IzzyEng4

I really doubt that height would be an issue because FDNY is very specific on their rigs and if that was a problem and a company does not follow the specification, it would not have left the manufacturer.

SELF-DISPATCH????????? TWO WORDS I HATE together!!!!! As a former FD / EMS dispatcher this is more ramped than ever. It doesn't matter if its fire or EMS units, once units start to self dispatch themselves you lose span and control and also the necessary coverage needed for the rest of the area you cover. There is no need to self dispatch and for those who allow it, should be removed from their officer's positions. I have experienced this many times being a dispatcher and nothing is worse than a self dispatched unit ignoring an order to return to service then having to get bit in the backside because their is a fire right near their station or standby post (has happened several times under my watch and patients / people have suffered). As a former fire officer if any person self dispatched them selves to respond with apparatus to any call (with the exception of a mistake in announcing the wrong running rules and the unit is supposed to be on the assignment) would face disciplinary action.

The main problem still with Nextel is the Metro-service mentality and thiner iDEN system, which is way outdated. I would have changed but I still need to use the direct connect with a lot of the guys I work with do to the fact of "dead" area in our radio system from time to time. Hopefully Sprint will do something about this, but I'm not holding my breath.

Maybe they should call it the "Swamp Pump" instead of Neptune then.

What kind of renovations are being done? Total tear apart the inside or they just remodeling certain areas? Also too if it is an older house built prior to the 50's you might have to worry about asbestos too, if it has not been already removed.

You got to be kidding me! What next, a "slapped up Barbie????"

Sucks doesn't it??? He we have a kid that was trespassing and illegally painting graffie on private property and caused damaged to private property. OK the parent vow to sue and what does the leagal system do, back the parents!! In my opinion the parent should be held responsible for their son's illegal actions by them not doing anything to stop him. More than likely this kid did it before, somewhere else maybe, and got a slap on the had by law enforcement and the parents probably "took care" of the situation them self but didn't! H-E-Double Hockey Sticks, if that was me and I got caught doing that, my old man would have tanned my a$$ back to the stone age! Death is tragic yes and unnecessary death is worse but the problem is this, like many have said no one takes their own responsibility. This kid did something wrong, and consciously did so, he premeditated to go int and damage property and got himself on the Darwin Awards Honorable mention list of killing himself doing something stupid, it harsh but he deserved it and caused it only by himself, he shouldn't have been there in the first place. But then again just because there was a hole in the fence, they'll blame the LIRR for leaving it that way. People should know to stay away. You all remember the electrocutions with the third rails on the New Haven line years ago right? If memory served me right, no one saw a dime from those cases because they were illegally on the property and ignored the posted warnings (I'm not including the accidents where workers were injured in this statement. Just the morons in the public that jump the fences.) Its just like the old crossing the railroad track when the warning lights and gates are down and someone gets walloped. Who's at fault??? The train doing 50 to 100 MPH that take 10 city blocks to slow down or the idiot who crossed it? It just aggravates me to see stupidity like this. Especially when he basically knowingly "committed suicide" (figuratively speaking) when he made the decision to do something "cool".

This rig was at the 2003 New England Fire Chief's Expo at the Big E site in West Springfield Mass. It was a new concept vehicle for Cambridge if memory serves me correct for a transportable rig that could have a larger crew seating area and command center. I'll have to post it on EMTBravoNewEngland.com to see if there is more input to this. It was a really interesting rig.

It's making me hungry, time to order a clam pizza!

Then why is it on the website stating its being held there? And ice doesn't matter, they have a flooring to put over it just like they do for concerts.

You should eat at Chipolte more often to fix that problem!!!!! Seriously though I know what you mean but I luckily I really never had that problem with the current design. There are so many options out there but I think a specific style should be redesigned making them lighter and stronger.

Before any command structure is set up, the first arriving fire unit, regardless if it is a truck, engine, rescue, squad, chief or even a FD staffed Ambulance, you need to know what the heck you area facing. For example I'll use a scenario when I was captain of my company. "Engine 4 to FireComm............... On Scene, we have a 2 1/2 story wood frame residence, light smoke coming from the 1st floor front door, A-Side. Engine 4 is taking the hydrant at the corner of Wakelee and Clarkson. 401 (Co. 4 Captain ID) is now Wakelee Ave command , further update to follow." NIMS is great when used properly but Size up is more important first from incoming units knowing what is going on then with the size up, the reporting party then sets up command in the same statement, now everyone knows who, what, when where and why.

