Daydreaming about Fire Radios
With the ongoing moves to UHF, maybe it is time to revisit the Boston
area fire radio scene.
1. Most communities have 1 good "Channel 1". ("Good" = portables work
pretty much everywhere in the community)(a repeater channel - Oct 2013))
2. Some communities apparently have a good "Channel 2". Such as -
Chelsea, Everett, Revere, Boston - possibly Waltham and Quincy - maybe
Lynn in the future. [March 31 2014 - FDs with good Channel 2's - maybe Chelsea,
maybe Everett, maybe Revere, maybe Burlington, maybe Belmont, Boston,
Waltham, Quincy, Newton, Somerville, maybe Weston, maybe Brookline,]
3. The only other good repeated fire channel is Metro Red 483.3125R
which reportedly has multi receiver sites - with coverage in Boston
equal to Boston fire channels.
4. Additionally, there are a couple of new MetroFire channels - but I
suspect that they just have 1 repeater or base site each.
5. Problem - approx 25 [23 - March 31 2014] communities without a good Channel 2.
6. Possible Solutions - reuse of 483.2875 and 483.2625 - reuse of
exisiting Channel 2s - expansion of new Metro channels - use of 453
Mhz mutual aid freqs - more channels - ????
7. Norfolk County (and possibly Plymouth County) use countywide
fireground channels. The Norfolk County fireground channels seem to
have very good coverage based on what I have monitored.
8. Cambridge and MassPort FDs need to transition from 800 to UHF.
Updated slightly - March 31 2014