IzzyEng4

Here's WTNH's article with a picture of the truck: http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/news/litchfield_cty/kent-fire-department-loses-truck-in-blaze By what is being told, the truck was driven up to this point and the fire had been moving in the opposite direction. The operator began experiencing some mechanical problems with getting the pump into gear and the wind then shifted pushing the fire towards the truck. They tried to get the truck going but the problems persisted so they had to abandon it. The good thing was no one got hurt. Me personally, I rather loose a truck than loose a member.

I know that the old style splitters were not that great. Those splitters basically was a connector with two cables coming our of it, one to connect to you AM/FM and the other to the scanner. You used to get the EMF from both the radios and would cause havoc on each others' reception. Do these have the electronics in it like the Stridsberg multi-couplers have for base scanners?

What??? Don't like the "man in the moon"???.................. Oh wait that sounds sooooo wrong!!!!!

There are a lot of good stores online to purcahse scanner antennas. The main thing when thinking about truck lip mounts is where to locate the antenna. Make sure whether you mount it on the side of the truck top or closest to your rear window, try and have it centered as possible. This will give you a good ground plane (or counterpoise) with your truck deck (also make sure that the truck door is metal, poly carbon doors will not give you a good ground). A good little trick when setting up the lip mount is to scrape off a little paint where the set screws will bit into the metal, this will assist in getting that good ground. You don't have to do this for scanner antennas so much compared to two-way radios, but it will help a lot. The set screws will mark up the paint anyway, and little to no rust should form, but check up on the mount every so often. There are many styles of lip mounts to choose from. Preferably I would recommend an NMO antenna connector style mount. It's the most common style mount and many scanner antenna manufactures that produce both the mount and antenna in a package. Some like Hustler make a nice whip scanner antenna bu their truck lip mount is very large an noticeable. Me personally I would get a smaller looking mount and purchase a separate antenna. Also when choosing your antenna, make sure that you select one that will cover all the frequencies you want to hear. Don't get something that is tuned for UHF and is small for a stealthy loo because it won't pick up Low Band and 150 Mhz unless you are right up on the transmitter. Try and get a multi band antenna if possible. You can spend anywhere from $20 to $100 for one. Also the most expensive is not necessarily the best. They get good reception yes but only on a "local" level. Just a little "geek-time" explanation, any antenna that does not have a good ground plane (ie. like in radios, the negative side connected to metal) you are only going to pic up strong transmission signals. These types of antennas need to be run as a dipole, basically the center connector (the part the whip of the antenna touches) has to go one what while the shield part of the antenna wire (the ground) has to run the other way. Also the suction cups don't last very long and in cold weather without proper maintenance, will eventually fall off or loose their shape. Don;t get me wrong, they are a great alternative if you only want to listen to local traffic and want to have that "hidden" look, but they are a lot of maintenance. Nothing is worse that having one of these strung across the front windshield while driving then it pops off in front of you. These are best suited to be mounted on the back window instead.

I agree, G-K produces a great truck. on their website, they are finishing up (or might have already) a new source pumper for the Durham, CT FD. It's on a two door Spartan chassis with a top-mount pump panel. Never heard anything bad about this company as they have bee producing rigs for about 25 - 30 years. http://www.gowansknight.com/

This was already done by NEWSDAY back about 4 - 5 years ago. All the information is on their site. Its nothing new. More than likely it came back out again because of the problems over in Gordon Heights.

Deputy Chief is a rank that is not widely used correctly in the fire service. A Deputy Chief in the structure of ranks can come after the Chief of the Department or after the Assistant Chief. Basically it how the terms Assistant and Deputy are utilized. Definitions from Dictionary.com So by definition a deputy chief or an assistant chief can be second in command. My department that I work for has the rank structure of Chief, Deputy and Assistant (three top ranks). New Haven runs the rank structure of Chief, two Assistant Chiefs (admin and line), four Deputy Chief (shift commander for each shifts) and eight Battalion Chiefs (two battalions). The volunteer department I come from has a chief and four assistant chiefs, no deputies. There are career departments in CT that do not have a Deputy Chief rank at all, they run assistants and battalions instead. I think the chief ranks structure is mostly depends how each department is set up and how they specifically want to run their ranking system.

When they said Super Moon, I first though of this....................

Ian, CSP troopers with their vehicles is way different than the discussion here just to let you know. I works as a dispatcher for Troop I and the reasoning for the troopers to have an 24/7 assigned car is so they can be activated at anytime. Technically even when the troop is "off duty" they are still technically "on duty" and can be called into service at anytime. Its just part of their emergency activation guidelines. Now the book that you are talking about is the "108" (just a code) book which is used by the troopers to denote that they will be out of service and unavailable, regardless if they have their vehicle with them or not. Mind you that CSP cruisers have a range limit on them, they can only go so far in the bordering states (Mass is up to Springfield / I-90 area, Rhode Island is out to about the Coventry area and NY about halfway into Westchester the last that I knew, this may have changed recently). But they must also notify their barracks they are leaving the state line for official or unofficial business. They cannot take their cars say to NYC unless ordered to respond by the Commissioner or the Colonel for an active response. May of the troopers use their cars for day-to-day travel in the state because of their agreement to be ready when called upon. Just wanted to pass that on to you to expand on what you were told.

