SteveOFD

With the one year anniversary of the loss of Tarrytown Firefighters John Kelly and Anthony Ruggiero approaching (9-6-11), I am starting this thread to find out how this incident has affected other members of the Emergency Services community. How has this affected you personally? How has this changed the way your agency operates (if at all)? Personally, during the year since this incident, I have attended the Confined Space Awareness class and the Hazardous Materials First Responder Operations level training.If this thread fills out the way I hope it will, I will share some other thoughts I have attempted over the course of this past year. RIP John & Anthony

I like the attire on the Mack Bulldog on the bell of the Rescue.

For those of you who don't know, the Federal Communications Commission has mandated that all radios in the bands from 150MHz to 512MHz be narrowband compliant by January 1, 2013. What this means is that previously all radios, and frequency assignments, were in wideband (typically 25KHz between frequencies). Narrowbanding will "create" new frequencies by authorizing "new" frequencies in between the old 25KHz frequencies. Example: Wideband - 460.0000, 460.0250, 460.0500 Narrowband - 460.0000, 460.0125, 460.0250, 460.0375, 460.0500 Both VHF-High (150-174MHz) and UHF (450-512MHz) are affected by this mandate. Low Band frequencies are not required to be narrowbanded. What this means is that if you are operating radio equipment that is wideband, you will be out of compliance on January 1, 2013. Most radio equipment manufactured after 1997 has the capability of operating in either wideband or narrowband mode. If this is your case, reprogramming your radio equipment for narrowband operation will make the equipment compliant. Your FCC license also needs to be modified to reflect narrowband operation. You can check this out at the FCC's Database Website. Enter your license callsign, then click on the "Frequencies" tab, then click on the individual frequency. This will bring you to a page which shows the "Emissions" for that frequency. If your frequency is already narrowband compliant it will show an "11K_ _ _" emission designator. Wideband is shown as "20K_ _ _". Here are some links which go into more detail: FCC Narrowband transition Narrowbanding.com Narrowbanding.com - additional resources

For those of you (any FD, PD, EMS agency) who have not checked to see if your FCC license needs to be narrowbanded, here is a website to check out your status. The site is at PublicSafetyTools.info. To start, in the top left corner of the page click on the State, then click and scroll to your city (do not click on the County). Then at the bottom left click, on the blue report button. When the Frequency Report Information box pops up, click "2007 and above Excel Document" box. Click "Generate Report" in this same box. In this box a new file will be generated, click on this link. Click "open" on the File Download box. On the Excel screen, along the bottom left, click on the page title for "LOCATION - NB" (to see licenses that have been narrowbanded), or "LICENSE - WB" (to see if your license is not narrowband compliant). By generating a report for "Westchester County", it appears that 84% of the "Fixed Transmitters" are narrowband compliant. So in Westchester County it appears that 16% of the "Fixed Transmitters" need their FCC licenses to be upgraded. Lookin through the results, there are at least six Westchester County FD's that need to address this licensing issue including some Career and some Volunteer Departments. NOTE: Now is the time to start the process to get your FCC license compliant (I am working on ours right now), not as the January 1, 2013 deadline nears. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.

The Ossining FD website has been upgraded as of today. This site is a work in progress, and will be updated in the near future. FYI, the pictures on the main page of L41 & TL42 were taken by me.

Yeah right. If you were riding on the bench seats, every bump you would almost hit the ceiling. When the rig was orignally bought they designed it as a secondary ambulance transport. It had a stretcher "catch" attached to the drivers side rear bench. If I recall correctly the rig could transport five patients simultaneously, (one on a stretcher attached to the drivers side rear bench seat, one on each bench seat, and get this, two stokes baskets attached to points on or near the ceiling above the bench seats). Oxygen was also prepiped to the rear compartment.

I saw this today on Firehouse.com and it reminded me how LUCKY we are. Click on the above link for the full article. There is a picture at the original source the Weatherford Democrat.

