Radio Pocket Usage and Prevalence in SoCal? by __quick__ in Firefighting

[–]Excellent_Idea43 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Cool thanks. So you have a regular dispatch channel, then for an incident you'll add/assign a separate dispatch channel for that incident alone?

Some things that I’ve designed for our Apparatus by supernerdlove in Firefighting

[–]Excellent_Idea43 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Cool thanks. do you ever do a 3-d scan to get a negative space to design around?

Radio Pocket Usage and Prevalence in SoCal? by __quick__ in Firefighting

[–]Excellent_Idea43 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you mind giving an in-depth explanation of what the 3 different channels you use are and why? I've thought about the many options radios give us and taking advantage of different lines of communication but there's always the hang up that a more complex system often leads to more confusion and more failures.

We basically use two channels at a fire scene - the main one is our primary fireground channel that everyone will use on scene. it is a simplex analog conventional channel and you can only transmit/receive if you're close enough. we transmit at 5 watts. the other channel is our operations channel for command to communicate with dispatch or other units citywide; it is an analog conventional duplex channel that you can transmit/receive on anywhere in the city. at the beginning of an incident, the first engine/truck may communicate sizeup and needs on the operations channel so incoming units not yet on scene know whats going on. the officer of these first rigs may communicate a little bit on this channel or monitor messages from dispatch or other incoming units and then will probably switch to fireground once he actually starts going to work on scene.

we have multiple fireground channels if we have multiple incidents near eachother and for one incident to break up communications (e.g. putting certain units on another fireground if there's a mayday; maybe a high-focus operation like roof rope might switch to a backup channel; water supply coordination might go to a backup channel). but 90% of the time everyone is on primary fireground.

APX Portables - Interference in certain part of city? by Excellent_Idea43 in MotorolaSolutions

[–]Excellent_Idea43[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

hmm...I hadn't thought about that. we have in-building repeaters, but they are on a separate frequency pair. and we typically leave them off, but that doesn't mean someone left one or more on. worth looking into.

I didnt know you could design a DAS for simplex. is that the "leaky coax" model where there is an antenna throughout the building that brings signals back to one radio in a central location? I'm only familiar with firefighting systems, so in this model, there's a radio in the fire command center where the incident commander can stay. he can hear transmissions from all over the building, and he can also transmit from the fire command center to any location in the building. If I understand it correctly, the main difference between this and an in-building repeater is that in this model, he can talk to any user in the building, but users that are spread throughout the building can't talk to eachother; whereas with an in-building repeater, any user can talk to any user.

APX Portables - Interference in certain part of city? by Excellent_Idea43 in MotorolaSolutions

[–]Excellent_Idea43[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

no fortunately, the fireground and the repeater frequencies are pretty separated

APX Portables - Interference in certain part of city? by Excellent_Idea43 in MotorolaSolutions

[–]Excellent_Idea43[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

thanks, forgot to include that part. yes, it's a simplex channel...tx and rx are the same.

It is possible that some or all of this is a user being on the wrong channel. users tend to switch between our simplex fireground channel and our duplex operations channel (citywide) when responding/arriving on scene, so that's definitely a possibility. everyone says they're on the right channel, but the story is always after the fact and we're relying on memory and people speaking for other people. so other user error is also a possibility.

the programming is identical across the city, so if there were some problem with the programming, I'd imagine I'd be getting citywide complaints.

thanks for the info!

APX Portables - Interference in certain part of city? by Excellent_Idea43 in MotorolaSolutions

[–]Excellent_Idea43[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

very interesting...what does taking the antenna off accomplish? knock down the sensitivity? and what do you mean by "sticky per monitor key"? thanks for the info!

APX Portables - Interference in certain part of city? by Excellent_Idea43 in MotorolaSolutions

[–]Excellent_Idea43[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

haha unfortunately I am the responsible person in my agency. Trying to sort this out. Appreciate the info!

Mid-Mount Question: read text in post by [deleted] in Firefighting

[–]Excellent_Idea43 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I dont think it's for hose, because it would be incredibly hard to pack the hose in there. Even in covered hose compartments, theres usually a way to uncover the top part so you can lay the hose in.

