Members of the Starke County Firefighters Association met this week to review radio communications between departments.
Fire department personnel have been to the Starke County Commissioners and Starke County Council meetings for several months to explain the complications they are experiencing with static bursts heard over the radios, pagers not going off, issues with the talk around channel on the repeater, poor performance, and poor coverage in the certain portions of the county. The communication problems between firefighter and the dispatch center and between firefighters themselves have also been reported to the county officials.
Association President Kenny Pfost said an evaluation was done by Miner Electronics that included the infrastructure of the VHF radio system that the fire departments utilize.
“There weren’t any really major issues I don’t believe, but there are things that can be done to help improve the system that we have,” commented Pfost.
According to the report from Miner Electronics which was submitted into the record as part of the minutes of the Starke County Commissioners meeting on March 4, the grounding of some equipment to certain specifications is the most pressing matter.
The report went on to say that the Starke County Fire radio system is well maintained and was built using equipment with good reputations for quality and reliability. J&K Communications is the current vendor.
Pfost said that the tones coming from the dispatch center are different than the tones that are used by the department themselves when they re-tone calls.
“There is a significant difference in the tones which could be a big part of why the department is missing the calls.”
A radio committee meeting is being planned to further discuss the issue and determine the next step to get the problems solved.
