Monday, September 12, 2005
E. F. Who ?
Monday-Monday, can’t trust that day.
Monday-Monday, sometimes it just turns out that way.
BEAR CAVES TOWER IS STILL DOWN from what I understand.
CHESTNUT RIDGE FIRE STATION 110 is all goofed up because their 800 Mhz isn’t working, not sure if it is more dead stops as these spots will change with the seasons or if that tower is down.. and their low band (Bear Caves) is on the fritz. My guess is radio problems at that tower site.
The DRILL that Westmoreland County held on the 8th was a mess (audio clips posted).
I guess North Huntingdon Fire Department is pretty upset at Staleys, Motorola or just the prices of radios as they have been purchasing radios other than Motorola from a company other than Staley Communications (B&D maybe, and I believe the radios might be E.F. Johnsons or GE) and they are having pretty good luck with them. If you are a police department or fire company, you might want to contact N. Huntingdon Fire Department and get yourself a good radio for a better price ! I know for sure that E.F. Johnson makes an APCO P25 line of radios that will work with this system but I’m not sure about GE.
911 still is using equipment that is sub-par while management again receives more perks. Looks like this time it’s Dan that gets a NEW VEHICLE. Geeeesh !
I never worked anywhere that gave me a vehicle to run to the store in ! Besides, at first I thought only Mark got a new vehicle to cruise around in, now I receive an email from a fireman that says he CAN’T GET ENOUGH RADIOS but Mark, Rich and Dan all drive new cars.
Why doesn’t management CAR POOL using the MOBILE COMMAND POST ?
At least the Mobile Command Center will see some other uses besides sitting at Penn Township Community Days, Ligonier Days, Twin Lakes Festivals, PGA Classic, etc… those are all emergency events, right ? I think I read where someone got hit by a golf ball and Hazmat Team 800 and the Command Post needed to be called out with their 50 PORTABLE RADIOS for disaster control. Now that's par for the course ! (Should Tee you off)
Kennametal had a fire (chemical type thing) not too long ago and the 800 Mhz radios would not work… ahh poop. Kennametal is even a DIRECT SHOT to a local tower for this SUPER DUPER POOPER 800 MEGA FOOPER RADIO SYSTEM. Youngstown Fire was Command and all the fire companies had to SWITCH to VHF LOW BAND for all of their communications !
33.52 was the new operations frequency and THANK GOD that didn’t need a trunking repeater to operate on. (I’m looking for audio clips on that fire.)
Don’t get me wrong as I have been MIS-QUOTED in the past… a trunking repeater system is a good thing if you are in the right terrain AND you select the right frequencies for the job.
Ligonier, Chestnut Ridge, Derry, Mt. Pleasant, Rostraver, New Kensington… etc does not have the right terrain for 800 Mhz. So there !
I’m sure glad September 11, 2005 when by without a terror attack or any major incident in this area because we ARE NOT ready for anything major to happen having this radio system.
Just having a STORM go thru this area befuckles the 911 center. Too many fire channels becoming active, at least one tower site has gone down during each of the storms, and in one case HALF of Westmoreland County (WC) was without 800 Mhz radio service. Police can’t talk to fire directly without involving the 911 Center and that’s pretty hard to do when the 911 Center can’t hear either calling for help…
OH WHAT A RADIO TRAP ! OH WHAT A MONEY TRAP !
HELL, we don’t even know HOW HIGH our antennas are on the towers.. do we now ? Yes I’m sure 911 Management knows but so far no one is talking.
You See, even though we are using a 350 Foot Antenna, who is to say that our antenna isn't mounted 10 feet above the ground. So whop-de-do, we are on a 350 Foot Tower ! at a 10 foot height !!
The idea is to get OUR antenna as high as possible on each of the towers which will result in a better coverage area. So are they at 10 foot, 20 foot, 60 feet, 150 feet ?? We might be out of money, you know. The higher up on the tower the more it will cost WC and that is the name of the game for the tower companies. A tower is like a piece of real estate, the higher up the better the property !
Next time you hear someone talk on the new 800 Mhz system, think to yourself “was that a 10, 50, 100 or 300 foot transmission”.
<- this guy is high, but not on a tower !3 new audio files were posted over the weekend that I think you will enjoy. There is a condensed version of the Westmoreland County Department of Emergency Management Drill that occurred on September 8th. The audio is broken into Parts 1 and 2 because anything over about two minutes will hang up listeners that have a dial up connection. The total of these two clips is about 4 minutes.
I also posted an altered clip of miscellaneous stuff I heard… you have two be thick skinned to listen to it as I did make it a bit funny.
Have a good day all you fine people, you know your names !
DECODED,
K3SAM
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