521 replies to this topic

[Xplorer4x4]

^signs? really? Yeah I was taught that channel 19(i think) is usually used by truckers and thats the channel we used in his truck most of the time. I never thought of it from the trap side of things.

Thanks for the input MCERT.

[kyle308]

Thanks for the CDL clarification Mike. I'm not sure of the restrictions for the inner city departments, but I asked a firefighter at one of the volly stations across town and he said he wasnt sure how it worked but they were not required to have a CDL. There main engine only has 2 axles while the reserve is an old school(newly refurbished and looking quite good with out a yellow paint job) 1981 Duplex/Oshkosh/Pierce Pumper/Tanker - 1250gpm/2000gal but it does have 3 axels but perhaps it manages to stay under the weight limit?

I'm also from indiana and we avoid this because in the state of Indiana Emergency vehicles regardless of weight and axles are exempt from the CDL laws of our state.

[Xplorer4x4]

^Your from Knightstown? Your about 4 hours from me then. Thanks for the info.

[MikesPhotos]

Hope its not to soon for a double post, if so sorry.

Just referring back to the CB Radio/radio discussion. How long have emergency service units been using radios vs cbs, and do they pick up cb frequenceys as well? I once heard and saw an Indiana State Trooper come across a CB radio. My dad and I had our cb radio on and as we came up an off ramp we heard an odd squeal on the cb. Then you hear
Voice 1 Truck Driver:"Are you after me?"
Voice 2 ISP: "No Im after the grey crown Vvictoria behind you"

No sooner we hear this hear comes a semi, a grey crown vic(old square body style) and a Indiana State Trooper. Semi brake checks the Vic and the Vic almost runs but thinks better of it.

Then of course theres the Smokey and the Bandit movies lol, but thats movies so not sure it really applies.

Ok, lets state some specifics first:
CB as stated before is Citizens Band Radio, and like all radio bands, is governed by the FCC. It is only to be used for Commercial and Personal communications

Public Safety agencies utilize specific bands completely separate and vastly different then the way the CB system is set up.

It would be like calling an old rotary phone a Cell phone and vice versa, or even a Cell Phone a CB radio. They're similar in that they both let you talk to other people, beyond that, they have nothing in common.

CB radios work in the 27mhz range, Public safety equipment is in the 33-50mhz band for VHF-Lo, 150-174mhz for VHF-Hi, 450-470 for UHF, 470-512 for UHF-T band, 700 mhz band, and 851-869mhz.

Public safety agencies are barred from utilizing CB, Ham, FRS, and MURS bands for their routine radio traffic, and most radios are only able to receive and transmit on a single band.

So to answer your question about how long have they been using something other then CBs, well.. since the very beginning! CB radio has NEVER been utilized as a Public safety radio system, and it'd be useless to be used as such since repeaters are not allowed.

Now as mentioned before Highway patrol, State Police, and rural police will sometimes, though much rarer these days, install a CB radio or a common uniden/radio shack scanner so mobile units can monitor Ch9 and Ch19. Use of these channels by public safety agencies is ONLY to be utilized to talk TO civilians and not to be used to talk to each other or dispatch.

If you're interested in learning more about CB's And public safety communications, I recommend googling the history of the REACT group and Ch9 monitoring, as well as Harry Marnell's excellent history of LAPD and police communications from the 1920s here

I know that if a vehicle weighs a certain amount of pounds you have to have a CDL, however a volly FF thing might just make you take a few classes and drive the thing around in an empty field or parking lot.

The original question was regarding the California state law regarding the necessity of a CDL for Firefighters, as the topic moved out of the LA and state of California, I have moved it to this thread.

Let me address Taylors comment though, I don't know if you were being general or speaking about California or what your intent was, but let me clear up one thing here.

The rules regarding Commercial Drivers Licensure is governed by each individuals state Dept of Motor Vehicles and state Legislative bodies. California makes NO exception regarding paid career or volunteer firefighters regarding the CDL requirements. They must all pass the same DMV tests regardless of whether or not they are vollies.

Other states are much much more lenient and have blanket provisions that as long as you are a part of a Fire dept, you are granted an exception, others are much much more stringent and require a standard CDL with no Firefighter exception.

One thing to remember about Emergency services in the United States. Every single one of them is bound by federal regulations and standards such as OSHA and NFPA, State policies such as State Fire marshal regulations and rules, color of lights and types of sirens allowed, County policies, especially on EMS protocols, City policies, and then Department policies.

That is at least 5 different sets of regulations that each department will address in a different way, which is why we have such diversity in the Emergency Services compared to countries with just one body, one dept, one set of regulations, and one way of doing things.

[Xplorer4x4]

Thanks for the info mike.

