My 2 cents on all this digital and trunked crap

[firefighterbiddle]

This is my 2 cents on all this talk of digital radios, trunked radios, and analog radio systems. Being a cadet with Warren Engine Co # 1 the volunteer fire dept in Carson City, the MDT's are peices of crap in my eyes, all the time you hear on the radio " Carson our MDT is down can you give us the info over the radio".

As for the digital radio for carson and surrounding counties, i have mixed feelings on this. I beleive it is a good thing to have clear comms between units. But all this talk of being able to talk to eachother, well this could be a little hard to do when Washoe County and NDF on a 800Mhz EDACS system, and Storey, Lyon, Carson, and Douglas are on a VHF-hi system. And durning fire season its not going to be good when you need to get a hold of a HTF, or BLM rig when their on analog, and your digital. We all need to be on the same band using the same system.

Take a look at FDNY they still use a VHF-hi analog system as far as i know, and have no plans on switching anytime soon.

But maybe i dont have my facts straight, maybe i should do some more research. But these are my feelings so far.

 

[N_Jay]

But maybe i dont have my facts straight, maybe i should do some more research. But these are my feelings so far.

Thaty wold be a good idea!

1) Don't blame the technology for a bad system.

2) Don't blame the system for bad maintenance.

3) Don't blame the system for bad planning.

 

[sigint1]

MDT's have been around for a long time - Prior to trunking and digital - I have seen them work very well - Perhaps they need to look at some serious system maintenance - also interoperating systems and cross channel radio communications has also been around for a while - I can remember cross patching Washoe County (VHF) and Reno PD (UHF) back in the early 80's - each type of system has it advantages and disadvantages but if yours is a piece of crap I would look and the people maitaining that system and how they have it set up - not at the system itself - the systems are capable of communicating with each other.

http://ncsc.nv.gov/Interop_StategicPlan.pdf

 

[poltergeisty]

firefighterbiddle, your right it's all crap!

You know what they say. If it isn't broken don't fix it.

But, it might be brokenBoo!-Poltergeisty :-0

 

[dhutsell]

I work for a very large agency in Georgia, our MDT's are great they very seldon mess up, our digital trunking is also great I hnever have the range problems I had with the old trunk system. I think your system is old or not maintained thats why it sucks. any motorola system that is properly maintained will last for a long time.

 

[JoeyC]

You'll probably find in most cases it is not that the MDTs are failing but that the operators are indifferent about how to use them or don't want to take the time to reboot them, re-log in or navigate to the appropriate screen. If computers intimidate you, you won't learn how to use them.

 

[ECPD279]

firefighterbiddle, your right it's all crap!

You know what they say. If it isn't broken don't fix it.

But, it might be brokenBoo!-Poltergeisty :-0

You know what else they say, "If it doesn't fit....force it!! If it breaks.....it needed to be replaced anyway!"

 

[poltergeisty]

Do you have trouble with your MDT's?Boo!-Poltergeisty :-0

 

[Mouseandcat]

Why does everyone make the assumption that, with 800 Mhz trunked radio systems, it's all or nothing? There have been many valid points made in these forums... most of them regarding interagency fire response on VHF frequencies. VHF radios will always be in fire equipment, and VHF frequencies are best suited for multi-agency campaign fires. However... VHF (or any other band) base stations can be (and are) interfaced to 800 Mhz trunking systems. It's out there... most people just don't know about it (and it's not all crap).