Portable Radios- One For Each Crew Member or Do You Have to Share Them?

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Permalink Reply by Capt 723 on August 16, 2008 at 11:27pm

We are small vol. dept. with 24 members. The chief, asst chief, three captains and safety officer are issued portables they carry 24/7. There are 12 portables carried on apparatus so almost everybody that wants one could have a radio on the fireground. In practice that doesn't happen.

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Permalink Reply by Bull on August 16, 2008 at 11:28pm

I come from a very small and rural area which is Volunteer. Only 7 of us have radios, we actually wear them were ever we go, there are pagers also. The rest of the guys have pagers. We want to get more for others, but most dont want one. We have 4 old radios that we keep in our equipment van for those that want or need them on scene. The 7 of us that have them full time are officers, and show up 99% of the time. We like the radios better than the pagers because they actually work, have had alot of problems with pagers. And the fact is, the more radios you have, the more communication you have.

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Permalink Reply by Joe Stoltz on August 17, 2008 at 1:00am

We're a small rural VFD and a couple of years ago we were granted funds to purchase new portable radios. We bought one for each SCBA plus one for each truck cab. Now, we have one for each interior FF, plus all line officers, and fire police members have portables.

Prior to this, the county had expanded the number of available channels to 8, and we were still using 2, 4 and 6 channel radios.

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Permalink Reply by Dre on August 17, 2008 at 3:44am

We are pretty big, and unfortunately, only the person riding officer carries radio. We HATE this policy, and are afraid it's going to take someone's death to change the policy. It is not a matter of not enough money. Some of us harp on this, becuz the crew is split up all the time, people get lost, split up regularly, and we have no way to activate RIT besides setting off our PASS device, and hoping/praying someone hears it. Oh, and that our officer with the radio isn't the one that goes down that we need to call for help.

Our ffs want one in apparatus for each position.

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Permalink Reply by Allen Wahlstrom on August 17, 2008 at 4:16pm

WTF!

You could not pay me enough money to go in a structure fire without my own radio.

I don't care how big or small a department is, (I've worked on large career departments and small rural volunteer departments) there is money for the things that members want.
Instead of buying hte newest light bar for your Chiefs vehicle, keep using that 3 year old light bar that dont have the newest strobe sequence and buy radios!
Do a fund raiser for radios, tell the community what it is for and go buy them.
Catfish Dinner, Steak Dinner, Pancake Breakfast, Crab Boil...feed them at the fire house, show them what the department needs and go get it!


This is 2008! How can a Chief Officer send a crew in with 1 radio, and then allow them to be split up. This is not just stupid it is potentially criminal.

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Permalink Reply by Dre on August 18, 2008 at 12:39am

oh, I am completely aware that buying 60 or so radios would be MUCH CHEAPER than paying off my mom- or whomever killed surviving beneficiary. The spouse or parent of the potential LoDD will be able to drive a shiny red firetruck around, since they'll pretty much be owning the department!

They don't listen, that's why we are afraid it really is going to take a death, even though we all know it's a safety issue.

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Permalink Reply by Allen Wahlstrom on August 18, 2008 at 1:24pm

This is crazy.

Firefighters need to take a stand and make the JHA understand that it is a life safety issue and until all positions on every company are supplied with radios no one goes in. Period.

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Permalink Reply by Brian D. on August 18, 2008 at 1:45pm

I was looking for an NFPA standard on radios, but haven't had much luck. I agree, everyone needs a radio.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Simmons on August 21, 2008 at 10:32pm

'Scuse me, but I'm one of those chiefs (well, I was, then I retired) you're whining about. My lightbar was 10yrs old, worked fine. I am not such an idiot who would send in a crew with 1 radio & then split em up. Nor do I care to have that many people on the radio, nor is there always money for things members want. Sometimes there is money available for needs, which takes priority over wants. When you have a 25man VFD & a budget you can't run your house on, you tend to stick to needs.Not trying to paint with too broad a brush, but too many people tend overuse or abuse radio privileges (this is not a right). So I gotta have some control over who is on a radio. On my Dept, Chief, Asst Chief, all 3 Capt's had radios, we had additional radios kept at the station for use by crew leads oscene. Not counting vehicle-mounted units, we could put up to 15 radios on a scene, if that ain't enough call out the National Guard, you got problems.

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Permalink Reply by David Martinez on February 19, 2009 at 9:13pm

I agree that radio control is important... but your basically saying your line people are not worth having a radio. It seems to me that your saying lets keep control at the cost of individual safety and loose the chance to get valuable info.

I have been on small and large departments. In both EVERYONE had two eyes and could potentially have VERY important info for an IC and others to know. That info has to flow quickly, and not depend on running to find an officer with a radio.

To me this reasoning screams of lack of training... in radio etiquette and simple basic communications training, NIMS, ICS, and just simple risk analysis. If your people had the proper training in these areas they would know when to key their radios or not.

Your second issue on money... Well I too have had to contend with small budgets but you can ALWAYS find money. Be it pancakes, fill the boot, applying for grants, buying used, taking hand me downs from police or sheriffs offices (who update more than us) and by going to our governing bodies and saying we need more for safety sake.

5 radios to work your fires .... thats 1 in 5 that gets one... wow..

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Permalink Reply by Scott Kleinschmidt on February 21, 2009 at 10:57am

"Not trying to paint with too broad a brush, but too many people tend overuse or abuse radio privileges (this is not a right). So I gotta have some control over who is on a radio"

Thats not a radio issue.......... thats a training issue. As a incident commander I would hope and pray all my people have radios and if they see something important report it. This old school " the officer is the only one intelligiant enough to relay info" and have radio disapline has to go.

Chief you might not have split your crews...........but what do you think happened once they were inside and working.

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Permalink Reply by ZAKMAN on February 23, 2009 at 9:14pm

WE ARE ALSO VFD, 2 DAYS AGO WE HAD A CHIMMNEY FIRE, MY PARTER AND I PACKED UP & WENT UP THE LADDER TO THE ROOF, NO RADIO'S I MINE YOU, THE LADDER TRUCK ONLY HAS 1 PORTABLE RADIO & 5 SEATS, SO THE RADIO WENT TO THE C.O., SO I HAD TO YELL DOWN TO EVERYBODY TO GIVE THEM UPDATES. SO FIQURE THAT OUT ABOUT SAFETY ! MY PARENTS WILL HAVE THIER HOUSE PAID OFF AND A SUMMER HOME.

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