The big concert and fireworks show is held in Boston on July 4th. Lets think about the public radio communications systems that are involved.
Onsite policing is done by Mass State Police with checkpoints and roving patrols. Nearby police agencies include Boston PD, Cambridge PD, MGH PD, MIT PD, and patrol units on the Charles River. Aerial cover is usually supplied by a State Police helo with video capabilitys. There are probably also media helos involved, maybe some medevac birds; maybe some federal aircraft. EMS is provided by Boston EMS. River EMS is done by Boston EMS on police and/or fire boats. Private ambulances also assist Boston EMS. Cambridge FD and Pro EMS cover the Cambridge side. Boston CMED would notify hospitals of any mass casulaty incident and allocate patients. Both Boston and Cambridge have fire boats - as does Mass Port Authority. There are no ambulance boats AFAIK that operate on the Charles River. There are multiple police boats - State, Boston, State Environmental, USCG, Event organizers have their own radio comms. They keep an eye on the radar for weather threats. Boston Fire and Cambridge Fire supply hazmat units IIRC. Every one has their own radio systems. Common radio channels include - Vtacs - Utacs - Itacs - MetroFire - BAPERN - Boston city interops channels (460.275R + 800 TRS). Federal interop channels are also allocated - unknown if used. There are some interops Tgs on the State TRS, and some conventional interops channels at 800 and 700 Mhz. How does one tie this all together? 1. Some radios have the ability to operate in multiple bands. Most radios have the option to scan multiple channels or TGs. However - it is very difficult to scan multiple radio channels during emergency situations, and in high noise situations. Human beings simply do not have the capability to listen to 2 different conversations or messages at the same time. Human beings cannot speak 2 messages at the same time. (AFAIK) 2. There is a multi agency command post in a nearby building. Multiple dispatchers from multiple agencies staff multiple radio consoles at this location. There might be off site command posts also. There might be mobile command posts as well. Probably alot of interagency coordination can be done by the command posts. 3. Perhaps any patched radio channels (such as the typical BPD Ch 1 / BAPERN 4 / 851.5125 / 460.275) are set up solely as a backup system to be used by any high ranking commanders who go into the scene from the command post. Or perhaps the patched channels are intended to be used when a field unit has a pressing need to talk directly via radio to a field unit from a diferent agency. Perhps the patched channels are intended to be used for mobile command post to mobile command post comms if the main command post goes out of service. -------------------------------- Simplisticly stated - perhaps there are two levels of service for every radio. 1. the ability to talk to other radios in the same agency 2. the ability to talk to other radios in other agencies Level 1 service is usually available to everyone on a 24/7/365 basis. Level 2 service might require some 'on the fly' fancy patching of radio channels. Harumph! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "massfire" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/massfire. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
