Poor radios system all around

[Bmags84]

First off we are a small town dept (50 active memebers) town in 2 miles x 2 miles... I often hear complaints about the radios. We have erricson m-rk trunked radios. The radios are extremely big and bulky, the battery lengths are short, and sometimes they just dont work at rando . Some members have pagers but they are not maintained by the department. Another complaint is that the tone for calls is way to short and not alerting enough to wake members up. I was wondering if any other towns use the erricson radio and if they experience problems also and if anyone else has radio issues feel free to comment

[jam24u]

First off we are a small town dept (50 active memebers) town in 2 miles x 2 miles... I often hear complaints about the radios. We have erricson m-rk trunked radios. The radios are extremely big and bulky, the battery lengths are short, and sometimes they just dont work at rando . Some members have pagers but they are not maintained by the department. Another complaint is that the tone for calls is way to short and not alerting enough to wake members up. I was wondering if any other towns use the erricson radio and if they experience problems also and if anyone else has radio issues feel free to comment

Wait till Islandfire, and some of the other comm experts hear this.

(You should post this in the grants and funding section as well too)

[nmfire]

Buying new portable radios is not going to magically make your poorly designed radio system work better.

[islandfire03]

What type of system are you operating?
VHF or UHF or 800
high or low
Simplex or duplex?
what elevation is your transmitter antenna above the tallest structures?
Yes the radios you currently have are cinder blocks.
In a 2X2 mi sq coverage area it shouldn't be too complicated to get a well functioning radio system design.

[tree68]

Erricson -> M/A-COM -> Harris. Have you talked to your local vendor?

Batteries - are you still using the original batteries? If you are, that's your first problem. Time to spend money on replacements. You're probably stuck with NiCd unless you buy new chargers, too.

If the batteries are fairly new, you may need to condition them - and that takes a battery conditioner, not a charger. They aren't cheap, but one will probably pay for itself before too long.

If you're trunked, you're probably EDACS. We'll need to know what band, as requested by IslandFire.

Is this your system? Or are you part of a larger (ie, county-wide) system? Trunked radio isn't cheap, and you don't usually see a small agency going it alone.

If it's your system, antenna information would be useful. If it's not your system, where is the nearest repeater?

Are your members using the radios as pagers, too? That's an expensive pager! It could also explain some of your battery problems, particularly if your members are leaving the portables on in the charger. Guaranteed battery killer.

If you'd care to PM me and provide your location, I can probably dig up a fair amount of information about your system on-line (as can IslandFire)

[LVFD301]

First off we are a small town dept (50 active memebers) town in 2 miles x 2 miles... I often hear complaints about the radios. We have erricson m-rk trunked radios. The radios are extremely big and bulky, the battery lengths are short, and sometimes they just dont work at rando . Some members have pagers but they are not maintained by the department. Another complaint is that the tone for calls is way to short and not alerting enough to wake members up. I was wondering if any other towns use the erricson radio and if they experience problems also and if anyone else has radio issues feel free to comment

Ok, are these radios that have been passed down to the juniors, or are everyone carrying them?

First off, you are on an EDACS system most likely. I presume you are near a larger area, where the county or large city maintains the infrasructure. You may be on the edge of coverage, and nothing is going to fix it other than expanding the coverage on of the systems.

EDACS is fairly old technology. The M-RK radios were early 90's, 92 or 93. State of the art - back then. Now a days, the portables go for 50 bucks on Ebay. Is your area looking at upgrading anyways? EOL (end of life) is approaching.

Batteries need care and loving. As mentioned a reconditioner is a good thing - IF the batteries are still only a year or two old. Any older you really need to replace them.

What major metro are you near? I bet you are piggybacking on their system, like OKC.

Finally, it is a bit confusing about the pagers. No one makes a pager that covers an EDACS system. What kind of pagers are you talking about?

[LVFD301]

Before anyone starts - yes I know there are newer EDACS systems out there, in the digital flavor, but they won't use the M-RK radios.....

[nmfire]

Ummm. Please explain why you as an explorer are trying to manage your department's radio communications?????

[CaptOldTimer]

Ummm. Please explain why you as an explorer are trying to manage your department's radio communications?????

Must be an "Eager Beaver". He hasn't learned his place in the food chain.

[islandfire03]

Notice how Beaver disappeared once we asked some questions he didn't have a clue about?