It wasn't me. You can't prove anything.


2010-09-22

Municipal radios

I've heard a bunch of things about municipal radio systems. These are surely not true for all systems. I have found no real evidence that any or all of these are true or not. I haven't done my homework.

  • They have GPS now
    • One radio can detect the location of another if it is dropped or someone is not responding.
    • A radio can send GPS info to another for things like landing positions of Life Flight or the location of a problem.

    • There is a log file somewhere with the movements of the radios.
  • A radio can be remotely disabled or enabled.
  • One municipality can call another over a network separate of the phone system for disaster coordination.
  • It is possible for a ground cop to speak directly to the helicopter.
  • Some radio traffic is scrambled.

These all sound cool. I would love to know how many of these are in use on a daily basis. Surely it is expensive and not every city or po-dunk can afford all the bells and whistles.

I've heard a story that some city somewhere had the mobile phone system go down and the city services could not communicate. The radio system was fine, but no one was used to using it. They had gotten used to just calling when they needed something. This makes me wonder if something should be done to he mobile phone network (monitoring) during these municipal disaster tests that happen every so often.

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