unleashedff248

There's far more than meets the eye on this. You want to figure out why there's manpower issues look to the district. The Chiefs are doing the best they can with what they're given. They're all dedicated and competent individuals with many years of experience. To some degree. There are still many active and dedicated individuals who keep the department running, though some indeed fit your description. From what I understand the situation is being misrepresented in the media. It is not that bad that the State would intervene. There are still many experienced and active members in the department. However due to political issues some members avoid taking leadership positions. Something does need to be done about the infighting and ingroup/outgroup BS going on though. An aligned and cooperative District and Chief's Office/Department would be a great start. Hopefully something can be done soon.

I'm going to stay out of this after this last comment... But I really believe that there's a lot of people here making assumptions about current conditions in Somers based on little to no facts. Fact is, the manpower report has NOT been released. Fact is, I haven't seen any reliable stats about manpower or response times in this thread. I'm not trying to say it's a bad idea to research this option. It's not. But I can't agree with the member who started this all. That's his subjective opinion. I also don't believe this is the opinion of any other members. If we analyze our last 5 structure fires, all have been responded to and extinguished quickly and without extension past the origin. I think we all need some facts before we go and assume things about the situation in Somers. That's all. And realize as I said before that effective leaders can motivate people to come out and help out. Eventually, hiring career firefighters will be the way to go in Somers and many other communities. The question is when this needs to happen. Currently, that is exactly what Somers is looking into.

From what I have heard the latest ISO for Somers is a 5/9. Large portions of this town are without positive water sources. From what I understand (and it could be wrong) the ISO for these portions can never increase beyond a 9 unless water sources are installed. My subjective and humble opinion: We've been doing better lately. Remember: Having motivating and competent leadership is almost as important as having the manpower. Leaders can inspire people to get out and go on calls. Despite this, I don't think it's terrible idea to look into these services right now. But I do believe there may be lower cost alternatives which accomplish similar goals but save taxpayer money. I'm not sure about NYS law, but what about a pay-per-call or paid-on-call program? I know a lot of departments use this to motivate people and offset costs for their personnel. Can anyone comment on this?

I believe sometimes it works this way. Other times it goes straight from TMC to Somers. Somers then notifies 60 for a medic.

Just to be fair... Another candidate's site: http://www.vote4arena1214.com I don't believe the third candidate has a site. I can't comment on any claims made on either site nor do I endorse any candidate. Simply posting FYI.

+1. What's up with that? I've never ever seen that done before. Brush fires are bad enough in structural gear, but with a pak on too... I see this thread going off-topic very soon...

It's amazing what kind of c**p is in people's heads these days. I know so many people in their 20's that think because they watch CSI or Law and Order it makes them an expert in law. I do know someone who refused the breath and blood test because "it was his right." Not only did he have to pay the fine and got his lic. revoked, but he also was convicted of DWI, leaving the scene of an auto accident with PI, and resisting arrest with violence on the video and testimonial evidence alone. He will never drive again. (Left the scene of a motor vehicle accident which resulted in personal injury and that he caused while DWI - bad combination.) It's not worth taking the chance. Lately, most employers are taking DWI convictions very seriously, especially public safety agencies. This includes volunteer agencies. I know some departments which will never let you drive with a DWI conviction and may even kick you out or suspend you. On top of this, a DWI will cost you in excess of $10,000. Insurance becomes extremely expensive. Some insurers won't even cover you any more. With that being said, I believe professional courtesy should be revoked for possible DWI's and people should face the consequences. The risk of having impaired drivers on the road is too great to fool around with letting them go (in my opinion). I would never forgive a friend who killed someone because he was drunk. Never. And I would never forgive myself for letting them do it.

This push to 800mHz scares me. The reason everything was low band "back in the day" is because it's propagation around hills, obstructions, and through buildings is excellent. In Westchester we used a simplex system for countywide comms. Of course, there were a number of towers and some dead spots, but overall the operation of the radios worked excellent. Now, as you move up the frequency band, generally building and obstacle penetration degrades. However, by adding towers and repeater sites you can fix this. For example, the Massachusetts Statewide 800mHz Motorola SmartZone system achieves excellent mobile and portable coverage. Now, that's not to say that there aren't some dead spots (especially out west, where they still use low band as a secondary), but mobile coverage can be expected at or around 97%. Portable coverage is slightly less. Conventional systems on 800mHz generally aren't popular, hence the issue with parts and equipment. Another issue becomes interference. The 800mHz band is very crowded due to the explosion of cell phone popularity. Nextel is the worst offender. Some of their sites have been found to be so out of "tune" that they were transmitting over public safety systems. Other issues arise just simply from proximity to the tower. Go near a nextel tower with a MSP radio and you'll watch your signal drop to zero. Now, I don't know if this is affecting things in Shelton, but I know it is in Massachusetts. The FCC and Nextel have come to a preliminary resolution called rebanding, which will help eliminate the interference but will also require reprogramming of systems and relicensure of both public safety and cell phone 800mHz systems. From what I've seen and my knowledge of radio systems, they should keep the 800 frequency, license some more (2-3), and make a small SmartZone trunked system. Now, this may exceed the $600,000 budget depending on the size of the area and other logistics. I'm not sure about pricing. However, Stamford (EDACS) and Greenwich (SmartZone) have these systems and make them work. Who knows, maybe they could get on the state police system? I know Massachusetts has allowed other agencies on theirs.