A Rescue Company should be a unit of highly trained members who perform difficult task in preventing injury and death to a patient. The services provided by the rescue company shall include life safety, extrication, confined space, trench, RIT / FAST, and any other highly specified matter of the prevention and rescue from injury of death and no one portion shall be separate from the other. The vehicle of the Rescue Company shall be set up in away, with the exception of transporting a patient, to provide and carry the necessary tools and equipment to remove a patient in danger from harms way and also carry emergency medical equipment to provide assistance from a removal or rescue from a hazardous situation.

Sorry but I still believe in the Shoot first to protect your self and answer questions later with any armed attack.

A couple weeks ago, Australia had snow and it's their summer time down under!

Well as many of us do like a good beer, kick back relax and watch a good show or entertain friends, I again made my monthly Yeungling run to NY a couple of days ago since we here in CT cannot get the fine combination of water, malt, barley and hops in this state (DAMN DISTRIBUTING RIGHTS!!) This time I decided to hit the Mt. Kisco Stop & Shop for my ride. Now I usually hit that little store on 202 just over the Danbury line in on the way to Brewster, and few little stores in Port Chester, Rye, Rye Brook and Somers to name a few. But the run is getting old. I also know that there area a lot of you "Westies" that like Long Trail from Vermont, which we have here and some places in NY cannot (Damn distributing rights again!!) So how about a relay and trade off????? Any takers? And of course, I didn't bring my camera and I could have gotten a couple good photo hunt pics but that's my loss, again!

Just so everyone doesn't get confused, Digital transmissions and encryption are two totally separate things. Encryption have been around with the Fed Gov't and Police departments for several years and its intent is to block all tactical radio transmissions. It is not a standard or necessary to be utilized. To unscramble encrypted radio transmission is illegal. Digital Radio Transmission (aka APCO-25) is a communications standards by which voice and sound is converted into ascii (aka computer 1's & 0's) and re-converted back into voice and sound with the intent of lessening the interference cause with analog (normal transmissions like two-ways run now). The draw back for digital comms is that there is a significant delay time in is converting the voice data when transmitting a receiving, usually 3 to 5 seconds total. Digital transmissions also free up more frequencies since there is relatively / minimal "bleed over" to other radio frequencies. A lot of people confuse APCO-25 digital and encryption all the time but they area two separate things. APCO--25 was in no way created to block people from hearing what was being on a scanner, that was a misnomer.

And we all "wonder Why" AOL is doing the Leave us and keep your E-mail thing now, Hmmmmmmm

Well I bought myself a belated Christmas present today, The Bearcat 996T scanner. I liked the 396T so much that I decided that I would also get this as well. Out of the box it is an impressive unit. It came with a reprint of "Pop Com" article from Nov 2005 & Jan 2006 on scanner programing, an order form from scanner master and a National communications mag subscription leaflet. Not too bad for the literature. Browsing through the owner's manual, 139 pages minus the index and memo pages, it is laid out great for the installation and initial setup but programing needs a few extra minutes of reading time if you do not have the software (I don;t have it for this scanner yet, but more than likely I'll be going with ARC's version like I have for my 780 & 396T). It comes with the programing cable with a 9-pin serial interface. I purchased a serial to USB adapter some time ago for my other scanners which works great. DIN sleeve (yes you can mount this in you car's radio slot!) is a standard one like the sleeves that come with an after market car stereo. The standard mounting bracket is quite large, larger than the XLT series mounting brackets found on the 780, 785 & 790's, but its sturdier than previous models. A standard BNC adjustable whip antenna, AC power adapter, cigarette lighter adapter and mounting hardware are all packaged nice. One surprise was the DC power cord, which is a three-lead like most communication trans-receivers (think the old Radio Shack CB's). It's the standard red = positive with a 2 amp fuse and black = negative set up. The third wire, orange with a 2 amp fuse, attaches to the headlamp switch so that the back light will dim when you turn on your lights, like a stereo, a nice feature! I'm gonna play around with it for the next few days at home and decide if I'm gonna mount it in my truck, after I figure out that pesky interference problem I asked about in a previous post. I'll let you all know what I think of this new rig. Ciao!

