Radios

[S/O245]

all our marked cars have radios in the cars and they also issue port radios. If a S/O dont have a radio, you at least have a cell phone. Some have both. Our Patrol Supervisors cars have radio,cell and computers. We dont have nextell. I think nextells would be nice. What we have right now are just regular upto date cell phones the service contract we use is verizon.

[D.Dawson]

First off hello to all from the newbie member.

Im really responding to the original post ( to lazy to read them all ) Using your own radios on a frequency licensed to another individual ( ie: your company) is illegal by FCC standards. If caught it is a hefty fine. Basically your company is licensed for say 10 portables and 1 base, Let's say your company gets a complaint filed on them (unlikely) and the FCC decides to do a count of radios, well Mr. CEO we counted 11 portables and one base , we are fining you for over limits of your license.

I also noticed that an idividual said that he was a HAM , under no circumstaces should you get involved in this type of activity you risk losing your license.Using your HAM radio on other frequencies that it was designed for is also ILLEGAL!!! 4 words for ya JUST DON'T DO IT!!!

Im not trying to piss anyone off with my comments I just think if it's that important for you to have a radio you company would give you one.If your company , supervisor , director says hey go buy yourself a radio by all means go for it , but I would make sure you are doing it the legal way. That way would be upgrading the license and having the radio programmed by a authorized technitian.

just my 2 cents
Dan

Ps. I am a licensed HAM radio operator ( KC8ONR)

[SeanCO]

We use nextels now after tyring out a private band radio setup that never seemed to work properly. However we are researching better radio setups as we speak so who knows, but the nextels are working far better for the time being.

[N. A. Corbier]

We use nextels now after tyring out a private band radio setup that never seemed to work properly. However we are researching better radio setups as we speak so who knows, but the nextels are working far better for the time being.

Is your company using the GPS portion of the nextels for employee accountability? That's one of the big "value added features" of the nextel that interests me. Both in client accountability (I can "virtually" guarantee we will know our employees are on site) and in officer safety (I can "virtually" guarantee that we will know where your radio is). Obviously, I have a responsibility to both client accountability and officer safety, which is a big nextel selling point to me.

[Arff312]

First off hello to all from the newbie member.

Im really responding to the original post ( to lazy to read them all ) Using your own radios on a frequency licensed to another individual ( ie: your company) is illegal by FCC standards. If caught it is a hefty fine. Basically your company is licensed for say 10 portables and 1 base, Let's say your company gets a complaint filed on them (unlikely) and the FCC decides to do a count of radios, well Mr. CEO we counted 11 portables and one base , we are fining you for over limits of your license.

I also noticed that an idividual said that he was a HAM , under no circumstaces should you get involved in this type of activity you risk losing your license.Using your HAM radio on other frequencies that it was designed for is also ILLEGAL!!! 4 words for ya JUST DON'T DO IT!!!

Im not trying to piss anyone off with my comments I just think if it's that important for you to have a radio you company would give you one.If your company , supervisor , director says hey go buy yourself a radio by all means go for it , but I would make sure you are doing it the legal way. That way would be upgrading the license and having the radio programmed by a authorized technitian.

just my 2 cents
Dan my

Ps. I am a licensed HAM radio operator ( KC8ONR)

In case ( i was mthe original poster) There are many people at my agency with radios.Even the director has one. I believe that we are licensed for 50 or so radios on the security frequency. We have no where near that even when you add in the personal radios and the other people who have them (Housekeeping, Mgt, Maint). We all have the permission of our director to have the radios and the reason we do is because he knows that the radios we have at our mall suck but the company overall wont but us new ones. So we are operating with in the law here.

[N. A. Corbier]

I sincerely dislike DirectConnect for anything but "unit to unit" communication. Everyone should be on GroupTalk mode, perferabally with a shoulder mike (Motorola makes em for Nextels) and their unit LOCKED on GroupTalk mode so that they have instant access to the network.

[plankeye]

Airport we use Motorola GTX 800 Mhz conventional non trunked handheld and a motorola maxtrac mobile 800 Mhz motorola
and a handheld motorola xts series digital encrypted

[SeanCO]

Is your company using the GPS portion of the nextels for employee accountability? That's one of the big "value added features" of the nextel that interests me. Both in client accountability (I can "virtually" guarantee we will know our employees are on site) and in officer safety (I can "virtually" guarantee that we will know where your radio is). Obviously, I have a responsibility to both client accountability and officer safety, which is a big nextel selling point to me.

Yes we use the GPS feature of the Nextel service which is great. I wish we would use the group talk feature though and perhaps I can talk them into it. Can somebody point me in the direction of the Motorola mics? This can go a long way in some of the few frustrations we suffer with Nextel. Like if two of our guys are blabbing and I need to contact them.

[N. A. Corbier]

Call Nextel, and ask to speak to Nextel Business Services, or Nextel Government Services. You are after the "Motorola Remote Shoulder Microphone." They're about 59-100 dollars. They have a new microphone on the website, "Motorola Heavy Duty Remote Shoulder Microphone" which is intrinsically safe and can be added to Certified Intrinsically Safe Radio Systems so that you don't blow yourself/everyone else up using the device. Some Nextel devices are CISRS and Factory Mutual approved.

