Thursday, October 06, 2005
Use the PHONE !
Hell, Good After Morn’ Folks.
It’s Thursday and Mike Pintek on KDKA Radio 1020 is calling for the second coming of Jesus… which would be a welcome return in this Blah-ger’s opinion. I understand 800 Mhz works great in Heaven as the terrain is all flat and pure.
Oh well, they say they use 800 Mhz in HELL as all the bad people carry Motorola XTS 1500 radios with TG 200 programmed in as their only Talkgroup.
Everyone keeps saying “what did you say” and 911 keeps saying “stop transmitting on the dispatch channel” ! Can you imagine hearing that 24/7 ? Hmmmmm…
So, I want to discuss two incidents. I am not going to review the digital audio for exact quotes however paraphrasing should be good enough.
On Monday Late / Tuesday morning Latrobe had a fire at an apartment building located at 509 ½ Main Street. As 911 was dispatching they jumped on Latrobe’s frequency of 154.385 Mhz and told the Chief “operations will be on TAC 4 Chief”. Chief John of Latrobe replied “All transmissions will be on LATROBE’S FREQUENCY, NO 800”.
Then the Chief continued by saying “we don’t have enough 800 Mhz radios, everyone doesn’t have one”.
Even though the Chief said all of that, some incoming companies did indeed stay on Fire TAC 4 and they had their orders relayed to them. I find that unusual as all the companies that were on 800 Mhz had Latrobe’s Fire Channel installed in their trucks and VHF portables. My guess is that everyone is just tired of carrying 15 radios on their belt !
This shows two things to the Blah-ger.
The first is that VHF works best in our area. Believe it or don’t, Latrobe has DEAD SPOTS on 800 Mhz ! The second is that NOT ENOUGH 800 Mhz PORTABLES were issued to each company, including Latrobe. Oh oh, there is a third issue here too. Why carry 2 portables on your side when you only need one.
Going to 800 Mhz was suppose to eliminate carrying 2 or 3 portable. One radio is suppose to do whatever job a Police Officer, EMS, or Fireman might need to do.
How about Station 110, Chestnut Ridge Fire Department !
Chestnut Ridge Fire Department has to carry 4 (FOUR) portables !! They need one for VHF Low Band (33.70 – 33.52 Mhz), one for VHF Ambulance (155.160 Mhz), one for VHF Turnpike calls, and now one for 800 Mhz !!!
That is not what I call reducing the amount of radios a first responder needs to operate efficiently.
Someone thought that one out carefully over a case of Boonesfarm !
The other issue was a vehicle accident also in Latrobe.
Latrobe was the first responders with Lloydsville (Fire Station 114) called in for man power. Latrobe’s frequency of 154.385 Mhz was the main operations and 911 came on and said “Chief, operations will be FIRE TAC 11”. This time there was no response from the Chief.
My guess is he was too busy saving a life. Anyhow the incoming units were smart enough to stay on and use Latrobe’s VHF frequency which worked just fine through-out the incident HOWEVER when it came to setting up an LZ (landing zone), 33.52 Mhz Low Band was assigned for MedEvac.
So now we now have working the following, 154.385 Latrobe, 33.52 Mhz Low Band and their old operational frequency AND FIRE TAC 11 !!
WOWZERS !
There was only a small amount of confusion when 911 attempted to contact Chief 114 and a few others, first trying them on FIRE TAC 11, then on 33.52 Mhz… and finally getting them on 154.385 Mhz, the original operations frequency.
How screwed up is that ??
Moe, Larry, the Cheese !!
In other news, Murrysville ambulance is not liked by 911, or so it seems. 3 or 4 times last night they requested information from 911 and 911 would not answer them on any frequency. PERHAPS NEXT TIME THEY SHOULD USE THE PHONE ?!
In other news, Allegheny County 911 called Westmoreland County several times on Monday morning on Public Safety Talk Group 2 without getting an answer. Hmmm, PERHAPS NEXT TIME THEY SHOULD USE THE PHONE ?!
In other news, it was reported that the tower site in N. Huntingdon was down again. Perhaps it would be easier for me just to report when it is up and running.
I wonder if I called Staleys and told them when towers go down or radios aren't working if they would listen to me or do I have to have an management title like "Director of the things that shouldn't go wrong but do then I attempt to do something about it however usually nothing is done about it and all of this writing, yelling, screaming and bull crap is all for naught" (but you doesn't have to call me Johnson).
In other news, have you checked out the audio clips yet ? They are being posted and it is up to you to keep checking for new ones.
Remember Gentlemen and Pretty Ones, these are free for you to download if you wish and to keep forever and ever, no charge.
Dead space is removed from the audio clips however they are never altered UNLESS I state they are.
You see, as an ex-radio broadcast engineer I am amazed at the things that an audio editor program and a warped mind can produce, so sometimes I do like to make altered funny clips.
Look for those and listen very carefully because if you don't you will probably miss something funny ! If you are a dispatcher, radio maintenance, cop, medic or fireman you just might hear your voice in there !
In other news, the Steelers lost last week. In my opinion the reason they lost is because New England had more points at the end of the game.
Have a nice day !
DECODED,
K3SAM
http://800.k3sam.com/ - website
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