I wrote up "Possible Channel Banks" to show that the new Boston area UHF channels for FDs have not been a major improvement.
In the pre UHF days, many FDs used 153.83 for fireground ops, or they did not have a fireground channel. Now, things are not much better. 5 adjacent FDs share the Metro Central Firegound channel. 4 adjacent FDs share the Metro North Fireground channel. Only 1 FD makes use of the Metro South Fireground channel (and that is part time). On the plus side - I dont think that there are any base stations on the Metro Fireground channels. Of course this means that there is no way to talk to a dispatcher on those channels (AFAIK). And there is no way for the dispatcher to acknowledge emergency alarms. (The old system might have had dispatchers on the FG channels - has this been a change for the worse actually?) Presently - per the 2014 Metro Running Cards - Central Metro Fireground is used by - Chelsea FD + Everett FD + Massport Logan FD (by aid units apparently - Logan is on 800) + Revere FD + Winthrop FD North Metro Fireground is used by - Malden FD + Massport Hanscom (for aid units apparently) + Medford FD + Melrose FD + Saugus FD South Metro Fireground channel is used by Randolph FD if they are not using a Norfolk County FG channel Bottom line - at least 7 FDs use a simple GI Joe type radio channel that will get drowned out by adjacent FDs - has no access to extended coverage by repeaters - has no means for dispatchers to acknowledge emergency alarms - requires that radio messages be relayed by a human between channels - probably will not work well in large structures (hospitals, shopping malls, large industrial buildings, large office buildings, below ground, etc) Or am I wrong? On Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 7:15 PM, Peter S <[email protected]> wrote: > > https://sites.google.com/site/massachusettspublicsafety/home/metrofire/possible-channel-banks > > Boston Massachusetts area -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "massfire" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/massfire. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
