Radios?

lightsandsirens5

lightsandsirens5

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Well I searched but cannot find anything on this.

I am looking at getting an ICOM F-50 or an ICOM F-3021 for my personal radio. Has anyone used either of these? If so did/do you like it, hate it, love it, recomend/not recoment it? If you dont like it, what do you reccomend? I am loking for a 5 watt min radio. I'd like to have more than 16 channels and it looks like the next one up is the 128 channel models. These two are basically waht I am looking for, but if you like a different manufacturer, lemmie know!

Thanks!:P
 
What type of personal radio are you looking for, and why?

Unless you have authorization from your agency and are added onto their license, or an FCC license of your own, you may not transmit on a licensed frequency. So essentially, you would be purchasing a really expensive scanner.
 
We are not issued radios, but if we have them my district will add us to their liscence. I don't know why it is not an NFPA or L&I or whoever it is regulation for all firefighters to have radios. I do know that I will not go interior on a fire with out one. And it makes doing traffic controll extermly tough. (We do the stone age thing where three blinks of the light means is it clear, one means yes and two means no.:wacko:)
 
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lightsandsirens5 said:
We are not issued radios, but if we have them my district will add us to their liscence. I don't know why it is not an NFPA or L&I or whoever it is regulation for all firefighters to have radios. I do know that I will not go interior on a fire with out one. And it makes doing traffic controll extermly tough. (We do the stone age thing where three blinks of the light means is it clear, one means yes and two means no.:wacko:)
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Because it is the FCC that controls all radio transmissions. Your agency should be the one providing you with the necessary equipment to do your job, and you shouldn't have to buy it on your own.
 
he shouldnt have to go to his company for using the radio it under their 911 center fcc liscence to use.unless it is diff their.
 
135383 said:
he shouldnt have to go to his company for using the radio it under their 911 center fcc liscence to use.unless it is diff their.
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It depends upon how that frequency is licensed in your area. Certain frequencies are licensed by the state for state wide usage, some are licensed to the county, and some are licensed to the agency. Each FCC license specifies how many radios, and of what type (base, mobile, handheld, repeater, etc...), are allowed under the license. Going through the agency is the short cut. To be technical about it, you are actually required to obtain permission from the license holder for your area, unless that authority has been delegated to another agency.

Some 911 centers do not want to foot the bill for every radio in their area to be on their license, so they make the local agencies obtain their own license for that frequency. The easiest way to check this is to figure out what frequency you would be transmitting on, and going to the FCC website. It will list the call signs of each agency allowed to transmit on that frequency in your area.
 
Maybe I need to look a little deeper before I do anything. I was just going on word of mouth, but I should probably get something in writing or talk right to my Chief. Thanks for the advice.

See why I need to ask stuff like this.:wacko:
 
Unless you start transmitting obscene and or profane language, or useing emergency channels for non emergency traffic, you have nothing to worry about.
Many medics, EMTs and firemen have their own VHF portables here. No licenses to worry about.
We use them at work, for work.
 
I think it's important to evaluate a few things before you purchase a radio:
1. VHF/UHF/800 Mhz/Other?
2. How much are you willing to spend?
3. What features do you need? Do you need x channels, scanning, voice storage, man down?
4. How are you going to program the radio? It helps to have friends that have similar radios that can program them for you.

That said, and having used all three, I'd go for Motorola first, Kenwood second, and Icom third. I think that Icom has a great use in the business market, but I don't think they hold up well in an EMS environment.

As far as Puxing or similar radios, I think they're fun toys, but wouldn't rely on them for serious communications. Puxing struggled to get an FCC rating, which I'm not even sure they have, and you'll find that most retailers admit a quality control problem. I'm much rather rely on Motorola or Kenwood, but of course you'd have to be willing to pay more.

I hope that helps.
 
BLSBoy said:
Unless you start transmitting obscene and or profane language, or useing emergency channels for non emergency traffic, you have nothing to worry about.
Many medics, EMTs and firemen have their own VHF portables here. No licenses to worry about.
We use them at work, for work.
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And licensed public safety frequencies qualify as emergency channels. With a fine of up to $10,000 per day you transmit, confiscation of your radio equipment, and possible jail time is it worth the risk?
 
ffemt8978 said:
And licensed public safety frequencies qualify as emergency channels. With a fine of up to $10,000 per day you transmit, confiscation of your radio equipment, and possible jail time is it worth the risk?
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Call the FCC.
 
Normally I would stay out of these fire threads as this isn't firehouse.com and all, but my question is why do YOU need one. Are there not portable radios on the apparatus???????

What immediate emergent requires you to have one??

Radios are an addiction for some reason. People just love to hear themselves talk on the radio. There is nothing more frustrating that trying to communicate with dispatch and having 20 volunteer firefighter all going en route to a call POV and talk right over you. (Even worse is when you arrive on scene and there are more POV's than tow trucks and no real fire apparatus!)

FFEMT has a strong valid point. The FCC has no interest in you or your department until you violate their regulations. If you are not familiar with them or your department does not have the reference materials available, the 1. your department needs to have more effective, proactive leadership, and 2. you do NOT need to buy one.

No department should ever ask its members to buy their own personal gear. you don't have to buy your own bunker gear too do you???????
 
Any Canadian members know what Industry Canada says about this topic. A not to US members here in Canada Industry Canada does the same thing as the FCC. I'm curious I would not buy a portable radio to use for my duties. We are issued portables. We use the following radio's.
Motorola HT1250
Motorola GP350
Motorola GP300
Kenwood TK270

As well in other non ems volunteer settings I've used radios.
Maxxon
Benidix King
Icom
 
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Flight-LP said:
Normally I would stay out of these fire threads as this isn't firehouse.com and all, but my question is why do YOU need one. Are there not portable radios on the apparatus???????
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HA! Portables on the rigs? Noooooo. I would be buying one because #1 I would not go interior without one. #2 I do wildland as well and often there are only two or three of us and none has a radio. #3 for back country SAR.

I guess I need to do s'more research.:blush:
 
They don't provide what you need to do the job quit. No way I work for a company that does not provide what I need to do my job.
 
medic417 said:
They don't provide what you need to do the job quit. No way I work for a company that does not provide what I need to do my job.
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words to live by
 
Flight-LP said:
Radios are an addiction for some reason. People just love to hear themselves talk on the radio. There is nothing more frustrating that trying to communicate with dispatch and having 20 volunteer firefighter all going en route to a call POV and talk right over you. (Even worse is when you arrive on scene and there are more POV's than tow trucks and no real fire apparatus!)

Let me second that thought try sitting in the dispatch center trying to make sense out of all the traffic when everybody and his brother is expecting you to answer them. If you do need to carry a radio then your service will provide you with one. They will also keep up the maintenance on it you should not have to pay out of your pocket for things like this.
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My old department required us to buy most of out own things. they had about 3 radios and they all went to line officers. then there were pagers, and they only had about 10. If you wanted to go on calls you had to sink good money.
 
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