I was wondering if Ford trucks are still utilized as engines(type 1 or 2, not brush or squad trucks)? For example the 1983 Ford C8000/E-One Pumper seems to have been quite popular in these parts back in the day. Are these types of engines still made or have Spartan,FMC,etc taken over building there engines completely from scratch these days? How from scratch are these engines made? Does FMC,Spartan,etc purchase, say a Detroit Diesel engine, transmition, drive train,etc and put them in there selves?

Also i have noticed some engines labeled as a rescue pumper. What makes these so different then a regular pumper engine? Just more storage room and less pump space?

[Xplorer4x4]

Thanks for the info, dont suppose you got any pics of that demo did you? I havent seen any of the new Ford Fire Engines.

Does any one know if AMR actually has any mass casuality units, or are these generally handled by city,state, and federal agencies?

[Grim_Wizard]

If you want to listen in buy a scanner or you may be able to listen to the radio on the police departments website.

[jab16]

well i asume they have a mass aid unit but probably not a mass causialty because amr is not used most of the time where a mass causitaly event may occur. for example Dallas they most likey have a mass causialty unit of there own because of the population. so on

[Grim_Wizard]

But in a more rural or suburban AMR genneraly (If they even have any) respons lighter.
You took the words out of my- lets leave it there.

[jab16]

Mike is this true?


Has anyone heard of the LAPD new police vehicles?? I heard they were being compared to something like the cars that James Bond would drive. But from what I read, they are nice but not close to a bond vehicle!!It's equipped with a device just above the front bumper that will shoot darts embedded with a GPS tracker at fleeing vehicles, reducing the need for high-speed chases. When linked wirelessly to headquarters, another device allows cops to view live feeds of networked surveillance cameras from the driver's seat, once they're within a mile of a crime scene.

Two durable-looking gadgets stashed between the front seats, set back from the docked Dell laptop computer, let officers scan the faces and fingerprints of people they detain -- and check them instantly against databases through a wireless connection. ONe of the coolest things is this....cameras mounted on the roof read license plates as the car is in motion, out on patrol. Plate data is coded with the time viewed and geodata, then stored on servers and checked against databases of stolen or suspect cars.

After testing on the single car, the interconnected gadgets are gradually getting installed in other LAPD vehicles; 20 will get license plate recognition cameras by year's end and two full divisions will get in-car digital video cameras trained on the back seat and front of the car, according to Cmdr. Charlie Beck, head of the department's office of operations. Officers on patrol will be able to send live video from the cameras back to their stations.

???????????????

[Newfoundking]

well the first thing I have never heard of before, but it is a good idea, pretty simple to...

And as for the rest, it's not new, just new to LAPD.. I don't think they can afford all this for every car if they can't even afford new cars... Everyone is on tight budgets, plus with all this stuff the police cars will start to become more and more visible.. If you lookat pictures of this stuff, it's kinda bulky, and out there, and with all that on a car, they are going to get pretty crowded... Where did you hear this?

[jab16]

i just google'd lapd vehicles and this was on like the 4th page also found this

http://cache.gawker....dore_LAPD_2.jpg


acourding to them Lapd already bought one

[MikesPhotos]

Whoops, just saw there were a bunch of posts that I missed. Let me go back and answer them

Does any one know if AMR actually has any mass casuality units, or are these generally handled by city,state, and federal agencies?

I honestly don't know the answer to that since AMR is such a non-entity where I am anymore and a lot changed with the federal grants. I know they have a few portable trailers like these for command and control at large incidents:





They're just places to be able to sit out of the sun, do paperwork, and listen to the radio for calls.

They should also have at least one or two of the new Cali disaster trucks though. Here are some pics of McCormicks gear:

Mike is this true?


Has anyone heard of the LAPD new police vehicles?? I heard they were being compared to something like the cars that James Bond would drive. But from what I read, they are nice but not close to a bond vehicle!!It's equipped with a device just above the front bumper that will shoot darts embedded with a GPS tracker at fleeing vehicles, reducing the need for high-speed chases. When linked wirelessly to headquarters, another device allows cops to view live feeds of networked surveillance cameras from the driver's seat, once they're within a mile of a crime scene.

At any given time, the LAPD and LASD ASAP teams are testing thousands of futuristic and weird things. Nothing has been put in the field like those you've mentioned, but technology demonstrators have been looked at by both departments

Two durable-looking gadgets stashed between the front seats, set back from the docked Dell laptop computer, let officers scan the faces and fingerprints of people they detain -- and check them instantly against databases through a wireless connection.

Nope, but they are fielding some new PDA's that allow immediate fingerprinting in the field!

ONe of the coolest things is this....cameras mounted on the roof read license plates as the car is in motion, out on patrol. Plate data is coded with the time viewed and geodata, then stored on servers and checked against databases of stolen or suspect cars.

After testing on the single car, the interconnected gadgets are gradually getting installed in other LAPD vehicles; 20 will get license plate recognition cameras by year's end and two full divisions will get in-car digital video cameras trained on the back seat and front of the car, according to Cmdr. Charlie Beck, head of the department's office of operations. Officers on patrol will be able to send live video from the cameras back to their stations.