Heavy Duty sounds great, right? 249.99 a microphone.

[Blame_The_Guard]

What i recommend for all security agencies is a traditional radio setup. the reason for this si safety. Yes nextels are cheap BUT the transmissions are generally jus tone on one. I would recommend a business band radio or even professional radio. Because then all your units hear the transmission. If there is trouble all your units here who and wear and help is quicker to be enroute. I recommend the Nextels as a back up. thats just my two cents. If you want more info NA let me know as i dable in radios and can probably help you out a little bit.

Plain old simple radios.... I agree. Consider - I've seen guards not use the Nextel because they weren't sure how. Yes, they should know how but, and I can never stress this enough, not only concerning radios, "should" and "real world" are not the same thing. I can't count the number of, somewhat, complicated procedures, easily simplified for efficiency, but stubbornly adhered to because everybody "should" be able to carry them out.

[N. A. Corbier]

John, I see your point, and I was around for the Nextel days. There were guys who were incapable of working the device. What I am hoping to do, and will try diligently to, is hire people who are capable of working the thing. After all, I don't use paper reports. The only report the client gets on paper is a print out. If the employee is not capable of using a nextel locked in Group mode, then there's no way in Hell they're going to figure out how to write a shift, event, incident, or arrest report on a computer or PDA.

That's one of the things. If someone looks at the "pre-employment notification," and goes, "I don't know how to work them there computers," or "them there nextel thingies," they'll be asked if they can learn. Considering that the nextel will probally be the way they clock in and out of the attendance system - winging it will probally not fly.

I'm in an area surrounded by companies that use guard forms from the 1970s. Paper and Blue Ink. All of us, obviously, can fill out a web form, and browse the web. If you were a client, which would YOU want? Access to a searchable database where you get daily reports delivered by fax, email, or printout - or my illegible handwriting on a sticky note on someone else's guard log who has even WORSE handwriting?

Then again, we all know I'm an idealist. But, at least, I have an IT company who can write the custom software, can buy the systems on the cheap, and dosen't have to spend tons of cash outsourcing hardware/software/training to someone else. My own.

I may, in all actuality, go with a trunked tower, and buy a bunch of Motorolas off ebay on the cheap - removing any equipment maintenace fees I'd encounter. Buy a programming cable, hook a PC up with an MDT1200 API unit, and boom, instant MDT1200 compliant public safety network. All the radio company would need to do is provide us trunking channel access and get our FCC license. But I like the ability to track where the employees are, on duty, down to three meters.

[Blame_The_Guard]

[QUOTE=N. A. Corbier]
I'm in an area surrounded by companies that use guard forms from the 1970s. Paper and Blue Ink. All of us, obviously, can fill out a web form, and browse the web. If you were a client, which would YOU want? Access to a searchable database where you get daily reports delivered by fax, email, or printout - or my illegible handwriting on a sticky note on someone else's guard log who has even WORSE handwriting?
QUOTE]
I've been lobbying for e-filing, of some sort, for some time now. All I hear is the guards won't know how to do it. Want the truth? The providers don't know how to do it and are too stuck in their old ways to learn anything new. I give up.

[N. A. Corbier]

They have no idea how, and to pay another company to do it is an expense they can't "justify." Of course, when you look at how much cost is spent on designing, printing, ordering and reordering, accounting of print stock for various posts, filling out the forms, filling out additional forms due to typo, improper reporting, or other reason, supervisor review (if any)...

Yeah, in the long run, buying a 100-300 dollar laptop or 50 dollar PDA, then using a web-application backend on a shared 10 dollar a month server somewhere, with client, employee, supervisor, and management modes makes sense, dosen't it?

Of course, when I put a RFP out for the same system we're building now... I got quotes from anything from 1,500 dollars to upwards of 250,000.

[plankeye]

radios

800Mhz radio systems are not the best, I dont know what all the hype is about it, motorola seems to switch alot of agencies to 800Mhz, but I spouse its also where your located if alot of radio licenses have been issued there may not be alot of radio spectrum in a given area thus alot of agencies using 800Mhz

A good system in my opinion is UHF or VHF conventional system with a repeater.

My own personal radio is a vertex VX10 UHF that I use with my FCC license GMRS and Iam trying to get a UHF repeater, But anyways the VX10 is easily programmed via computer software and cable and the software and cable is very cheap and can be found right on the internet, even some VX10 models have field programming capability and they are cheap compared to motorola but still very high quality. I also use my VX10 as a scanner ,alot of public safety agencies and other companies use the UHF band and I have them in my radio as well set to receive only, I only have 40 channels on it used up including the frequencys Iam licensed to use myself but the radio has 120 channels available to be programed.

[EMTGuard]

We are provided portable radios by the client. It's programmed with all the channels used by the different departments in the plant. The Security/Medical channel we use is channel 1 on all radios plantwide and is shared with the plant water and waste treatment shop, aka Waterworld. Our channel, channel 1, is the only one using a repeater frequency pair and has coverage all the way to the local hospital ER where I often transport patients injured at the plant. Everyone else operates simplex. Frequencies are in the 400MHz business band.