Pennsylvania - Fire officials fret over inefficient radio communications network

[NoCoFire]

Gary Hamilton is used to saying, "Can you hear me now?"
But the chief of the North Fayette Volunteer Fire Department doesn't say it just on his cell phone.
Chief Hamilton is among firefighters in several Allegheny County suburbs frustrated by the sometimes garbled, broken or dropped signals on the radio frequencies they use to communicate with each other and the county's emergency dispatchers.


Read more: Fire officials fret over inefficient radio communications network - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

 

[jim202]

A typical story of the poorly funded agencies that have not been heading the up coming deadline for narrow banding of the radio channels for the last 10 plus years or so. Note, the deadline is only about 6 months away now and the light is just coming on.

I have to feel for those people out on the street trying to do their jobs fighting fires. Have been there and done it for well over 35 years. Have also been in the radio service and engineering side of it for over 45 years now. It is not easy to come up with funds for new radios at the last minute. What ever happened to planning ahead?

Funding is always the down side of getting any improvements. In this case, it's not just improvements. It's almost going to be a jack up the radio license and replace everything under it. Good luck with a county that is probably as broke as all the other counties.