough that we run with quite often has just upgraded to a UHF conventional repeater (not even narrowbanded yet), but they are using Motorola XTS1500 V1.5 portables and XTL2500 mobiles and bases.
My county switched from Low Band to a repeatered 400mhz system a couple of years ago. In the switch all departments, EMS, Police and Fire were given HT series MOTO portables and CDM series mobiles.
For the call and volunteer departments the HTs are find and a good cost/benefit solution, but from my experience with the full time departments the HTs just aren't holding up as well as they should. Specifically I go through about 3 lapel mics a year because the connections down at the radio give out.
I'm trying to convince some folks to buy XTS the next time around.
For the call and volunteer departments the HTs are find and a good cost/benefit solution, but from my experience with the full time departments the HTs just aren't holding up as well as they should. Specifically I go through about 3 lapel mics a year because the connections down at the radio give out.
I'm trying to convince some folks to buy XTS the next time around.
Oh yes. The Waris series mic connections aren't the best. Some of the models are also very vulnerable to water, especially the older first-generation Waris mics. Our fire department bought an HT1250 VHF and a lapel mic for every firefighter, so about 15 radios. So far, 3 mics have gone bad, and two more are showing the warning signs. There is a very heavy-duty Waris mic made by OTTO Communications that eliminates this problem, if you are looking for a decent replacement.
fleetcomm
Member
If you are P25 and fire or ems Motorola has a very cool feature on XTS 2500, 5000 and APX portables It is channel announcement. What this does is give you a voice telling you what channel you are on so if you need to switch channel in a smoke filled building you do not have to see the radio to know what channel you have changed to. I like Motorola radios because we have used them for 22 years and they are very durabale and customer service has been great. I also know that there are other good radios on the market but, you need to find one that you can get serviced and supported in your area. I have some Motorola APX 7000 portables (800 mhz and VHF) we are testing and as nice as they are it would be cheaper to issue someone two xts2500 radios than one of these and if one of the xts radios broke they still have the other one. My Apx is even ready for halloween.
Last edited by a moderator:
backdraft51
Member
My handheld radio is a HYT TC-600. Toughest little radio I have ever seen. Dropped it in water etc etc at fire scenes. Narrowband compatible. Sweet deal for the price.
other than that I am stuck old school. Relm vhf and UHF sm series mobile radios.
other than that I am stuck old school. Relm vhf and UHF sm series mobile radios.
Sarge619
Member
We were slightly ahead of the curve when we jumped off our antiquated VHF-Low system to our current UHF-repeaterized system in that everything we bought in 1999 was already narrow-band, and all of our assigned frequencies were in the narrow-band portion of the spectrum (police, fire and EMS). All of the towns emergency services "banded" together (no pun intended) to replace the radio system as all services were saddled with poor performance, 0 building penetration, multiple dead spots, etc. (it just was not the kind of terrain that low-band thrived in best... but when they initated radio communications back in the dinosaur age in that town, that was the "cutting edge"). Police/EMS shared one frequency in 37 mHz range, and the fire used a multiple-agency shared "Midstate" frequency in the 33 mHz, for primary and fireground ops.
We had to get the best bang for the buck, while being able to secure frequencies. 800 or 900 mHz trunked systems? Forget it. We're low on the food chain and the FCC frequency coordination people told us our chances of getting licences/frequencies for trunked systems at the time were zero-to-none. There was also zip available in the VHF-High spectrum in my region at the time. However, as UHF was starting to be narrow-banded to increase the number of available frequencies, we were in the right place at the right time and were able to score multiple frequencies. We also had to work this all off of one tower, strategically placed for optimal coverage (no wiggle-room in the budget for voting repeaters, receivers, etc.), as the town was very much against multiple repeater/tower sites. We had to do it all (for all the emergency services); bases, mobiles, portables, repeaters, pagers, guyed 100' tower, structure to house the repeaters/backup power and fencing at the site as well as construction/installation costs, for under 200K.