How about one from the EMS side of things: "Possible code, possible DOA.." So which one is it? And then the classic (I won't say which dispatch center) "Diabetic Coma Shock"

"K" was typed at the end of a morse code message to signify the end of a message. This is a carry over from the old telegraph fire alarm systems. Yes, in side the big red box was a key, or paddle as it is also called, and on a closed system where the boxes were connected back to the "Control Office" and send a message. K is typed out "- . -" (Dah-dit-dah) and is much shorter that typing out O-V-E-R (--- ...- . .-.) or E-N-D (. -. -..), thus making communications much faster. "K" is used in place of "go ahead with your reply, I am done sending the message" to the receiver. Yes sometimes it does get overused also, it only supposed to be used at the end of a person's transmission, not every sentence.

I beleive that is one of the older Brontos prior to them going exclusive with E-One. If its the one I'm thinking of, it was a sharp looking rig and was set up for an industrial setting.

Being a former dispatcher, "At This time" usually is stated for the purpose of letting those know this is all the information we have right now and we are trying to get more. Unfortunately its one of those nomenclatures that is used way too often.

Nah, home, GF was working so I had nothing to occupy my time!!!

The KMEs are fine from what I have been hearing, it's just Engine 33's historic station (the famous Back Bay firehouse) is the problem. The truck is a tad bit too large to properly fit into the station due to the firehouse doors. The firehouse also has no drive way, you come out of the station go over the side walk and your on the street. It was a matter of having the truck being able to pull in and out of the station properly. Engine 33 now has the E-one they were previously using before the KME took its place (which I beleive it was specially built for the firehouse. Also Ladder 15 just received a new E-One rearmount that was specifically built for this station. Here is the link to a picture of the firehouse http://www.capecodfd.com/Pics%20STA/Boston%20FD%20Sta33%20022307%203725.jpg The firehouse is on the historical register so very few modifications can be made. Quite a number of years ago the floor over in the ladder bay was dropped so a rearmount could fit into it. I didn't hear anything about Engine 37 going to the training school, but it would make sense since Boston ordered three more KME pumpers back in January.

That is correct. A quad has a (1) pump, (2) a water tank, (3) carries hose, and (4) a full compliment of ground ladders. To make a quint, an elevated aerial ladder device is added to the mix. Quads were very popular from the time of motorization to about the early 1950s since many smaller departments really didn't have the need for an aerial ladder. Before steel aerial ladders were made, practically all aerial ladder trucks were tractor drawn, with a few straight framed aerial ladder trucks in the mix. Aerials prior to the invention of steel aerial devices in the 1930s were made of wood and only had two sections (sometimes but very very rarely three). Quads trace their origins to the old horse drawn city-service ladder trucks equipped with chemical booster equipment. So with motorization, departments that needed a good "ladder truck" and wanted to combine the rig with a pumper, would purchase a quad. So with that said, just to go a little further for the understanding of the terms, a triple combination pumper back in the days of early motorized fire engines and trucks comprised of three elements, a pump, a set of chemical booster equipment or a booster water tank and carried hose. Prior to motorization, pumpers (steamers and early horse drawn gas pumpers) were separate units from hand drawn and horse drawn hose wagon, carts and booster carts (or the latter two could be combined in a horse drawn unit).

My friend talked to his mother in Tokyo and the city is basically shut down. He just got back to the states about 24 hours ago. They are okay but they were having problems with the nuke power plant in Funkashima was having a cooling water problem. There was a ship with 100 souls on board that was swept away and is missing and one of the news outlets from Japan is reporting up to 88,000 people could be missing.

Really? They had nothin at all over there website they were doing that before nor could I find anything when I did an archive search. I stand corrected.

They were always a separate company and had no affiliation with E-One. Just because they are located in Ocala doesn't meant they are owned or affiliated with E-One. http://www.classicfirellc.com/default.asp

@crime cop - Just to let you and everyone know, I don't go after the entire party, I single out those politicians who are wrong. And yes a great majority of them despite political affiliation are out for themselves. Can't wait to see what happens to those junior members that are filled with p&v, they fall into the same line of bull in DC for sure. @Alex (Sage) - this is the last vet of the "Great War", the known soldiers despite the identification of LT. Blassie we just that, unknown. If the US did not get involved in WWI the world map would look very different today. Let alone look at if we did not get involved some 20 plus years later with WWII. All I have to ask is if this was Dick Winters and he was denied, how would we all feel then??

I have something that is worth posting here and is something I want all of you to read and really think about. This was forwarded to me by a friend. This was written by Meriden, CT, Battalion Chief Burdick. These are words that I whole heartily beleive in and held true in my profession being a firefighter, from the time I started volunteering my service to my present career in the fire services. Next time when you use the term "Brotherhood" stop and think about it for a second and ask yourself how you use the term, live up to your actions, consider your self part of the Brotherhood. I see the term used often here, but are you truly in the brotherhood? Just think.

With front outriggers like the ALF/LTI and the Aerialscops, that is an exception, but it is really not an extended bumper. Those rigs have to be designed that way so that the stabilizers and operational equipment are protected. Putting an additional foot of chrome bumper and diamond plate out in front of the truck with no valuable purpose is what I am talking about.

The Brotherhood just got lost down the wrong road somewhere and WE need to bring it back. WE are the ones that need to remember it and make it stronger. WE need to makes sure its alive and maintain it. Otherwise, WE need re-evaluate what WE are doing wrong.

Rep Bone-head strikes again.

Well the way they get around it is that though the ladders are built by Smeal at their plan and are engineered by Smeal's engineers, they are actually a separate specification outlined by Ferrara (hence the 77', 107' jobs). Its pretty much the same thing like Pierce, their aerial manufacturing is done else where but the company is owned by Oshkosh and built to Pierce's specifications (whihc ironically is also technically a Smeal design. Smeal did Pierce's aerials in the Pierce factory for years before they ended their relationship in the mid-1990s).