From a good look at one of the new portables that a friend of mine is carrying (FC District 5 VFD), they are doing very good indeed. They have very tiny Motorola HT's, (ES500 ???)I believe it is,.. I do like the smaller size of these lil radios and that they have some good features,.. though I do still like the full sized HT1250's we run in my agency. Franlin has almost done away with the old bulky pagers, as we are in the process of doing as we get ready to phase out the old paging freq and go fully legal on our hi band systems. Like Franklin, we will use the HT's for recieving the tone out, got to love not having to carry around a pager, cell, and HT eh? Franklin is also investing in special kits for thier fire fighters vehicles so that the HT may be plugged into a "booster" turning it into a mobile radio for the new guys untill more full power mobiles can be purchased.
As for the newest fire unit, District 5,... thier better staffed and equipped than most rural VFD's I have seen in years. They have two pumpers, a tanker, a brush unit, boat, and four wheeler. Staffed by 10 first responders, four of which are EMT's, and one of which is a fully ALS qualified Paramedic, and a total of 20 volunteers, with 2 professional firefighters on the staff as chief, and assistant chief.
Makes me feel so small LOL as we run one pumper, one tanker, and when its running, sharing a brush unit, with only 2 first responders, and a total of 10 volunteers with no on staff professionals. At least we do do what we love to do.
As for the newest fire unit, District 5,... thier better staffed and equipped than most rural VFD's I have seen in years. They have two pumpers, a tanker, a brush unit, boat, and four wheeler. Staffed by 10 first responders, four of which are EMT's, and one of which is a fully ALS qualified Paramedic, and a total of 20 volunteers, with 2 professional firefighters on the staff as chief, and assistant chief.
Makes me feel so small LOL as we run one pumper, one tanker, and when its running, sharing a brush unit, with only 2 first responders, and a total of 10 volunteers with no on staff professionals. At least we do do what we love to do.