An interesting tidbit on Yorktown... Under license WPUW501, 453.3250mHz was allocated at 100 watts of output power for use by the YHFD by the FCC. The license is effective 2/09/05 until 5/16/2012. Could this be the conventional simulcast of Fire 17? I'll have to take a listen. Anyone from Y-Town with info?

Not exactly true. If the talkgroup is 1 higher than the desired talkgroup (ex: 33553 instead of 33552), it is because a dispatcher has selected the all talkgroup (ATG) mode. All radios are programmed with an ATG talkgroup. When an ATG is selected, all radios who have that talkgroup as their ATG automatically tune to that talkgroup while the dispatcher is transmitting. This is used for broadcasts from dispatch for all the units. Our ATG is 1616 in decimal or 065 in hex. It is not selectable on the radio the way it is programmed. I have my personal radio programmed with it in and during active incidents, this talkgroup will have all comms for that incident on it. If the reported talkgroup is 2 higher than the desired talkgroup (ex: 34002 instead of 34000), it is because a user has pushed the emergency button on the radio. If this button is pressed, a voice channel is allocated exclusively for the talkgroup that the radio is currently tuned to with an offset of 2. If the reported talkgroup is 3 higher than the desired talkgroup (ex: 34003 instead of 34000), it is because a dispatcher has patched two or more talkgroups together. Users on any of the patched talkgroups may talk to each other during the duration of the patch. If the reported talkgroup is 8 or more higher than the desired talkgroup (ex: 34352 instead of 35344), you probably are also hearing noise, as this is an indication that you are listening to a digital talkgroup. The Westchester County system has no digital (P25) talkgroups as far as I know, although our radios ARE digital capable. With that in mind, here's some more: 50800: 49751: ATG? 50418: 50544: 50400: 50423: Heard Liberty Control answering units 49776: 50036: 50384: 52728: 52976: 50426: 54128: Traffic reports from "Liberty Control" 52080: Seems most of the unknown TG's fall within the transit scheme. Some of these I heard myself, other were just recorded by a software program, including the previously mentioned TG of 7. This was when the system first came online and before any radios were even installed on the system. I'd imagine it's just a test talkgroup or something. I'd be interested to see more fire/ems talkgroups come online, such as a Admin talkgroup for county coordinators/cars or even a radio tech talkgroup, which probably already exists somewhere.

Date: 2/25/08 Time: unknown TOD, 3rd: 21:15, 4th: 22:24 (times approx.) Location: 40 Karen Drive Frequency: 46.16 (Dispatch) Units Operating: Pocatello FD, numerous Mutual Aid Description Of Incident: 4th Alarm working fire with firefighters down. Command reports 2 firefighters trapped in well-involved dwelling. Requesting EMS, additional FAST team, additional manpower to the scene ASAP. Writer: Unleashedff248

I figured I'd start posting some new talkgroups I head on the system while in ID Search mode. Got three so far: 17648: No voice heard, but falls in the Fire/EMS talkgroup numbers 50487: Seems to be transit...annoying 7: I have no idea Anyone else got some?

I've seen that Hummer around before...believe it or not they put it in most if not all the parades they go to. If I can remember correctly it has a full size Edge lightbar with a number of secondary warning LED's. I never knew about the jaws and stuff though...seems to me like a huge legal issue. I know nobody in Somers would EVER be allowed to do something like that to their car. Personally, if I were chief, I'd flip. I wonder what the department's insurance company thinks about the jaws set-up. Or I wonder if they know.

The M/A Com system is a OpenSky 800mhz system. They were reportedly the lowest bidder on the project, with Motorola being considerably pricier. We all know that Motorola systems are reliable and work well, not to mention they're used all over the county. CT and MA use Motorola Smartzone systems for their State Police Net that work very well. Our new trunked system in Westchester is a Motorola Smartzone. Apparently M/A Com attempted to install a similar system in PA. The system was a complete and utter failure. I'm not sure if the system was rejected or not, but I read multiple articles that stated it was basically inoperable and often failed. The best part of all of this: M/A Com's price has come close to Motorola's bid right now after numerous "problems" and additions. Motorola wanted around $3B to complete the project. And probably would have built a working system. I'd pay a bit more in taxes to cover the extra. Doing the math every citizen in NY would have to give $54 extra to pay for the difference completely...and instantly. M/A Com's system will be paid for over 20 years. The worst part is, even if the system doesn't work I have no doubt in my mind that the NY State Office for Technology will accept the system. And it'll probably end up costing over $3B. I wouldn't be surprised. And as for interstate communications...PA is the only state bordering NY that operates a OpenSky system. Granting others access to our system will be nonexistent since M/A Com has not licensed their protocol to anyone else. And nobody uses M/A Com OpenSky capable radios. Bad move New York.

Something's gotta give here. Even if a police officer was posted inside the building, the perp still would have gotten a good number of shots off by the time it was reported and responded to. Short of arming every teacher and setting up metal detectors at every door, what are our viable options? It makes me sick to hear about these shootings over and over again.