The ALPRs have been around for quite some time now, i don't know how old the article you're quoting is. You neither sourced it nor provided a link.

One of the new ALPR cars in the field. They're big and bulky compared to the LASD Version, but they've been successful

i just google'd lapd vehicles and this was on like the 4th page also found this


acourding to them Lapd already bought one

Ummm, you mind posting exactly WHERE you see that LAPD has bought one? This idea has been floating around since april and can be read about here with japlonik and others referencing it. So far, having spoken to people who are actually involved in the charger, impala and "future replacement" project, the deal for the commodore still hasn't progressed past the simple talk stage and the two test vehicles have not arrived yet, nor are they close to. With GM filing for Chapt 11 in June, two months after all of these articles were written, the general consensus is that NO foreign car/version would be bought when a domestic version could be produced instead. The technology that is in the car though has made it way to Crown Vics and other test beds, so the NSA part of the project is still ongoing. ALPR cars are fielded throughout the city on an ongoing trial that has proven very successful. But as for the Commodore ever replacing the crown vic, I just don't see it happening.

The car in the pictures was just a test that was shown at a show in Sydney, not even here in the US. Frankly, it reminds me of a lot of mods on this board, lots of hype and talk and exhuberance, but not much else.

[jab16]

lol so i guess the part about the darts and stuff is bull to then

[Xplorer4x4]

well i asume they have a mass aid unit but probably not a mass causialty because amr is not used most of the time where a mass causitaly event may occur. for example Dallas they most likey have a mass causialty unit of there own because of the population. so on

Most of the time, probably not, but if AMR is the only patient transport company in the city, like here, then I would think that AMR would be the one to to provide a mass causality unit, and being the third largest city in the state, and the largest city in the southern part of Indiana, I am a bit surprised that I dont believe one exists here. Granted there have been very few cases where one would be needed. The most deadliest event in the history of the city was a tornado a few years ago. 20 people were killed with in a one mile radius, and many more injured. Not to mention the injuries and deaths outside of this small mobile home park. It was the deadliest tornado since 1999 and produced stronger winds then Hurricane Katrina. In a case like that I can only imagine such a unit would have come in handy.

Has anyone heard of the LAPD new police vehicles??

Nevermind as mike comes to the rescue as usual, but none the less I thought you were suffering to the Carbon E7.


Anyways thanks again for the info Mike.

Mike is there any rel advantage over the vintage style ambulances and the box style? I notice one of those pics showed one of the newer Ford E-Series cab and chassis with the vintage style compartment on the box.

[MikesPhotos]

Most of the time, probably not, but if AMR is the only patient transport company in the city, like here, then I would think that AMR would be the one to to provide a mass causality unit, and being the third largest city in the state, and the largest city in the southern part of Indiana, I am a bit surprised that I dont believe one exists here. Granted there have been very few cases where one would be needed. The most deadliest event in the history of the city was a tornado a few years ago. 20 people were killed with in a one mile radius, and many more injured. Not to mention the injuries and deaths outside of this small mobile home park. It was the deadliest tornado since 1999 and produced stronger winds then Hurricane Katrina. In a case like that I can only imagine such a unit would have come in handy.

Mass Casualty Equipment/Disaster Equipment is based on State/County/City needs and no two areas are the same. if you're curious about yours, you'd have to call them and ask. All Disaster trucks and trailers for private EMS agencies are funded either by the state cache or FD's here.

Mike is there any rel advantage over the vintage style ambulances and the box style? I notice one of those pics showed one of the newer Ford E-Series cab and chassis with the vintage style compartment on the box.

Actually, before I answer this, there is nothing vintage about the van style. In fact the box style is actually much older! Originally ambulances were station wagon types like this and this. Then they went to a more suburban style like this in the early 70s and from there they ended up with something very similar to our current box shaped. The vans didn't really come until later when vans started becoming more popular in the early 80s. The style is known as vintage in the game simply because it is the vintage LAFD style. During the 80s and early 90's that was the type used by the LAFD until the move to their current apparatus.

To see a good overview of classic ambulances, go here

Now, as for your question, frankly, the best answer is contained here. Yes, I do indeed love firechief magazine!

[hunter42]

I'm sitting watching a police program called "Road Wars". At the moment, there's a clip from L.A, but the police vehicles at the start were White instead of the usual black/White scheme. Where are these units from? (The program just stated L.A and the clip is from 2004 - If that makes a difference).

[Grim_Wizard]

i just google'd lapd vehicles and this was on like the 4th page also found this

http://cache.gawker....dore_LAPD_2.jpg


acourding to them Lapd already bought one

Lol what you're reffering to as a vehical was produced as a toy, it's in a bunch of robot chicken episodes that look like that but I don't know about all that cool sounding equipment.