On Tue, 15 Jul 2003 00:08:16 -0400, "Ryan, KC8PMX"
wrote:


2. Most public safety professionals (by which I mean law enforcement,
fire supression, EMS, and SAR personnel) know precisely this about the
radios they use on the job: Either it works or it doesn't. Either the
city cops can talk directly to the county sheriffs or they can't.
Change to a different radio? Sure...just get a new radio...see item
number (1) above for the problem with that.

Hmmm.... but if there ever was any career paths that the possibility of
needing to communicate in a non-voice manner those professions just may
be..... If a firefighter gets trapped in a building or cop has some type of
situation where he may not be able to speak or something, he may be able to
tap code out on the speaker.

Perhaps, but it wouldn't be all that likely that anyone hearing it
would recognize it as an attempt to communicate, let alone copy the
message...chances are the fire dispatcher isn't required to learn
Morse in order to qualify for the job.

Fortunately, there are other ways to accomplish the same task, that
being to alert other firefihters to the plight of the trapped
personnel. The fire department in Buffalo, NY equips members of its
interior teams with portable radios that have a "man down" button on
them. When said button is pressed (which isn't hard to do, it happens
very often by accident) it activates an alarm on the MDTs in the rigs.
The drill then is that all other comms stop at once and a headcount is
performed. It doesn't even have to be the MDT on the rig he or she is
assigned to - any MDT in range will initiate the alarm. Other
departments probably use that technology as well, I merely am aware of
this one since I live relatively near Buffalo.

73 DE John, KC2HMZ