[Scan-DC] NYFD Radios

[Brian Rokus]

I guess the question is, how do these "new" radios differ from the ones they 
were using on 9/11? Didn't NYFD go trunked before September?

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NYFD: New radio system better suited to massive incidents such as trade 
center attack

By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN
The Associated Press
6/3/02 3:33 PM


NEW YORK (AP) -- The New York fire department is rolling out a revamped 
radio system to better handle emergencies such as the World Trade Center 
attack, which left many rescuers struggling to communicate.

"The communication was horrible and there's no disputing that," said Tom 
Manley, health and safety officer for the firefighters' union. "You didn't 
get the necessary transmissions being heard. Some people heard, some people 
didn't."

City officials have attributed part of the problem to the destruction of 
equipment called repeaters, which boost radio signals. The repeaters were 
mounted high in the trade center and in commanders' cars to amplify and 
retransmit signals. They were destroyed when the hijacked planes struck the 
buildings and debris crushed the vehicles below.

Firefighter unions said that long-standing radio problems in high-rise 
buildings also played a role.

Both say the new, $14 million system appears better suited to situations 
that could have hundreds of personnel from different agencies performing 
complex operations at great personal risk.

The handheld Motorola radios being tested for a late-summer debut operate at 
higher frequencies better able to penetrate concrete and steel than the 
radios in use Sept. 11, company and fire officials say.

They are expected to be augmented by new repeaters in 60 high-rise 
buildings, and radio antennas in subway tunnels, where firefighters also 
have long had communication problems.

Unlike the models they replace, the new radios are compatible with police, 
Office of Emergency Management and other city systems.

At ground zero on Sept. 11, one emergency official who did not have a fire 
department radio could not broadcast an alert that the north tower was in 
danger of collapsing. Instead, he had to send a subordinate racing across 
the trade center plaza to hand-deliver the message to a fire chief inside.

"Nine-eleven, of course, highlights some of the communication difficulties 
that we had," fire department spokesman Frank Gribbon said. "We sort of knew 
all of this prior to 9/11, but after that event you see how critically 
important it is."

The new radios can be programmed to operate on dozens of radio channels, 
preventing the fire department's usual single fire-scene channel from being 
congested during a large-scale incident such as the trade center attack.

The radios also allow firefighters in distress to alert others by hitting an 
emergency button instead of transmitting "Mayday" orally.



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