# Does each EMT carry a radio?



## MMiz (Feb 12, 2005)

I'm wondering if everyone is assigned a portable radio, if only one is assigned to the unit, or if you don't even carry them.

I found that portable radios aren't up to par for communicating with dispatch.  I find them invaluable for hearing from dispatch and other closer units.

I'd like to see everyone carry a radio, whether it be an EMT, Medic, PD, or any responding unit.  I think it's a great tool and means of communication, but some of the people I work with find them useless.

Any thoughts?


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## coloradoemt (Feb 12, 2005)

We carry them as EMT's. All of our medics have their own. As an EMT I just grab the one off of the rig. It is protocol in case we need something brought in for us, help moving the pt. or in the event things go south we can radio for help.


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## Chimpie (Feb 12, 2005)

Matt, 

Trying to win your own contest here?  LOL j/k

If I was making the decision I would want each to carry their own radio.  A couple of reasons why:

1) I hate to hear something on someone elses radio and ask, "What was that?"
2) I hate to be the one with the radio and people always asking me, "What was that?"
3) As mentioned above, if you need arriving units to grab something...
4) If you're dispatched to 123 Main Street and you find out the pt. is really 3 houses down and you didn't find this out till you were already at the front door of the dispatched address...
5) You're doing pt care and a fight breaks out and you need to request PD


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## emtbuff (Feb 12, 2005)

We have a handheld radio in both of our rigs.  and have only one EMT/firefighter that carries a handheld when he is one call.  Normally our PD is on scene and use there radios to relay messages to other units coming in our if we need to contact some one.  We don't normally use the hand helds.  I have seen a person use the hand held when we did our mock Disaster drill.  Come to think of it I think our second unit is missing its handheld any ways.  all in all we don't use our handheld often and probley should use it more.


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## emtal233 (Feb 12, 2005)

When I work in NYC911 we each carry a radio set on the boro disp freq. If we have an mci or any special reason the driver, who usually does all the radio comms, switches to citywide disp, as well as the truck radio. On our interfacility trucks we have one portable just in case...


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## Wingnut (Feb 13, 2005)

Everyone carries thier own radio here too.


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## daemonicusxx (Feb 14, 2005)

we are still using Nextels as radios for the 3rd party i work for. we used to use just one per truck, but i figured that if me and my parther get seperated at all and i need to get ahold of her for any reason, be it a change in scene saftey or anything important like that, we would need to have one per person. after suggesting that to the big boss, we are getting enough to assign one per person. to be honest, i really dont like the nextels at all. too hard to use sometimes.


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## Wingnut (Feb 14, 2005)

We just bought nextels for personal use. There a pain in the butt when it comes to being out of service or being in contact with more than one person. Are regular radios that much more expensive?


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## ma2va92 (Feb 15, 2005)

Everyone has there own radio and pager.. but we have to .....being a volly rescue squad.. pager goes off... those that can will answer up on our pri. channel.. some one may be closer to the pt than the ambulance. and head there... .. with  port. radio then can update about the pt. or call dispatch and request or or less... call for chopper..... hand heads are a MUST...just wish the battery lasted longer 5 six hours max.... and the radio is on 24/7..


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## Jon (Feb 15, 2005)

at my one squad there is "supposed to be" a radio in each vehicle (isn't always). Also, each Crew Chief is "supposed to have" a company issued nextel when on duty.

Some of the company members, myself included are "whacker" enough to grab "spare" portables from the charging rack and carry them all shift. Also, anyone "important" carries a company pager (sometimes company issued to person, otherwise one of 6 or 8 onstation.) Also, few carry the co. nextels, as they are "one more thing" to worry about. Most of us use our own, even for the ED notification calls (at night, who cares about cell phone minutes   )


Jon


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## Jon (Feb 15, 2005)

My other Co. has a county portable (800 MHZ) and a Co. portable (VHF HI) in the truck in chargers. the portable is assigned by county CAD to the truck. I usually take the 800 with me to a "house call" and have that and the fire co. portable on me when on a scene with the FD. Also, all our EMS officers (Capt. and 2 Lt's) have their own sets of portables, as do the fire officers.

nice to live in a rich township 



Jon


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## MMiz (Feb 15, 2005)

We all carry alphanumeric pagers, and all of our ALS rigs carry 2 800 MHz radios, one for dispatch, and the other for PD and hospitals.

