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Wednesday, 30 September 2009 |
By MIKE BURKHOLDER
Staff Writer
A local fire department is set to go on-line this week and a second area fire department is preparing for the addition of new radios that will allow for better communication among personnel.
The MARCs radio system is set to go online at the St. Marys Fire Department within the next few weeks.
Auglaize County EMA Director Troy Anderson said his department has been charged with bringing the system online throughout the county. Currently the EMA, sheriff’s office and health department are up and running with plans to get the rest of the county online in the coming weeks.
“All the radios are in for all the agencies and are programmed,” Anderson said. “I have a cache of radios that go out that were funded by a grant, so there was no cost for the radios. Now it’s just getting them out.”
Anderson said the next step is getting three additional dispatch centers up and running. The centers, including one at the St. Marys Fire Department, will be linked to the sheriff’s office.
“The Sheriff’s Office is done and Wapak will be completed this week,” Anderson said. “The St. Marys one is next. My next step will be linking all three together and then the county will be up and running. At that point, we will issue the radios out.”
Once issued, Anderson said he plans to offer training sessions on the radios. The radios are a significant upgrade to older models, he said.
“They are Voice-Over IP, so they are digital radios,” Anderson said. “They go through a computer and we don’t have to worry about talking over each other.”
Each radio has a six-digit number, similar to a cell phone. Anderson said the devices will be an asset to public safety departments given the greater range available to users.
“On a portable-to-portable now, we get 2 miles,” Anderson said. “I can give a MARCs radio to the St. Marys chief and he can be in a conference in Cleveland and if he wants to know what is going on in St. Marys, he can have the radio set to the channel and can talk to them. It’s a good radio to keep everyone informed.”
St. Marys Fire Chief Joey Weaver said the radios will increase communication among firefighters as well as expand the range of coverage on the devices.
“You can talk across the state of Ohio if you need to,” Weaver said. “They have better reception and transmission and eliminate a lot of the dead zones.”
Weaver said the radios also improve inter-agency communication. In the event of a natural disaster, Weaver said departments would have the luxury of being able to communicate with each other via the radios.
“There are so many frequencies we can switch to and have access to,” Weaver said.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 01 October 2009 )
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