Nextel Phones

[ffsamiam]

Has anybody ouit there put NEXTEL phones on their trucks? If so how are they working out?

[JDS911]

Every piece of apparatus has a Nextel phone assigned to it. This is primarily for the telephone feature. Each phone also has the PTT two way capability. However, they are not to use it to communicate with the dispatch center. This rule was made after units gave directives and orders and made service requests via nextel that could not be confirmed or proven since the Nextel transmissions are not recorded or monitored by other users.

[mark440]

The shift coordinators (Batt. Chiefs) have NEXTELs. The apparatus are still using AT&T Wireless cells. The NEXTELs are ok I guess. Fellow City FD uses tons of NEXTELs for thier fleet. It works out ok for them.

[911WACKER]

Nextels are used by EMS Supervisor's and Fire Chiefs in some of the county, They do work nice for coordinating minor details during large incidents while keeping radio channels clear for normal traffic with field units and operations personel. Some police agency's in the area are getting them as well for "secret activity" communications. This takes a large burden off the dispatch center having to relay info between units, great idea if used properly!!

[davidhwebb]

I've always wanted to get a NEXTEL, simply for the radio communication instead of burning cell minutes. I have found out through the experiences of people I know, NEXTEL sucks in certain parts of Southwestern PA. Think I'll just stick to my cellular for now.

[nomad1085]

One thing I have noticed... The Direct Connect feature, when used near a tone-remote base makes some very strange noises come out of the speaker. Not sure what other devices this effects or how detrimental it is, I have only seen it on the tone-remotes.

Matt

[sparkymacgyver]

I recently worked in a large county(Greater St. Louis Metro Area) in which all of the ambulances, EMS Supervisors and Managers, Dispatch Managers, Fire Chiefs and most of the fire equipment in the county were equipped with Nextel Radio-Phones. We also had one in our Combined Dispatch Center. Most of the other area Metro Fire Depts or at least chiefs had them. Since they avoided having duplicate radio numbers in most of the St. Louis(Missouri Side) Metro Area, all we needed was access to the Public Safety Group and their radio number to call them. This also eliminated having to do a look-up for a cell number on a multi-alarm and all the lines ringing. They were talking about some type of base station model that could be recorded. I thought that they really helped by moving administrative traffic off of the primary dispatch channels and provided a means of a less monitored system. We were able to exchange information, such as additional scene safety issues, advise instruction to move-up companies that were not assignned to our county, or a back up system when the truck radios were malfunctioning. It also provided a rapid way of privately contacting a Chief to advise them of an incident when they were in a meeting or "Give the Heads Up". It also provided an immediate direct link between anyone in the field and the Dispatch Supervisor on duty.

As far as a way to record the typical Nextel or Cell Phone, contact some of the speciality microphone makers, your voice recorder company, or local radio shop for ideas for an external mic/speaker connection box with an audio out for the recorder perhaps using a vox setting.