BLS rigs get a portable if there is one left in the chargers, and we can use the 800 MHz mobile radios in the trucks if we need to contact hospitals, though I've always used my cell phone.

It's interesting to see how every service is different.


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## rescuecpt (Feb 16, 2005)

At the FD we have a portable radio up front in the rig, and a portable in the back, in addition to an on-board radio both up front and in the back.  Only officers are assigned radio's in our dept - so I always have mine in addition to what's on the ambulance.  In the event of a fire or other large scale emergency we have about 10 spare radios on top of those that are on all the trucks and assigned to the officers.  I'll usually grab a couple for my crew so we have enough to set up ICS.

At the Corps there are 2 spare radios up front and all of the chiefs have radios.  There are also separate MCI radios in the building ready to go.


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## SafetyPro2 (Feb 17, 2005)

Our ambulance is equipped with two handheld units...one a VHF programmed with our tactical frequency and the tac frequencies for some local departments and one UHF with the dispatch frequency and the tac frequencies for other local departments. Its somewhat complicated, but some departments are set-up for VHF and others for UHF. We were told last night that all the radios are going to be reprogrammed due to some interoperability decisions that have been made...basically, all SoCal fire radios will essentially be programmed the same way now, but still with various different frequencies. 

The only people who have personal radios issued are Chiefs and Captains. Other than any of them on-scene, on an EMS call, only the FF/EMT staffing the ambulance and the one staffing the utility will have a radio, unless an engine rolls also (we have handhelds for each riding position on those).

All members are issued a Minitor II or Minitor IV radio pager and an alphanumeric pager. Generally, once the Minitor goes off for a call, I keep it "open" to listen to dispatch while I respond and then "close" it when I get on-scene. The alpha pagers get a dispatch summary that closely matches what comes across the computer terminals in the rigs (which is good if you miss the address on the radio pager).


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## emtchicky156 (Feb 21, 2005)

Each member carries a radio. We check in with our radio numbers when we are available, this way we know the call is covered. Pd usually arrives on scene before us they also have radios and can update us before we arrive on scene.


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## Summit (Feb 22, 2005)

Everyone is supposed to have a radio but sometimes there aren't enough to go around.


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## medic7 (Nov 27, 2009)

I work for a county service in Crawford County iowa.. Kind of the middle of no where.. We have two crews on duty at all time's.  Our radios are also our pages.. they are set to tone off for 911, and inhouse pages.  We are hospital based so we get called to different parts of the hospital threw out the day and night to assist with IV's and other what not's.  Each paramedic carries a Motorola EX560 XLS.. We have two paging channels each carring two tone decoding, set of closed (meaning that they only set of allerts and open the channel when the two tones are herd and decoded), and then we monitor our EMS national and EMS regional in our area.  Our first and priority paging channel, is for 911 pages.. this is set on county fire, where all first responce and fire departments are also paged.  The second paging channel is the hospital own paging frequency for calling in docs, and techs from all departments.  

All in all a complicated system, but it works well for us...


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## daedalus (Nov 27, 2009)

wow, a four year resurrection!


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## sbp7993 (Nov 27, 2009)

Yes, where I volunteer everybody carries radios. (EMTS and Medics)


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## Mountain Res-Q (Nov 27, 2009)

daedalus said:


> wow, a four year resurrection!



Almost 5... But I guess that is what happens when everyone keeps preaching "Use the Search Feature"...  Someone digs too deep... ^_^  Least you could do is revive a slightly newer radio/pager thread without bumping one from when EMTLIFE was "The #1 Online Related Forum for EMS Discussions" because it was the only one...

