Keystone Fire moving on up!

[AsstChief]

I just found out that one of the grants I requested from the Fed's will be awarded to the Keystone Fire Department to upgrade communications to the 800mhz State system. We will run a cross band at least for a little bit to make sure we have good coverage. I am sure it will be a while before we have everything up and running, but I will keep everyone up to date.

 

[peterjmag]

I just found out that one of the grants I requested from the Fed's will be awarded to the Keystone Fire Department to upgrade communications to the 800mhz State system. We will run a cross band at least for a little bit to make sure we have good coverage. I am sure it will be a while before we have everything up and running, but I will keep everyone up to date.

That's awsome Chief! Keep us advised!

P.J.

 

[eharlow]

800 on the state

Oak Cliff FPD in south Logan Co/North Edmond is in the process of going online right now on the state 800 system. It's going to be a complicated process. Deer Creek is still in the running for the same grant this year from the Feds so hopefully we'll both be up and on it by this time next year. Good luck with the changeover chief! It's going to be a trial and error process. How are you guys planning on doing your paging??? We're looking at different schools of thought up here about that aspect.

 

[Secret_Squirrel]

That's awsome Chief! Keep us advised!

P.J.

You mean you aren't going to ask WHY? LOL.

 

[AsstChief]

How are you guys planning on doing your paging???

We use alphameric pagers and dispatch gives an audible tone over the radio system but it is just a noise maker. Most of us have scanners in the house we can monitor. We are attempting to get the pagers connected to the CAD system so it will automatically page us when a call is entered. We have had good luck with these pagers.

 

[Secret_Squirrel]

We use alphameric pagers and dispatch gives an audible tone over the radio system but it is just a noise maker. Most of us have scanners in the house we can monitor. We are attempting to get the pagers connected to the CAD system so it will automatically page us when a call is entered. We have had good luck with these pagers.

What kind of pagers are they and what kind of software is being used?

 

[AsstChief]

They say VsatGold on the front. They are regular alphanumeric pagers from Page Plus
(http://www.page-plus.net/ ) in Tulsa, OK. Our dispatch just uses an alphamate which is a keyboard with a small screen on it just for paging. We don't have any software at this time for the CAD.

 

[BCFD25]

Hey chief you may already know about it but weve been using the free software on page puls's website and like it much better than an alphamate. Im pleased with the response time as well from computer to the pager. The alpha pagers is probably one of the smartest things we ever did to improve comms.

 

[AsstChief]

I was just informed today 09-14 that they have installed a software program in dispatch and have removed the alphamate. Not sure what software program they are using. I know at my full time job our pagers our connected to the CAD system and it does our paging for us. The pages are sent much faster and we don't have to worry about the dispatcher forgetting to page the crew.

Myself and another Asst Chief will be meeting with SSFD Deputy Chief today at 1400 to discuss the new radios. SSFD Deputy Chief is one smart dude!

 

[car2back]

Is he the young(er) guy that's on TV all the time? He seems pretty 10-8 on his stuff!

 

[AsstChief]

Yes, that is the one!

 

[eharlow]

Pagers

Yeah we've been doing the alpha's for several years now also. I was just wondering if you were going to try and do any toning.

You guys are right about the Deputy at SSFD. Tom Jenkins is his name. Went to college with him and he is WAY smarter than his age. Way ahead of his time...but a VERY great guy to have on your side. He knows his stuff alright!

 

[iamhere300]

We use alphameric pagers and dispatch gives an audible tone over the radio system but it is just a noise maker. Most of us have scanners in the house we can monitor. We are attempting to get the pagers connected to the CAD system so it will automatically page us when a call is entered. We have had good luck with these pagers.

Not wanting to dampen anything, but you do realize that ISO does not recognize commercial pagers for a primary alerting system - and if you use the commercial
paging system AS YOUR PRIMARY it will drop you to an ISO class 10.

 

[car2back]

It was my understanding that you can maintain a PPC rating of 9 while using a commerical notification service, but if you ever want to be scored a lower number with ISO you have to get away from that. Maybe I'm wrong though.

 

[iamhere300]

Not to my understanding - but I can find out real quick. Got a good friend that happens to work for ISO.

I will post what I find.

 

[AsstChief]

Keystone is a class 5, barely missing class 4 by a few points. We have redundancy notification systems besides the paging.

 

[iamhere300]

It was my understanding that you can maintain a PPC rating of 9 while using a commerical notification service, but if you ever want to be scored a lower number with ISO you have to get away from that. Maybe I'm wrong though.

Just got this back from ISO... Names have been deleted.

BEGIN QUOTE

Not recognizing any circuit that goes through a commercial paging
company for any classification.


Visit us at www.isomitigation.com

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 10:12 AM
To:
Subject: Quick question

Hey,

Quick question.

Does ISO recognize a commercial paging company as
the PRIMARY alerting system for a class 9 department?

I know in the past, ISO has not recognized commercial
paging for primary alerting, but am being told that they
do now, but only for a 9.

Can you clarify?

 

[iamhere300]

Keystone is a class 5, barely missing class 4 by a few points. We have redundancy notification systems besides the paging.

Make sure that any ISO field rep knows that your primary notification
system is over your FD radio system - knowing of course that may be
the state system or otherwise, just not the commercial paging system.

You may want to look at the costs for your own alpha paging system,
they are much cheaper than people think - often your payments on
paging service and paging service pagers can recoup the cost to
put your own system in very quickly.

Of course, it won't have the range that the commercial system has,
but who needs to be paged to the call if they are hours away?

 

[BCFD25]

We went with the alpha's as a strictly secondary notification procedure. All members carry a minitor 4 or 5 and an alpha. We are toned out on the minitors with the call type and address, then they send out a group page on the alpha's with directions and any furhter details. This has also helped out tremendously with comms inside the dept. If I need to send a message to the ffs on one particular shift then I can use the alpha's instead of making several phone calls. We are also in the process of moving over to a new repeater system and tower which combined with the alpha pagers, will put us where we need to be communication wise.

Plus the service covers most of the state so if youre an hour away and there is a structure or a large grass fire then you can very possibly make it back to help. Even if you dont make the call but are available for any more that may come out later giving the other personnel a chance to rest.

 

[iamhere300]

As long as it is put that way, ISO will not be an issue.

Insofar as being an hour away and enroute... on my
department, or any around us, if you are an hour away
we don't expect to see you. No one is so important so
as for us to need a response like that.

We use mutual aid if we need help.