I got another look at an AMR ambulance today in the East Valley. It had a 1/4 wave UHF and a 1/4 wave 800mhz antenna for sure. I did not see a VHF antenna, but I am not certain that it didn’t have one.
The hunt continues. Since they now own Rural Metro / Southwest, I would not be surprised to hear them on the well-known Southwest Ambulance UHF freqs soon.
I deleted an earlier post thinking I had mixed up Rural Metro with all the other companies mentioned in previous posts. Now I see that I was not mixed up, I just didn't know I wasn't mixed up. Is that a known unknown or a unknown unknown or a unknown known? Where is Donald Rumsfeld when you need him?
My deleted comments regarded my recollection of what Rural Metro did in Scottsdale several years ago. I have family in Scottsdale and not just a few people, but many. A vote was scheduled to determine whether to form a public fire department in Scottsdale and Rural Metro was fighting it. Then at the 11th hour they pulled out and ended their service at what was going to be on the agreed upon date in the ballot measure. They stated that they did not expect to continue expansion of fire services and might even be ending more contracts for fire service in favor of providing EMS services where the real profit was. If I've recalled the gist of the situation incorrectly please give me a more accurate representation.
I have friends who are or have been in the fire service in Arizona who have commented about the fire service Rural Metro provided. Some of their observations and the conversations about Rural Metro go back to the 70's when I lived in Arizona. I don't have a good opinion of the company as a result.
Now I find out that Rural Metro might be purchased by AMR. I think of AMR much like I do McDonalds. They seem to be everywhere and provide the same mediocre product with no variations. I may be misinformed about AMR, but not McDonalds! Seeing the comments about some cities not trusting AMR is not a surprise.
On another note regarding Rural Metro, at one time the head of the company was an alum of the Northern Arizona University School of Forestry. There was an article on him in the school's alum newsletter sometime in the last 15 years. He talked all about the success about Rural Metro and its success providing an excellent product while making a profit in a traditionally government provided service. He predicted that private, for profit, companies would be taking over an increased share of government services. This was after hearing, in the 70's, what a City of Flagstaff firefighter's experience when he visited a couple of Rural Metro stations in Scottsdale. I don't remember all of what he said, but this sticks with me. After looking at their BA equipment he remarked at how new it looked and wondered if it had just been replaced. The Rural Metro firefighters said the equipment he was looking at was only there for inspection purposes and what they actually used was socked away somewhere else on the apparatus and then showed him that equipment. He recognized some of the equipment did not meet current standards. The firefighters knew, but could not do anything about it. They told him they were there because they could not get a firefighter job anywhere else and that they were there to gain some experience to put on a resume in order to get another job with a "real department."
I might just have to hang out at a nearby hospital with close call on and see if any of AMR's ambo's trigger a hit.