Oh, and who needs radios... Tin Cans and really long string do the trick... plus you create a new position on Fire Engines:  "Communications Line Tender", thereby helping to justify their budget... LOL


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## akflightmedic (Nov 27, 2009)

Mountain Res-Q said:


> Almost 5... But I guess that is what happens when everyone keeps preaching "Use the Search Feature"...  Someone digs too deep... ^_^  Least you could do is revive a slightly newer radio/pager thread without bumping one from when EMTLIFE was "The #1 Online Related Forum for EMS Discussions" because it was the only one...



Nice save...

Anyways, EMT City, EMS Village, Firehouse (EMS section), Trauma Central (which later became something else), and several others all existed long before EMT Life...just FYI.


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## Mountain Res-Q (Nov 27, 2009)

akflightmedic said:


> Nice save...
> 
> Anyways, EMT City, EMS Village, Firehouse (EMS section), Trauma Central (which later became something else), and several others all existed long before EMT Life...just FYI.



Save?

And the last part was a joke, with no fact to back it as it wasn't meant to be psycho-analyzed... emphasize on Psycho...


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## akflightmedic (Nov 27, 2009)

Save as in the thread being resurrected....not intended for you.

Hey man, any chance I see to share info that newbies may not be privy to...I put it out there whether your intent was humorous, sarcastic, whatever...do not want rumors to become legend thereby historical fact.  

And yes, I analyze EVERYTHING.


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## Seaglass (Nov 27, 2009)

At one service, it's two radios per truck. So if we have a crew of more than two, someone won't have one. 

At another, all of us have radios and alphanumeric pagers. 

At #3, we usually all have radios, but there aren't always enough to go around. Each crew will always have at least two.


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## Dominion (Nov 27, 2009)

At my service everyone is required to have a radio and a yellow vest or a yellow jacket for when working on a roadside.  

Some people own their own yellow jacket, if you don't have a jacket you are assigned a vest.

Some people own their own radios (people who are on one or more fire departments usually have their own + pagers), if you don't have your own radio you are assigned one.  If you run a three person truck whether it's a new hire, a precepting paramedic, or a student doing ride time, you are assigned a radio.  Yes we even give radios to students doing their ride time.   

Supposedly you must keep them on you at all times, and I'd say the reception/transmission on them are about 50% of the county.  It really depends on where you are and how close to the truck you are (I think the trucks act as a boost...atleast in my experience it's better nearer to the truck)

With that said our radio system sucks and 10% of the time the truck radios don't work.


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## medichopeful (Nov 27, 2009)

Yes.  At my campus, each EMT or FR carries a radio.


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## SPEARS-101 (Nov 27, 2009)

Our ambulances never leave without at least 3 EMTs, including the driver, and it is the crew chief that has the hand held radio.


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## Fox800 (Nov 27, 2009)

Two radios per truck. Each truck also has two alphanumeric pagers assigned to receive calls, and a Minitor alert pager.


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## MRE (Nov 28, 2009)

My service is fire based, and all of the FD officers, and EMTs are issued a radio.  The ambulance has a dual head mobile radio inside, but no extra portables.


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## medicdan (Nov 28, 2009)

We had this discussion in a different context a bit over a year ago... and while I hate reviving the dead discussion, a think a link is appropriate here. 
http://www.emtlife.com/showthread.php?t=8316


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## paramedichopeful (Nov 28, 2009)

Even as a student I have to carry a portable, due mainly to the hours I have to log on observation on the calls. Ours are Motorola, with all the bells and whistles. There is even a distress key which you can use to get help if you're endangered. Not all of us carry radios, but those of us that don't have Nextel walkie talkie phones that will connect to the portables. The console units in the rigs are crappy though. They sound like crap on the portables and aren't loud enough at all.


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