CALFIRE RivCo Fire / New Radios

[scottyhetzel]

I heard info. That new Motorolola APX7000's 700/800 are arriving soon ... not sure who is getting them. Not sure why , Personnel are receiving this freq. band radios. Anyone have insight on this info.?

 

[zz0468]

Riverside County Fire has participated in PSEC since day one. It seems natural to me that they would order radios capable of using the system. The APX7000 is capable of dual band operation. They likely will do 700/800 and VHF.

 

[allend]

Also, I believe their CAD/MDT's in their rigs are on the PSEC system as we speak.

Most likely what will happen is that they will get the dual band 700/800/VHF and stay on VHF until if one day they eventually move over to PSEC. Most likely they will be programmed for the encrypted system and their VHF system they are currently using.

 

[Kingscup]

AFAIK only chief and prevention officers have or will receive the new radios. I am not sure if that will trickle down to the battalion chiefs. At about $4,000-$5,000 each, you are looking at a minimum of $400,000-$500,000 as there are over 1,000 firefighters for the county fire dept. I don't see it happening any time soon unless there was some grant money available. Hard to justify that kind of money when there was a threat of closing fire stations due to budget cuts this fiscal year. I thought I heard about going to the next version of the Bendix-King radio which I assume would be through attrition. Of course, I could be wrong.

The MDCs run off the Sprint network as the primary data point when not in quarters followed by 2 back up PSEC data channels. In quarters, PSEC is primary as a wireless hot spot?

 

[Kingscup]

Woah, I screwed up that calculation. I did it in my head rather than a calculator and seemed to drop a zero. It should be $4-$5 million for new radios. That's a lot of money for a county that is being strained with budget problems.

 

[f40ph]

For what it's worth, CalFire is phasing in KNG M150 and P150 radios statewide for their "state" stations. I can't help but wonder if Riverside County being a CalFire entity would end up doing the same. Perhaps Kingscup is right and chief officers will have an "upgraded" capability radio.