SteveOFD

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Posts posted by SteveOFD

  11. Posted

    From The Journal News legal section March 28, 2012 two separate notices:

    "The Croton Falls Fire District...is selling a 1987 Ford F350 Brush Truck at a minimum bid of $7,000...Bid opening will be April 23, 2012 at 7:00PM."

    And

    "...Now, therefore, be it resolved, that the Croton Falls Fire District expend...not to exceed Sixty Thousand Dollars ($60,000) for the purchase of a 1988 Hahn LTI Fire Truck, from the Village of Ardsley, NY."

    IzzyEng4 and Engine 80 like this

  13. Posted

    I know that Empress, Transcare & WEMS have mobile/portable radios from the County to use on the trunked radio system. My question I have is: Do these ambulance services have their own talk groups for company communications? If the answer is yes, are they permitted to utilize the County trunked systems on a daily basis for their emergency/non-emergency company communications?

    If the answer is no, would they be able, under County radio guidelines to get a talk group assignment & be permitted to use this talk group assignment for emergency/non-emergency intra-company communications?

    To the best of my knowledge, the only TalkGroups on the Fire/EMS side of the System are Fire 10-19, EMS 10-19, Ops 1-10, Tacs 1-10. There are reports of several maintenance TG's (i.e. Training, Admin, Radio Maintenance, etc,) that I have not heard, but I have not heard of these being programmed in the typical Front Line Apparatus.

    According to a bulletin that Westchester County put out on the UHF Trunked System in June 2004, the bulletin states "Further, it is not intended to replace any existing Fire Department's or EMS Agency's individual radio communication system". With that said, it is up to each individual agency how they would like to use the Trunked System.

    As alsfirefighter stated it is best to contact 60 Control with specific questions.

    firedude likes this

  18. Posted

    Obviously the old saying "200 years of tradition, unimpeded by progress" is only a joke.

    There have been many advances in Firefighting technology over the years which have made our jobs easier, but IMO "200 years of tradition, unimpeded by progress" in many areas is not a joke. You only have to look at the NIOSH Firefighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program website to see that the same things keep injuring and killing Firefighters.

    There is a saying that I heard or read, and I paraphrase it here, which goes something like "Firefighters are some of the most creative people in the world, because they can get almost anything done with almost nothing, but they are also some of the dumbest people in the world because they haven't created a new way of injuring or killing themselves in a long time."

    As Sir Winston Churchill said "Those that don't learn from history, are doomed to repeat it." Too often we ignore history (LODD or FF injury) because we believe that this history can never happen to us, that that event occurred in a different State, Country, etc. and it can not ever happen to us.

  19. Posted

    I was glad to see they got the field comm out and on the road, seemed like an asset if not nice to see it get used. Great call to utilize the UTAC channels to coordinate the job especially since you had that many agencies from so many jurisdictions and disciplines working the scene. Chris, does aviation have the UTAC channels pre-punched in? I know you guys can tune on the fly (no pun intended) to just about any channel but you need the freqs to do it. May be someone from 60 control can answer, what is the delay, if any, to turn on the UTAC repeater from the time of authorization to the time of ready for use and can more than 1 channel be active at a time (e.g all UTAC 40 thru 43 all at once)?

    PEMO3, I know it is probably a typo, but there is no UTAC40 it is UCALL40. ;)

    PEMO3 likes this

  21. Posted

    Nobody has mentioned not to press the doorbell button, DON'T.

    And as stated above wear your gear, as the Rockland incident pointed out.

    Last week I was at a report of odor of gas in the area. After suiting up I noticed our Company Lt. in civies carrying his portable radio around the scene, I asked him if we needed to suit up. His answer to me was no :wacko:.

  22. Posted

    Any analog TrunkTracker scanner will follow the Westchester UHF System. You do not need a digital scanner unless you want to listen to Yonkers PD, Greenburg PD or Dobbs Ferry PD (those are the only local agencies using digital at this time).

    If you need help programming it we are always willing to help.

  23. Posted

    January 1, 2012 has come and gone and the Federal Communications Commission's deadline for narrowbanding is less than a year away (January 1, 2013). Information on narrowbanding can be found in my previous post from August.

    Narrowbanding requires both the reprogramming of existing radios (or purchasing of compliant radios), and updating FCC licenses to reflect the narrowband emissions.

    With that said, in researching the FCC's database, the following Westchester agencies are in need of at least updating their FCC licenses. (This may not be a complete list, so please verify yourself).

    I am not trying to put down any particular agency, just trying to give a heads up on the deadline, and as you will see below, I am working on updating my agency's license (all of our radios are compliant, only had to reprogram some to meet compliance).

    Briarcliff FD & PD

    Ossining FD & VAC

    Croton on Hudsson PD

    Peekskill VAC

    Sleepy Hollow PD

    Pound Ridge PD

    Elmsford FD & PD

    Hastings on Hudson FD & PD

    Tarrytown FD

    Harrison PD

    Mamaroneck Village PD

    Larchmont PD

    New Castle PD

    North Castle PD

    Mount Kisco PD

    Lake Mohegan FD & VAC

    Yonkers FD & PD

    Eastchester FD

    Mount Vernon PD

    New Rochelle PD (Mobile)

    White Plains FD & PD

    As stated above, this may not be a compete list of agencies who need to update their licenses. To view the status of your license(s) go to PublicSafetyTools.info and follow the instructions in my post linked above.

    If you have any questions please feel free to post or PM me and I will try to help.

    PEMO3, billy98988 and jack10562 like this

  25. Posted

    While looking at the Firematic website I see that Mount Vernon Police Dept. has taken delivery of a new B.R.A.T. Emergency Services truck. From their deliveries page, it looks like this is the first PD ESU they have built.

    There are also pictures of an FDNY rig. This is probably a Brush Fire Unit.

    Other FDNY BFU pictures from FDNYTrucks.com can be seen at these links:

    BFU 4 & ATV 154

    BFU 3

    BFU 5

    BFU 1 & ATV 164

    BFU 2

    BFU 7

    BFU 6

    ATRV 329

    BFD1054 likes this