Elyria fire chief urges radio upgrades

[kf8yk]

Commissioner Jeff Riddell says he'll vote to rescind radio contracts

Vendor Cleveland Communications Inc. has threatened legal action against the county if the contract for its L3 Harris radio system is terminated at today's Board of Commisioners' meeting, citing "no lawful basis to rescind the contract at this time."

chroniclet.com

 

[rcid1971]

Commissioner Jeff Riddell says he'll vote to rescind radio contracts

Vendor Cleveland Communications Inc. has threatened legal action against the county if the contract for its L3 Harris radio system is terminated at today's Board of Commisioners' meeting, citing "no lawful basis to rescind the contract at this time."

chroniclet.com

Wow that just got expensive real quick and the only ones making money are the lawyers.

 

[kf8yk]

Commissioners rescind radio contract

ELYRIA – The Lorain County Board of Commissioners voted Monday to rescind a contract with Cleveland Communications, Inc. for L3 Harris radios, drawing the ire of first responders across the county.

chroniclet.com

 

[wd8chl]

I want to be clear that my comments are not directed at CCI but the decisions some public officials are making. Your assessment of the proposed N. Ridgeville BDA is accurate. Typically Motorola prefers channelized BDA's so I wonder who is installing a wideband system.

The comment on the Bendix BDA is incorrect. It went in primarily because of the 5-city system, but yes, MARCS failed too. The existing VHF system passed.
No one had moved to the 5-city system yet, but all 3 sites were on the air.
BTW, the existing VHF system is simulcast, and has P25 enabled. Plus the county paid for it.
Now, if the depts would dump the 20 year-old radios they've been using, many of which have batteries that are 8-10 years old or more...and that applies across the county for the most part.

 

[rcid1971]

Lorain County’s 911 radio system failed during emergency — When will it be fixed?

Days ago, Riddell voted for the county to back out of a contract for a new radio system. So, we asked why. We also asked how much longer first responders will now wait for another contract to fix the system.

 

[RT48]

From today's Elyria Chronicle.

Elyria: Radio upgrades 'dead in the water,' city seeks options

Plans for the Elyria Fire Department and other Lorain County first responders to get upgraded radios remain at a standstill after the Lorain County Board of Commissioners voted to rescind an $8 million contract with Cleveland Communications, Inc. on Jan. 9.

chroniclet.com

 

[wd8chl]

Nothing has failed. The system was working correctly. The probable answer was the user was on the wrong channel, or he had a radio problem-likely dead battery or broken antenna. They have very old radios. Most depts do. They don't need to spend millions on a new system. Just get decent radios. Digital capable might help.
Another issue is when they have a radio go bad, many depts don't call to get it repaired. It just stays broken,
They need to get their facts straight before printing this garbage.

 

[wa8pyr]

Nothing has failed. The system was working correctly. The probable answer was the user was on the wrong channel, or he had a radio problem-likely dead battery or broken antenna. They have very old radios. Most depts do. They don't need to spend millions on a new system. Just get decent radios. Digital capable might help.
Another issue is when they have a radio go bad, many depts don't call to get it repaired. It just stays broken,
They need to get their facts straight before printing this garbage.

Fact checking? The news media? Surely you jest....

 

[RT48]

The latest from Lorain County.

Elyria seeks federal grants for radios, ambulance

The Elyria Fire Department is joining other Lorain County communities in a federal grant to purchase upgraded radios.

chroniclet.com

 

[Nasby]

The latest from Lorain County.

Elyria seeks federal grants for radios, ambulance

The Elyria Fire Department is joining other Lorain County communities in a federal grant to purchase upgraded radios.

chroniclet.com

“MARCS is like a 2004 cell phone.” Classic quote.

 

[N8WCP]

“MARCS is like a 2004 cell phone.” Classic quote.

Classic? More like demonstrating his lack of knowledge on radio systems.

 

[Nasby]

They definitely love that Harris System.

 

[owenbricker]

Funny, on all their VHF channels from all fire depts. except tac channels, I receive just fine 65 miles southwest. The chief should learn to use the radios they have, sounds like user problems, + different systems. should have been on the same page years ago.

 

[wd8chl]

Fact checking? The news media? Surely you jest....

Not news media. Personal experience. Plus in a specific issue with the one EMS run, I heard the log recordings. No radio system problem.

 

[wd8chl]

Funny, on all their VHF channels from all fire depts. except tac channels, I receive just fine 65 miles southwest. The chief should learn to use the radios they have, sounds like user problems, + different systems. should have been on the same page years ago.

That's what's bad. They have all been on VHF for decades. It worked. Repeaters have been upgraded over the years, voting receivers have been added, etc. But everything worked, and only updated programming was required (all FD's in the county had programming updates in 2019 so that everyone had everything, and were the same.) So FD interop at least was never more than a few channel clicks. Been that way for a long time.
In fact, it used to be that in Lorain Co., every FD was on 154.37, with 123.0 tone, except for Lorain and Elyria. Doesn't get any better interop than that. A four channel radio is all that was needed to talk to anyone. (3 channel radios weren't really a thing lol.)