So far I have played with it for a few hours and got ARC's software for it and began loading up profile. Believe it or not one of the coolest things I accidentally came across was the backlight! (I'm a simpleton!!!) I started it up and the screen was green, I hot the volume knob and it switched to red/orange pushed again and it brightened, again - brightened, again - off, again - green dimmed, again -brightened, ect, (I was playing with it for a few minutes like a kid awestruck watching those Japanese cartoons that give you seizures!) It receives pretty darn well with the local stuff and it is pre-programed with a lot of high radio traffic areas. Unfortunately the CSP pre-program is all messed up and I haven't even checked the Metro-NY and Boston ones yet. Operation is similar to the 396 with the close call and tone out features, I set it up yesterday for my FD's radio and it woke me up this morning when there was a call! (better that my Minitor IV) It does com pre-porgramed with the National Call in and get this NORAD, Thunderbirds, Blue Angels and NASA Chase plane and shuttle frequencies (AM mode). So far it is a good by but like I said in the other scanner forum, I do miss the simplicity of the older banks style and the old 16 channel style programmables. I'll get back to you all with more on this scanner. Maybe we should all do reviews on our favorite scanners from past and present in a forum. Hmmmmmmmmm.

Not like the siren, air horns and the radio are not bothering him also! I'm joking of course since I'm a driver. Seriously though, as true with any pass device and SCBA with or without an integrated device, personally I rather wait until I get on scene to turn on the bottle rather than have all the loud alarms, test alarms, ect go off especially if you are stationary and you know that damn pass (AKA The F.O.D. - ask me in a private mail if you can't figure the acronym out.) I can't stand them when they sound in a structure doing overhaul! ArrowXT is right about it bothering drivers because we have enough noise in the cab as it is and having those go off can really distract us from the road and we can't hear anything else that may be comming or waring us.

Scanners and other radio equipment will never become obsolete. The problem with scanners, whether it is Uniden, Radio Shack (GRE), ICOM, Relm, or AOR, have to realize what is enough!!!!. I miss the days where a simple 10 or 16 channel was all you needed, but now with trunk systems, APCO 25 digital systems and such, you still can make a simple scanner that can monitor everything! Total encryption will never take hold and it is different than the APCO 25 digital transmission standard (digital is not encryption it can be monitored with the proper equipment, to hear encryption, listen to the Military Bands to hear the difference). Paging services will never take the place of scanners either, why? Mainly because people's natural curiosity to listen into what is happening LIVE. Why do you think live webcasts of scanners took off so rapidly (The Bravest, ScanCT, Scan Mass) Plus to what started the paging trend? The old Radio Buff clubs like Citywide, AlarmBell, Box 51 and other buff groups that began using two-ways to call out alarms for their members to buff and photograph. Heck I remember the day when Waterbury CT switched over to a LTR Multinet business radio system and people purchased two-way radios just to monitor that city since they had no re-broadcast capabilities off their old VHF-High system (that's another story for the rumor-ville section). Yes there are systems out there that are being installed as the next best thing but in reality are they????? Look when the first Motorola, EADCS and LTR systems came out, Problems, same with Apco 25 digial truck standard. The problem lies with the technology available to scanning and how manufacturers will meet that demand. though a smaller market, scanners are still here to stay. No need to worry. The problem is when will scanner manufacturers make it simple again.

AOL has always been like that, I've got TOSed even when I was a guide way back when. They had a rash of internal spamming through their system years ago and they got strict on it. If I remember right, the way to get by it used to be every person you sent something to, like jokes, party invites ect. was to have them do like a verification of you e-mail (the receiver) so that it was not considered spam. For a while you have to break up your e-mail list. Aslo too, if all these people were in your AOL address book, then you were able to get by it. That was then I don't know how its handled now.

Our new Smeal is on a Spartan Gladiator Chassis. We have the "Stop" signs due to the requirement but there is also reflective striping on the outer edge of the door jam. I will try to post a picture of it sometime this week.

Roto-Rays are one of the earliest style of warning lights dating back to the first 12 volt systems on fire trucks during the late 1910's & through the 1920's. Originally, most of them were mounted on a pole on the side of a truck or behind the driver. Similar in application to the old Mars lights that shifted left to right and with the light head itself angled, The three lights of a roto-ray are angled in a way so when they rotate, they give the appearance of a "flash". Usually the light heads are all one color or two of the same and one white. The advantage of this light is that it is different than a standard flash of a front grill warning light or the actions of a rotating light bar, basically it is a direct light eye catcher when you drive since it it technically located on modern apparatus ar the driver's eye level. This device was talked about in another topic that is now closed. Here is the link to that topic: http://emtbravo.net/index.php?showtopic=10748&hl=roto+ray Her is a link to a posting of mine with the original spe cs for the roto-ray: http://emtbravo.net/index.php?showtopic=10...indpost&p=53501 They area a good alternative or add-on warning device but I'm not sure who makes them now or what their cost is. Sometimes different is better.