We could've chosen 800mHz, we could've gone digital, but our study committee (made up of myself, our fire chief and the EMS coordinator) were actually steered away from them by the vendors/manufacturers who were bidding on our system. They said that it was ridiculously expensive and not necessary for our needs. A simple UHF repeaterized system would suffice nicely and they were right. The whole system, including everything listed above, was just over $192K. 12 years later the system is still serving us nicely.
We are currently persuing avenues for eliminating the few trouble spots we have in our town (it was inevitable with only one tower location and a few spots in town that line-of-site UHF transmission to and from the tower are difficult) and when funds become available, will be actively working with our current vendor on solutions such as voting repeaters, voting recievers, or whichever choice or combination serves us best. In recent years, all of the surrounding towns minus two have moved up to similar UHF systems as ours, simplifying interoperability that much more. Historically, the Comm. Center for all services as well as 911 PSAPs have been located in the police station, and overseen by the police and fire chiefs.
Currently, the PD radios consist primarily of Motorola MCS-2000 and CDM1550 mobiles (replacing damaged or worn-out older mobiles) and HT1250 portables (supervisors like myself also get a second, more compact portable, an EX560-XLS). Fire and EMS purchased the same makes/models as us as it was all under one purchase order and all services felt these were the radios that would serve our needs for years to come. The PD/EMS operates off of a single Motorola QUANTAR repeater, the FD a MTR2000 repeater. Our current tower is located in the highest geographical spot in the area, for better than 95% talk-back capability on mobiles, about 85% for portables (like I said, we do have some issues that we have to resolve... money being the biggest issue)
In 2010 we moved into a new $5.7 million police/communications facility added onto the existing fire station (which was itself renovated). My portion of the new station project was the Communications Center/radio operations. I was given roughly a $250K budget (which was to soley outfit the Comm. Center and could not be applied to solving other issues). All base radios were replaced with Motorola CDM1550 radios on various bands/wattage (depending upon spectrum) and tied into a Motorola MCC5500 computerized dispatch system, with two complete computerized dispatch positions in the comm. center and a third "hide-away" computerized dispatch position in the EOC/Training room of the new facility. This not only allows us three active dispatch positions if needed, but as I have the infrastructure in place for every surrounding towns complete police/fire/ems radio systems installed in my radio rack, should one of the surrounding towns communications centers be knocked out of operation for any reason, they can send a dispatcher to my facility, who, segregated from our own dispatch operations, can run their towns operations uninterrupted.
With 17 radios in the rack covering all frequency spectrums, everything controlled by the MCC5500 system and totally patchable through the cruisers and portables; through either direct agency or regional-use mutual aid frequencies, our base, mobiles and portables have the capability to talk to just about anyone in the state.
We've come a LONG way since I came on board in 1983 with ancient VHF-Low band Motorola MOTRAC (with tubes in the sender unit) and fully solid-state (WOW! How "space age") MOCOM mobile radios in the cruisers and fire apparatus, even older base stations (so old I can't even remember the models, but I think they were also MOTRACs in a "desktop" configuration) and MT500 portables (they did make good doorstops). The PD operated on a frequency shared with 7 other towns, the FD operated on a frequency shared by 32 other towns! Are we totally cutting edge? Are we using digital, APCO 25 or OpenSky technology? Nope. But what we have has and does work reliably, and we're grateful to have it.... especially when you see where we came from just a decade ago, and what alot of our neighbors still rely on.
We had to get the best bang for the buck, while being able to secure frequencies. 800 or 900 mHz trunked systems? Forget it. We're low on the food chain and the FCC frequency coordination people told us our chances of getting licences/frequencies for trunked systems at the time were zero-to-none. There was also zip available in the VHF-High spectrum in my region at the time. However, as UHF was starting to be narrow-banded to increase the number of available frequencies, we were in the right place at the right time and were able to score multiple frequencies. We also had to work this all off of one tower, strategically placed for optimal coverage (no wiggle-room in the budget for voting repeaters, receivers, etc.), as the town was very much against multiple repeater/tower sites. We had to do it all (for all the emergency services); bases, mobiles, portables, repeaters, pagers, guyed 100' tower, structure to house the repeaters/backup power and fencing at the site as well as construction/installation costs, for under 200K.
