Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Firefighters like new radio system

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 08 Oct 2003 19:44:17 -0400

Firefighters like new radio system

By: Phil Roberts 10/08/2003

Scott County's rural firefighters now have an enhanced radio communication system,
thanks to a cooperative effort between the Scott County Fire Chiefs' Association,
the Scott County Sheriff's Office and a communications vendor, RACOM Corp.

Up and running is a "linker" system that allows rural fire departments to
communicate via their VHF radios county-wide with one another and also with law
enforcement officers.
Even though he has yet to communicate by radio with departments as distant as
LeClaire or Princeton, Blue Grass Fire Chief Larry Guy said the system works.

"I can talk to Eldridge now," he said. "I can talk to Donahue, and in return they
can talk to us. The system has been operating in fine fashion."

Guy: Signal has more clarity

In addition to being more far-reaching, Guy said the radio signals also now have
more clarity.
Scott County, which dispatches rural fire departments using a pager system,
upgraded its radios to a state-of-the-art 800 MHz system several years ago. County
officials soon were urging rural fire departments to do the same.

But that would have rendered most of the fire departments' current equipment -
pagers, base stations, portable radios and mobile radios - obsolete.

Some of the fire departments' newer radios could possibly have been reprogrammed
to the new frequency, fire officials said at the time. But most of the radios
would have needed to be replaced, and rural fire chiefs said their budgets would
not cover the cost of doing that.

Following a number of meetings that resulted in an eventual impasse, Scott County
supervisors told the Scott County Fire Chiefs' Association last December that the
county would continue to maintain its VHF radio system for dispatching rural fire
departments for five more years

They also said they would come up with the money to upgrade rural firefighters'
radios by installing the linker equipment and a repeater system, which boosts weak
signals.

Ultimately providing grants for the upgraded system were Riverboat Development
Authority and Scott County Regional Authority. The cities of Davenport and
Bettendorf and Scott County also agreed to use some of their 911 money to help pay
the $250,000 estimated cost of the project.

"It's taken a lot of cooperation with a lot of different organizations to make it
work," Guy said. "And it's been a big success, I feel."

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1839&dept_id=110408&newsid=10281643&PAG=461&rfi=9

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Rent DVDs Online - Over 14,500 titles.
No Late Fees & Free Shipping.
Try Netflix for FREE!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/JYdFFC/XP.FAA/ySSFAA/61FxlB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/