# two-way radio question



## medman123 (Aug 21, 2007)

What kind of 2 ways do you use; I know it may very from state to state. Do you guys use uhf radios? Vhf radios? Or something else? Thanks in advance!


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## will (Aug 21, 2007)

The entire County where I live runs off one Fire Dispatch unit/system all of which is a VHF system.  Pretty much everyone in the County uses VHF (Police/Fire) with our Small city utilizing UHF (seem to recall hearing once it's an older system)


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## medman123 (Aug 21, 2007)

will said:


> The entire County where I live runs off one Fire Dispatch unit/system all of which is a VHF system.  Pretty much everyone in the County uses VHF (Police/Fire) with our Small city utilizing UHF (seem to recall hearing once it's an older system)


Thanks a million!


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## ffemt8978 (Aug 22, 2007)

Smoke signals usually work the best out here 





Actually, we use a county wide VHF system that is in the process of being converted over to narrow band frequencies to comply with the FCC rules.  Each district has their own tac freqs, but for main dispatch we can here anyone in the county (that is the third largest in the state).


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## Chimpie (Aug 22, 2007)

Motorola's 800mhz Digital Astro System


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## KEVD18 (Aug 23, 2007)

900mhz privacy plus


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## MMiz (Aug 24, 2007)

Each unit has two mobile radios and three hand-held radios:

800 MHz - Communicate with dispatch
VHF - Communicate with local departments
Medcom VHF - Hospital communication

I'd use UHF if I was covering a small campus or building, and VHF for anything larger.


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## Jon (Aug 26, 2007)

The whole county is on a digitally trunked, 800mhz EF-Junk (I mean EFJohnson) system.


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## Tincanfireman (Aug 26, 2007)

We use a repeater based 400MHz UHF system at my full time job, and Nextels at my ambulance job.  Both have benefits and drawbacks,  but I prefer any radio system over the Nextels


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## KEVD18 (Aug 27, 2007)

i prefer two cans and a string to nextels


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## Jon (Aug 31, 2007)

KEVD18 said:


> i prefer two cans and a string to nextels


Amen.

I'm counting down the days to the end of my contract.. so I can go to Cingular.


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## MedikErik (Aug 31, 2007)

Motorola 800mhz.


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## medman123 (Aug 31, 2007)

Jon said:


> Amen.
> 
> I'm counting down the days to the end of my contract.. so I can go to Cingular.



Now AT&T


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## Jon (Sep 3, 2007)

medman123 said:


> Now AT&T


They were ATT, then they were Cingular, now they want to be ATT again... Either way, it beats the heck out of Nextel.


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## Tincanfireman (Sep 3, 2007)

Jon said:


> Either way, it beats the heck out of Nextel.


 
I really hope that someone from Nextel finds out about this thread, so they can see all the unsolicited feedback regarding how their product is being accepted in the EMS world...


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## PArescueEMT (Sep 6, 2007)

out here, we are on VHF for fire and EMS except for the city of vineland (read state of) who is on 800 Mhz.


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## mtsjess (Oct 15, 2007)

*Radios*

We have in the past used Motorola HT750's, and up until recently we switched to a different one due to grants we received.  Personally, I'll keep my old one...I love Motorola.  The pager tone is much louder compared to our new ones...easier to wake up to.


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## Mercy4Angels (Oct 27, 2007)

motorola ht1250. 800 mhz UHF


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## bobert5064 (Dec 9, 2007)

*Local Radio's*

Hi,

In my area we use mostly lowband (33Mhz area), but some towns a switching over to VHF, we also use UHF to communicate with CMED(hospitals). In our units we use mostly Motorola Syntor X 9000's. For portables we use MT1000's and P200's. Personally, I must the Syntor in my car, and an HT1000 for a portable.


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## medicdan (Dec 9, 2007)

bobert5064 said:


> Hi,
> 
> In my area we use mostly lowband (33Mhz area), but some towns a switching over to VHF, we also use UHF to communicate with CMED(hospitals). In our units we use mostly Motorola Syntor X 9000's. For portables we use MT1000's and P200's. Personally, I must the Syntor in my car, and an HT1000 for a portable.



Bobert, where are you from?


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## BBFDMedic28 (Dec 10, 2007)

At my fire dept we are using a vhf and 800mhz system. The dispatch channel is patched to both bands. It does suck having to monitor both radios. At my ambulance co we use a uhf system.


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## Niftymedic911 (Feb 27, 2008)

Lee County uses the analog re-banded trunked 800mhz Motorola Astro Smart Net II radio communications system.  We just recieved federal grants to upgrade our system to Digital.  Right now we're using Motorola Astro XTS 3000's. After the upgrade we will be switching to the Digital 5000's.  There are 2 portables and 2 "base" radios in every truck.  Both have every channel available.  Our "Med Control" radio is in the back with all the 7 hospital channels.


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## ccems644 (Feb 28, 2008)

We use vhf radio's mostly motorola and icom. we have a few odd and ends out ther though. we have one dispatch center that dispatches for everybody in the county. gets crazy sometimes


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## paramedix (Mar 21, 2008)

Our company uses the Midband Coms... somewhere in the high 80Mhz... I dont like those, always have problems with the coms.

Our national provinces in the company uses the trunking system. I thinks its also up in the 800 or 900's.

The benefit of the Midband, we have a simplex channel which is used by our local department. The trunking guys, sorry for you...


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## keith10247 (Mar 26, 2008)

My county also uses an 800mhz system.  It is compatible with all neighboring counties and we can seamlessly switch to their talk groups for mutual aid calls.  PD also has access to Fire/EMS talk groups (but Fire/EMS does not get access to PD's talk groups).  We also still support the 154.2500 frequency which runs all of our dispatching for minitors.  

We are currently in the process of rebanding our radios to the 600mhz (I believe it is 600mhz and not 700) due to the whole ordeal with the sprint/nextel interference on the 800 mhz spectrum.  Pretty soon, the whole DC Metro area is supposed to be converting.  Nextel was forced to pay something like 2.8 billion+ to support the rebanding.


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## k9shadow1 (May 19, 2008)

We have it all here right now. Fire is on VHF, City PD is on 700, Sheriff is on UHF, County EMS is on 700, State police is on UHF, and city/county support services are on 800.


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## PNWMedic (Jun 15, 2008)

Most EMS use VHF, then UHF and 800MHz.


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## flywnc (Jun 15, 2008)

*Radios*

Fire, EMS, and LEO in the county I dispatch in run on a Narrow Band VHF system.

And we use Motorola HT1550 for portables at my FD h34r:


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## mikeylikesit (Jun 15, 2008)

800 MHz i like the Next el Rant...I couldn't get reception under a tower with a ten foot antenna on those things.


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## rhan101277 (Jun 30, 2008)

Well you all must work in some garbage markets or the sales guy doesn't convey the coverage good.  I can only speak for the area I cover and its mostly highway coverage, maybe get 3 miles off highway and thats about it except in large cities.  Some states, cities have better coverage than others.  Not all towers you see will have nextel service on them either.  Could also be a botched up install in the ambulance.  I know plenty police, sheriff's dept. that are satisfied over here, as well as some ambulance companies and PSAPs.


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## mycrofft (Jun 30, 2008)

*IN the jail, all reinforced concrete and metal fences...*

We asked for radios and got Nextel heavy duty flipphones with "walkie talkies". My coworkers can't get past the technical end far enogh to confront their mike-shyness. Custody has Motorola handhelds and the bigger buidlings have an internal antenna system to propagate the signal.


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