We could've chosen 800mHz, we could've gone digital, but our study committee (made up of myself, our fire chief and the EMS coordinator) were actually steered away from them by the vendors/manufacturers who were bidding on our system. They said that it was ridiculously expensive and not necessary for our needs. A simple UHF repeaterized system would suffice nicely and they were right. The whole system, including everything listed above, was just over $192K. 12 years later the system is still serving us nicely.
We are currently persuing avenues for eliminating the few trouble spots we have in our town (it was inevitable with only one tower location and a few spots in town that line-of-site UHF transmission to and from the tower are difficult) and when funds become available, will be actively working with our current vendor on solutions such as voting repeaters, voting recievers, or whichever choice or combination serves us best. In recent years, all of the surrounding towns minus two have moved up to similar UHF systems as ours, simplifying interoperability that much more. Historically, the Comm. Center for all services as well as 911 PSAPs have been located in the police station, and overseen by the police and fire chiefs.
Currently, the PD radios consist primarily of Motorola MCS-2000 and CDM1550 mobiles (replacing damaged or worn-out older mobiles) and HT1250 portables (supervisors like myself also get a second, more compact portable, an EX560-XLS). Fire and EMS purchased the same makes/models as us as it was all under one purchase order and all services felt these were the radios that would serve our needs for years to come. The PD/EMS operates off of a single Motorola QUANTAR repeater, the FD a MTR2000 repeater. Our current tower is located in the highest geographical spot in the area, for better than 95% talk-back capability on mobiles, about 85% for portables (like I said, we do have some issues that we have to resolve... money being the biggest issue)
In 2010 we moved into a new $5.7 million police/communications facility added onto the existing fire station (which was itself renovated). My portion of the new station project was the Communications Center/radio operations. I was given roughly a $250K budget (which was to soley outfit the Comm. Center and could not be applied to solving other issues). All base radios were replaced with Motorola CDM1550 radios on various bands/wattage (depending upon spectrum) and tied into a Motorola MCC5500 computerized dispatch system, with two complete computerized dispatch positions in the comm. center and a third "hide-away" computerized dispatch position in the EOC/Training room of the new facility. This not only allows us three active dispatch positions if needed, but as I have the infrastructure in place for every surrounding towns complete police/fire/ems radio systems installed in my radio rack, should one of the surrounding towns communications centers be knocked out of operation for any reason, they can send a dispatcher to my facility, who, segregated from our own dispatch operations, can run their towns operations uninterrupted.
With 17 radios in the rack covering all frequency spectrums, everything controlled by the MCC5500 system and totally patchable through the cruisers and portables; through either direct agency or regional-use mutual aid frequencies, our base, mobiles and portables have the capability to talk to just about anyone in the state.
We've come a LONG way since I came on board in 1983 with ancient VHF-Low band Motorola MOTRAC (with tubes in the sender unit) and fully solid-state (WOW! How "space age") MOCOM mobile radios in the cruisers and fire apparatus, even older base stations (so old I can't even remember the models, but I think they were also MOTRACs in a "desktop" configuration) and MT500 portables (they did make good doorstops). The PD operated on a frequency shared with 7 other towns, the FD operated on a frequency shared by 32 other towns! Are we totally cutting edge? Are we using digital, APCO 25 or OpenSky technology? Nope. But what we have has and does work reliably, and we're grateful to have it.... especially when you see where we came from just a decade ago, and what alot of our neighbors still rely on.
