nwsafetyguy

But when the repeater in the truck is off, how does 60 Control or other rigs call the chief? since he can only talk to 60 when the repeater is turned on?

I'm not sure what you mean.. are you saying that the fireground ops should be on the same freq. as 60 control amd the rigs? I dont understand what you mean by flipping the switch.. If you are talking about 2 different channels, but using the scan feature on the radio, so you can monitor both channels, that puts the chief in the same situation, no radio can monitor 2 channels at the same time... so the I/C will miss messages.... If you are talking about using one channel for both the rig and fire ops.. thats not safe either... Rig radios are more powerful then portibles.. so if a rig is asking for instructions, and a FF on a protable trys to give a mayday.. no one will herar it because the rig radio has more wattage then a portable.... Its not impossible to monitor to radios at once... These trunking systems are used nationwide in all different sized departments... and they work... I personally feel that switching to the trunk system will greatly improve communication throughout the county... but it will be a learning experinces for all of us..

vwwh1 - I just wanted to say there are Volunteer Fire Depts where the Chief does carry 2(two) portables currently. Here in Mt. Kisco the Chiefs carry 2 portables, one is a uhf portable with the 8 Fireground Freq. in it and the other portable they use to talk to 60 Control and responding rigs on 46.26. Once the new trunking system is up and running, the 46.26 portable will be replaced with the new trunking ones. If a Chiefis switching between 2 or more channels, there is a very good possiblity that he might miss an important message, which could endanger his FF's. If he is monitoring the fireground, how does a responding in rig as him for directions etc? and if he is on the rig frequency, and a FF on the fireground puts out a mayday, he wont hear it.... In the interest of FF safety, 2 radios are needed. Wheather its 2 portables, or the Chief stays near his vehicle and one is a portable and the other is his cars radio. He only need the second portibles, if he doesnt want to be tied to his vehicle. What to do if there is no chief on the scene, well then the person acting as the Offier would have to use one of the rig trunk radios to talk to 60 or other rigs, and just carry a fireground portable.