Dual Band UHF/VHF Portables?

[nmfire]

BULL. Take your spam and chinese knockoff junk somewhere else. The last a-hole that tried to advertise this was shown the door within minutes. You will not have any better luck disguising your spam as a product review. Go away. Duly reported as well.

[Acklan]

Reported....

[ChiefKN]

LOL... its not obvious or anything.

I like my spam fried and on an english muffin, thanks.

[blaster668]

BULL. Take your spam and chinese knockoff junk somewhere else. The last a-hole that tried to advertise this was shown the door within minutes. You will not have any better luck disguising your spam as a product review. Go away. Duly reported as well.

For the record, I have been using both the Puxing PX-777 and Wouxun dual band for a considerable amount of time now. Both radios have by far exceeded my expectations, and both are FCC part 90 type accepted. I think these radios are great for a fire department with very limited funds. I can equip two 6 seat engines with a radio for every seat for less money than one Motorola public safety radio. I would much rather my guys have these radios versus none, which would be the case if these weren't available. Do I think they are as rugged and durable as Motorolas and Kenwoods? NO, but they function every bit as well, and sometimes better. If you don't have any personal experience with these radios, I can understand how you would think they are complete garbage, as I was very skeptical when first introduced to them.

And yes, I understand the sentiments towards Chinese companies that knockoff other products. But I also put my guys' safety above that, and prefer for them to have some form of communication to the outside. Also, I'm not so sure I would even consider the Wouxun dual band to be a knockoff..... please show me what radio they copied from?

[Rescue101]

The radios currently available from Vertex are dual band RECEIVE ONLY. They do not offer dual band transmit ability. Unless you are referring to the ability of some mobile models to use one control head to control multiple radios.

The only options currently available for true dual/multi band radios are from Harris (Portable), Motorola (Portable and Mobile), Thales (Portable and coming soon a mobile), and Datron (Portable).

You would be correct. they discontinued the model I was thinking of

[nmfire]

Sorry, the "well this thing is a piece of **** but its better than nothing" attitude is what gets people killed. Would you give them a cut-rate knockoff SCBA? How about cut-rate knockoff turnout gear and maybe some imported flashlights? OOOH! I got it! Firetrucks are really expensive now adays. Maybe if Kia would start making apparatus, we could save some money and have lots of trucks to go around! No? Then why would you allow them to rely on a heap of junk like that? I don't care if it works really great standing out in the front yard or at an EMS taxi run. My toy walkie-talkies from when I was 6yrs old did that.

Giving them those things is no different than buying the cheapo custodian radios from Motorola or Kenwood and letting people rely on those in a burning building. Neither the radio nor it's accessories were disigned for what we do with them. Frankly, anyone who actually uses this crap for it should be held criminally liable for negligence when it fails.

[blaster668]

NMFIRE, I actually do tend to agree with you, but at our station it's a bigger issue than that. See, all purchases greater than $200 must go through a vote of the membership, this is in the bylaws of our organization. Less than half of the membership is actually active firefighters. No matter how much we stress the need for radios, they never approve to spend anywhere close to that much money. Hell, I couldn't even get the department to spend the money to buy the "janitor" grade Kenwoods you speak of. Yeah, I could probably buy one or two good radios a year, but I have 15 seats that I need to have a radio on. Up until fairly recently, we only had one working portable radio on each piece of apparatus, and these were the "janitor grade" Kenwoods.

We also still don't have a T.I.C. as well, is this an absolute shame? Yes it is, but when the membership refuses to buy it, and you keep getting turned down for grants, how are you supposed to get it?

The only reason we have newer SCBA's and turnout gear is because we received a grant a couple years ago. Up until then, we were using SCBA's that were purchased in the early 70's.

As, I'm sure you can see, my fire department has some issues that are much larger than just radios.... I am simply trying to work around one of these issues until things get better, and we have a cultural change.

[nmfire]

That's terrible. I don't know what the answer is. But I do know that putting a bandaid on a bullet hole just makes it look good on the surface. The problem isn't actually fixed.

[blaster668]

That's terrible. I don't know what the answer is. But I do know that putting a bandaid on a bullet hole just makes it look good on the surface. The problem isn't actually fixed.

Very true sir! But there are fire departments all across this country with similar problems, and it certainly is not an easy issue to fix, and I wish I knew the answer as well.

[neiowa]

Very uncommon in our area to have a TIC. Only FD more than pop 5000 have funds to purchase. Plus a few Fire Grant TIC.

If your state is active in DOD surplus with a bit of effort you can find civilian model radios thru them (no cost to you except shipping). In particular the AF uses a lot of Motorola etc as do the DOD civilian agencies for all branches. I got more a 100x HT1000s a couple years ago for out county. Most were A, B, C, models which are not narrowbandable so MIGHT be an issue after Jan 2013. 10% were D model (narrowhand). I've seen other brands/models listed but often radios do not have a clear description to help you figure out they are.

But I think many will be using what they have dispite the opinions of the FCC. VS going back to can/string.

[blaster668]

Very uncommon in our area to have a TIC. Only FD more than pop 5000 have funds to purchase. Plus a few Fire Grant TIC.

If your state is active in DOD surplus with a bit of effort you can find civilian model radios thru them (no cost to you except shipping). In particular the AF uses a lot of Motorola etc as do the DOD civilian agencies for all branches. I got more a 100x HT1000s a couple years ago for out county. Most were A, B, C, models which are not narrowbandable so MIGHT be an issue after Jan 2013. 10% were D model (narrowhand). I've seen other brands/models listed but often radios do not have a clear description to help you figure out they are.

But I think many will be using what they have dispite the opinions of the FCC. VS going back to can/string.

All of the HT1000's will do narrowband on the existing frequencies, they just will not take the new splinter channels. If your frequencies are staying the same, the radios will service you well. Can you possibly give some more info about this DOD surplus program?