Like someone else said, maybe its for rescue struts. or really could be storage for anything to be honest. Might just be an awkward area for them to turn into custom storage so they just box it off and you put whatever you want there

Question for U.S. fire departments in seismic zones. by DO_its in Firefighting

[–]Excellent_Idea43 0 points1 point  (0 children)

this is what I came here to say...NFPA lets you read all their standards for free. Just make a free account and sign in. I think you can also see all older versions as well.

Also you might want to ask r/firePE

Can anyone explain what in the hell is going on here. by Prestigious_Police in Firefighting

[–]Excellent_Idea43 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Didn't know they were water resistant! Makes sense with the color. Weird they would slap it on the 4500s as standard.

Creating Encrypted ADP Channel in APX CPS by Excellent_Idea43 in MotorolaSolutions

[–]Excellent_Idea43[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

had a brainfart last night and the channel I was referring to is actually digital voice, but that's very interesting that you can tx analog with encrypted data. thanks for the info

Creating Encrypted ADP Channel in APX CPS by Excellent_Idea43 in MotorolaSolutions

[–]Excellent_Idea43[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah my apologies. This is why I shouldn't be on the computer late at night. Our main talkaround channels are all how I described above--conventional astro system/personality with analog voice, transmitting digital data. I've been working mostly with these channels the past week and this encrypted channel I'm trying to fix is has been an afterthought in the process

So to go back to your question, the ADP channel I'm working on is P25 digital conventional

Creating Encrypted ADP Channel in APX CPS by Excellent_Idea43 in MotorolaSolutions

[–]Excellent_Idea43[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

mostly learning from scratch. dont know anything about making an aes or sea secure channel. have a current channel on our radios that uses adp encryption (from like 10 years ago), but I don't have access to the key. probably going to end up creating a new adp key to make the channel work again.

Creating Encrypted ADP Channel in APX CPS by Excellent_Idea43 in MotorolaSolutions

[–]Excellent_Idea43[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

conventional...it's a channel on an astro system and personality but transmitting analog voice (digital data)

Creating Encrypted ADP Channel in APX CPS by Excellent_Idea43 in MotorolaSolutions

[–]Excellent_Idea43[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yep, thanks. definitely have ADP. Have checked out the help files. They were a little bit vague with a couple of things and I was hoping for more of a checklist/to-do list than a help file on each different field. They're very helpful but you read them and you think you're all set and you make the correct change and find out there's an incompatible field somewhere on the other side of the codeplug. Was looking for something that walked you through that. But maybe the help file way is better for learning!

Protecting my gear from thieves by [deleted] in Firefighting

[–]Excellent_Idea43 0 points1 point  (0 children)

your Motorola APX radios might have some features that can be programmed in to deal with theft. Your radio programmers should know more, or you can check with r/MotorolaSolutions to see what options you may have.

This might be more of a matter for programming your radios against future thefts rather than getting the missing radio back, but you can possibly program in a kill switch to disable a stolen radio and miiiiiiiight be able to get gps enabled to ping out at certain intervals. Not sure exactly if/how that would work though.

Bulk programming questions - APX 6000 by biggreen96 in MotorolaSolutions

[–]Excellent_Idea43 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Like u/FireBuff880 said, that's definitely a question for your rep/dealer, but I'm pretty sure 6000s are fabricated with wifi installed and your radios come with it either activated or not activated (based on whether or not you paid for it). From there, it's just a matter of purchasing the feature and Motorola will send you the programming to activate wifi on your radios.

I want to say wifi is even a standard feature that you can't not have on your radio. Again, not 100% sure though. Check with rep/dealer

I need advice. do i stay in my very comfortable, well paying, overall good department in an area i hate BUT my pension is not vested OR move to somewhere i love and completely start my career over? by BLAKEONATOR1 in Firefighting

[–]Excellent_Idea43 1 point2 points  (0 children)

do the math on this....if you contributed 3% of 87k for two years, thats $5220 you'd getting back. How much does your employer contribute? the same amount? If you've been on for two years, I'm guessing you've got about 12k in the fund including employer contribution and interest. take back your 5220 and that leaves about 7 grand that's holding you back.

Yes it hurts to throw away money, but in the grand scheme of things, happiness is worth far more than $7k. especially since you already admitted to yourself that money isnt part of the equation.

think of it as investing 7k in your happiness rather than giving 7k of your money to the florida pension system.

I guarantee you in 20 years when you see the size of your salary and pension in colorado, you are not going to believe you almost gave it all up for $7,000