M/a Com

[SABRE46]

Sucks...seriously. We were mutual aid to OKCFD today at 66th and Dobbs and I personally watched 2 guys in line of site try to talk to each other and not go through. None of the trucks can talk to EOC units and the chiefs cant even talk to EOC. 3400 dollars for 1 handheld radio? No thanks, I will stick to the Motorolas. The good news is that within the next week OKC command vehicles will have vhfs back in them with our first 10 channels programmed.

 

[peterjmag]

Thanks again City of OKC and MA/COM!

 

[SABRE46]

All of their guys hate them too. One of the guys off of brush pumper 4 keyed his handheld one time and killed the battery. If I am lyin, I am dyin. And you talk about bricks? The things are huge with the lapel mikes being about half the size of the radio. Don't know whos bright idea it was to go to that system but they sure messed up.

 

[n4voxgill]

Do they have any talkaround talkgroups. If not the city is at fault. If they do then sounds like employees need more training. I don't like macom, but motorola willl not talk any further with comparable radios.

 

[SABRE46]

They dont have talkarounds for EOC depts. They used to have the "mutual aid" radios but were told to turn them in.

 

[fireant]

My sisters brother in law whom works OKC Fire said that they get calls that they have responed on earlier in the day. The will be watching TV the bay lights etc come one and the page out with the time etc from a call earlier in the day. Also said he feels it will be a matter of time before someone gets killed from the MA/Crap is what he said they call their radios.

fireant

 

[dstew67]

Do they have any talkaround talkgroups. If not the city is at fault. If they do then sounds like employees need more training. I don't like macom, but motorola willl not talk any further with comparable radios.

Talkaround wouldn't help in this case, because there were multiple agencies on scene, and OCFD are the only ones with M/A-Com. There is, however an analog TAC talkgroup (FD TAC 7), which is supposed to be for mutual aid with the agencies who were on scene. I don't know if it was actually used today...I wasn't at work.

 

[fast2okc]

Mutual Aid

Here are the agencies that responded to SE 65th and Dobbs:

OKC Fire -- 800 MHz MA/Com ProVoice
Choctaw Fire -- VHF Analog
Tinker Fire -- UHF P-25 digital
Moore Fire -- 800 MHz Motorola Trunked

A set up like that is just gonna have problems.

Interestingly enough,
Tinker still has VHF radios in their trucks.
Moore still has VHF in their trucks.
Oklahoma City does not.

All OKC Fire communications at the scene were on OPS-3 and I never heard them patch to any other agency

--fast2okc

 

[n5bew1]

Norman fire had some units called in by OKC fire for help on some fires in far SE OKC.
I heard that traffic on a patch of some kind. The talkgroup was 48144 from the Norman
trunking side. I heard several lost communications from OKC units on that TG.

 

[car2back]

Sounds like ALL the departments need a 800mhz radio with the ITAC freqs. Trunking is great, but you can't beat analog/conventional/direct comms for fireground work

 

[SABRE46]

Sounds like ALL the departments need a 800mhz radio with the ITAC freqs. Trunking is great, but you can't beat analog/conventional/direct comms for fireground work

Just takes money...lots of it.

 

[HogDriver]

All OKC Fire communications at the scene were on OPS-3 and I never heard them patch to any other agency

--fast2okc

While Tinker was out there, the operation was patched to Tinker's Fire & Crash TAC 3. That's how I heard that sometning was going on!

And as far as missed comms, I really don't understand why they don't go to a direct channel once they get on scene with the IC monitoring the 800 net as well!

 

[SABRE46]

They went to a TAC channel....within their system....that nobody else could talk on.

 

[Sparky_one]

Another sting against radios by OCPD

I was on Broadway the other night when OCPD went buy rather fast on a high speed chase. The perp exited on Hefner then suddenly stopped. He got out and slipped on the ice. An OCPD vehicle ran over him as it also slid on the ice. I heard the radio traffic on the legacy system 159.090. The officer said, "If this radio is actually working, I said I needed an ambulance and tell them to step it up." Another glowing field asessment of the radios.

 

[dstew67]

I was on Broadway the other night when OCPD went buy rather fast on a high speed chase. The perp exited on Hefner then suddenly stopped. He got out and slipped on the ice. An OCPD vehicle ran over him as it also slid on the ice. I heard the radio traffic on the legacy system 159.090. The officer said, "If this radio is actually working, I said I needed an ambulance and tell them to step it up." Another glowing field asessment of the radios.

I'll help fill-in the details on this one. The "perp" in this case was an alledged car-jacker, and he was supposed to have been armed, so there was a lot of concern when attempting to pull him over. What happened when he bailed out was, some might say, funny indeed. The guy started running and slipped. The patrol car couldn't stop in time and ran over the guy's leg. The last I heard, it was at best a bad case of road rash, and at worst, it was a badly broken leg. I didn't find out what the end result was.

 

[eharlow]

M/A Com

Gotta love it!

You're right about the batteries. I can swap out for a freshly charged battery, turn the radio on and key up and the battery goes dead. Just like that. They are very heavy also. We ended up getting the smaller lapel mics though. City Fire got the bigger ugly ones...why, I don't know!?!?! Then theres some days on both mobiles and portables, you'll key up and your traffic just goes into outer space. No one hears you at all.

I honestly see some day down the road when the city bites the bullet and yanks the whole system and goes back to the big "M"

This is all just my honest opinion!

 

[HogDriver]

Maybe they could put up another satellite to catch all those stray signals and send them back down to earth!...

 

[N5TWB]

I honestly see some day down the road when the city bites the bullet and yanks the whole system and goes back to the big "M"

This is all just my honest opinion!

More likely scenario, IMO: officer safety grievance by OCPD FOP with much publicity and press releases for political effect.

OCPD has been away from Mother "M" for quite some time since the radios that were just replaced were 20-year-old GE Orions. Not sure of what their predecessors were...

 

[RandyB]

OCPD has been away from Mother "M" for quite some time since the radios that were just replaced were 20-year-old GE Orions.

I was told the VHF mobiles that were just removed were Motorola Maratracs. Maybe the Maratracs replaced the GE Orions a while back?

 

[N5TWB]

I was told the VHF mobiles that were just removed were Motorola Maratracs. Maybe the Maratracs replaced the GE Orions a while back?

The last time I had eyeballs inside an OCPD patrol car, it was an Orion but it is possible some Maratracs were required for replacements as the units aged.