If you could ask your friend where or who he bought this from it would be appreciated. I had heard rumors that it was in a Fire Museum in Delaware. How true that was I don't know.

I grew up in that rig. My Father, Grandfather, and Uncle were members of Fire Patrol. If I recall correctly, the rear had lights similar to what is on the front of the rig, just above the directionals in the following pre-renovation picture from CrotonOnHudson-NY.gov

While searching the FCC's database, I found a pending license modification for Rye FD, KEJ252. On this modification is a frequency with only one unit assigned to it at Rye FD HQ. Could this frequency (46.02MHz) be a new Trunked System cross band repeater for Fire 15? Anyone from Rye have any info?

If you are asking about the FD's FCC license starting with KE_, it is just the way the FCC assigned them when the application was processed. See this FCC page for Westchester 46.26MHz licenses to show the diversity of the letter/number combinations.

Driving by BHFD HQ Friday I saw the new E199 in quarters.

From The Journal News legal section July 20, 2011 "BOND RESOLUTION DATED JULY 14, 2011 AUTHORIZING...THE VILLAGE OF ELMSFORD...(v) The acquisition of improvements to the public safety communications systems in and for the Village at a total maximum cost of $365,000...". Anyone have info on the details of this? Is this for the PD or FD or both? Is this to comply with the FCC's narrowbanding mandate?

I found these two pending FCC applications for Rockland County for a new 700MHz P25 Radio System 0004803161 and 0004803164. This is mentioned in the RCVFA Trumpet on page 8. According to the link in the Trumpet, the System is supposed to be operational by 12/31/12. Apparently change from UHF T band to 700MHz has been in the planning for some time, just not publicized from this link at Rocklandfires.com.

Congrats on the progress. It was a surprise to see the application, and best of luck with the system. Yes, it was a no brainer to go 700MHz.

That sucks. I'm still recovering from the rain we had on 6/23. Had about 2-3 inches in the basement, had to tear all the carpet out, had some mold in the sheetrock, flooding sucks! Still trying to dry the concrete out so we can install new carpet or tiles.

Found these two links for for appartus auctions on EBay: Town of Mamaroneck R6 Hartsdale L46

According to Intrepidmuseum.org, this upcoming weekend July 16 & 17, 2011 will be Firefighter Appreciation Weekend. I will try to find out if this is discount is available to all Firefighters, or just FDNY members. Saturday at 1100 will be the Blessing of the FDNY Marine Fleet. There will tours of the Three Forty Three both days from 1300 - 1600.

Today I got an e-mail back from the Intrepid Museum, the discount is available to all Firefighters, and the tours of the Three Forty Three is on a first come, first served basis.

NOZ45ZLE's picture above shows an outboard boat, while the link for the YFD shows an inboard boat (the James J. Mulcahy). Does YFD have two boats, or has the Mulcahy been retired.

But then it would not match the rest of the HFD fleet.

According to the Seagrave website the new FDNY Pumpers have a Waterous 2000GPM Pump. The Waterous website shows two models of midship pumps. The CM model will provide 500 to 1250GPM, and the CMU model will provide 1500 to 2250GPM depending on the number (and size) of discharges connected to the pump. Also note that only discharges 2.5" and larger are rated for the pump capacity.

Amen to that!!!

The New England Association of Fire Chief's Expo will be Friday June 24 through Sunday June 26, 2011 at Springfield, Mass. Hours for the Expo are Friday 0900 - 1700, Saturday 0900 - 1500, and Sunday 0900 - 1400. Price of admission is $10 each and parking is $5. This show is well worth the ride (two hours from Central Westchester). Last year Buchanan's Rescue, Katonah's Engine and Yonker's Ladder were on display, so there are local rigs on display. There is a good mix of manufacturers on display with Fire Apparatus, EMS rigs and firematic supplies and related services. Definately worth it.

bump. It's this weekend, Friday to Sunday.