Last edited by a moderator:
Bfat567
Member
We use Kenwoods for everything. UHF interagency, VHF county ,and ultra high ems. Mobiles and portables. My radio is a TK380.
I nearly forgot about mobiles. I use a VHF Motorola SM120 and a UHF Kenwood TK840. I had my doubts about it, but the TK is actually turning up to be a nice radio.
Here in Allegheny County, we have over 200 fire stations, over 50 EMS agencies, and too many police departments to count, and this DOES NOT include the City of Pittsburgh. I am lucky in that the rest of the county's fire & fire police ops and dispatch has moved to UHF. We are still on VHF, and we only share the dispatch channel with 6 other agencies, and our operations channel with 3 other agencies, with 10 tac channels for fire and 2 tac channels for fire police available. As for where I primarily work, there are over 40 fire departments sharing the same dispatch channel, with the area split geographically so that only 20+ departments are sharing the same operations channel, of which there are 3 different ones. They have also been allotted 2 tac channels (simplex) by the county. For the nearly 60 EMS agencies in the county, we are evenly split between 6 dispatch channels, 5 operations channels, and only 4 tac channels.
Conversely, the goddamned snowplows and streetsweepers get access to over 20 countywide channels.
Here in Allegheny County, we have over 200 fire stations, over 50 EMS agencies, and too many police departments to count, and this DOES NOT include the City of Pittsburgh. I am lucky in that the rest of the county's fire & fire police ops and dispatch has moved to UHF. We are still on VHF, and we only share the dispatch channel with 6 other agencies, and our operations channel with 3 other agencies, with 10 tac channels for fire and 2 tac channels for fire police available. As for where I primarily work, there are over 40 fire departments sharing the same dispatch channel, with the area split geographically so that only 20+ departments are sharing the same operations channel, of which there are 3 different ones. They have also been allotted 2 tac channels (simplex) by the county. For the nearly 60 EMS agencies in the county, we are evenly split between 6 dispatch channels, 5 operations channels, and only 4 tac channels.
Conversely, the goddamned snowplows and streetsweepers get access to over 20 countywide channels.
Grotonems5
Member
All Kenwood mobiles and portables. All different models of mobiles and TK-2170's for portables. FD,EMS and highway dept operate on VHF high at home where I volunteer. At work we use Kenwood mobiles and at the base. Have same TK-2170 portables there too.
fleetcomm
Member
Grotonems5 said:
I have installed Kenwood for several departments and so far they have been good radios.
kadetklapp
Member
bwoodruff
Member
My volunteer departments (Fire & EMS) have an assortment of radios... most new mobiles are CDM1250s, which I like. They buy cheap crap portables, though. I personally use a CDM1250 and an HT750 (VHF low) + 2x HT1250 (VHF high, UHF).
theolog
Member
All public safety in my county just switched to 800. XTS2500 portables for most line troops, 5000 for supervisors. Some smaller PDs and FDs have the 5000s for everyone.
Prior to that everyone had HT1250s.
Prior to that everyone had HT1250s.
timlinson
New Member
Portables: Motorola CP200XLS (Some have speaker mics)
Pagers: Motorolas, unless your a FF, then they have some off brand that has a feature to playback calls (only reason we have them)
Mobiles: All Kenwoods, not sure of the model, but they are remote heads.
Pagers: Motorolas, unless your a FF, then they have some off brand that has a feature to playback calls (only reason we have them)
Mobiles: All Kenwoods, not sure of the model, but they are remote heads.
delcofirecop
Member
my current department we are almost all Motorola spectraand cdm mobiles for the fire trucks and ht1250 and ht1000 portables we have two icom portables as spares unkown model number and a icom station radio at the watch desk we also use minitor 5 voice pagers and appollo alpha numeric pagers the alpha pagers are county owned however. my old dept used older ht1000's which became spares when they brought all icoms for hand helds the single engine we have had a Motorola mobile we had strictly all county owned alphanumeric pagers except for 10 minitor 5's.