ALL Va Beach Fire Units going to the radio lab

[SCPD]

For the past three days have heard FD units going to the radio lab. Maybe getting ready to make a change?

 

[KJ4BGI]

They are reprogramming the radios to remove the old type I talkgroups and change the order of the zones within the radios. They are putting the zones for the city at the beginning followed by the zones for the other cities. They also removed the digital talkgroups for Chesapeake Fire from the radios since they did not work.

 

[SCPD]

THANKS Eric

Did not think they were going Digital just yet. I know the city got a grant to upgrade the system since it is the OLDest system around.

 

[KJ4BGI]

Before thay can load the new digital controller software the radio shop needs to ensure that all of type I talkgroups have been removed from the city. They are pushing hard to get all of the mobile fire radios reprogrammed. The police and public utilities radios have already been reprogrammed to remove their type I talkgroups. I think that the police will go digital in future since I have spoken to a police officer who is aware of their radio capabilities. The radio licenses for the city were changed a while back to allow for digital modulation. Not sure if the fire department is going to digital since they are still using a lot of handhelds that do not support digital. The new handhelds that were issued to the police and fire departments do support digital but do not support encryption.