Letters
Fire departments lack technological advances for communications
For the first time in my 12-year professional career as a firefighter, a civilian has hit the nail on the head with observations about my job.
As both a firefighter and communications director for the department I serve, I took great interest in your article (“Save the Heroes,” Making Waves, August 2001). We indeed are faced with sometimes impossible odds but we succeed in most cases.
The part we continue to fail at is the ability to affect the purchasing habits of our municipalities. We are often left without the latest technological advances to enhance our ability to do the job.
Communications equipment is no exception. With infrastructure costs as high as they are for new technologies such as the 800MHz and 900MHz trunking systems, it makes achieving these “necessities” difficult. As one who specs, installs and maintains communications systems, I have found my greatest obstacle is the almighty dollar, not finding the technology to solve a problem. It is only in recent months that we have upgraded our system to the late 1970s VHF repeater system. This replaced the 1960s simplex system. What a move.
It is also only in recent years that 75% of our personnel have portable radio availability. Only 100% is acceptable and it may be yet another year before that may be achieved.
While we do face inherent risks in the line of duty each day, the need for funding to reduce that risk is not always available. The Bush Administration saw it fit to reduce FIRE ACT grant funding by $200 million. Much of those monies cut could have been used for communications systems upgrades.
Perhaps it is time that the federal government begin taking an active role in protecting our “nation’s first responders” by ensuring higher standards for communications in the public safety sectors. Thanks so very much for your article and keep up the good work.
— FF. Jeff Weidner Communications
City of Kenosha Fire Department
Kenosha, WI
Nextel doesn’t care
Hooray for the editorial in MRT June 2001 on Nexteland (“In Sync,” by Don Bishop). I have been telling my fellow radio dealers for years now that Nextel cares nothing about gobbling up their spectrum and putting them completely out of business, to further their bottom line.
Still, some of them have jumped in with the enemy and are under some mystical spell that the great commissions and residuals that they will make will offset the two-way business they are flushing down the toilet.
We have been mobile phone agents for about 10 years now, and I can tell you that before you purchase your house in Beverly Hills on those coming commissions, you better have back-up financing. Nextel has more agents selling their product in our area right now than there are vacuum cleaner salespeople. And I haven’t seen any of them driving a new Porsche either.
The only other thing I would be interested in knowing is where the billions of frequency spectrum dollars generated by the government went? Maybe Nextel can tell us?
— Jerry Becker
J.B. Electronics
A radio dealer’s plight
Congratulations on a concise, well written, and sadly, accurate analysis of the radio dealer’s plight. (MRT February 2001 “POS Perspective,” by Bob Urian.)
My 25+ years in the business, which started with 15 years at a major U.S. radio manufacturer, have prompted me to believe manufacturers expect the dealer to “heave to” despite low profit margins, lousy dealer support, semi-developed products and internal competition. Most firms I know are seeking alternatives (or at least additions) to their equipment portfolios to have some profitable equipment to sell.
Manufacturers feel they are the 500lb. canary. Few seem to understand they’d be squat without the dealers establishing and maintaining customer relationships, marketing and selling the product, doing the technical work, holding the receivable, and, in general, carrying the flag. Discussing the idea of their manufacturing products and our selling them at a profit is a battle of wits with an unarmed person.
— Name withheld by request
For more letters, go to MRT‘s Web site and click on “Letters from Readers” (under “Site Features”).
