GRN radio

[bittenyakka]

Recently I did the GRN course and on this they told us (i think I already knew any way) that no more of the same type of radio the the CFS uses are being produced hence many training ones are being used for spare parts.

Any way where are to radios that are being put in the new trucks coming from? are they just pulled from the older trucks or are they different radios altogether?

[Alan (Big Al)]

What should be happening is when you get a new truck is the person delivering it pulls the GRN out of your old truck and put's it in to the new one, at least thats what happened with ours!!

[mengcfs]

Or the new truck comes with a radio and all the appropriate paperwork is carried out "behind the scenes" before it arrives so as the appropriate people have the correct alias for the correct appliance.

[SA Firey]

To confirm for everyone there are no GRN MTS2000 portables left,this is why brigades that were originally issued three per appliance had them reduced to two.

When you receive a new appliance it will come with a GRN radio which will be assigned to your new appliance.

When the old appliance goes back, the radio in that old appliance is removed and goes into the spares pool to be reused to do the next fitout.

[bittenyakka]

Thankyou for clearing that up. Does this mean that in the next few years a new radio will be produced or will it be a whole new system?

[SA Firey]

There were plans to go over to Digital Encryption in 2008 however I believe that has been put on hold.

[Scania_1]

I dont believe that CFS will be encrypted even if it does go digital. It doesnt have to be encrypted just cos its digital. Hopefully it wont be encrypted for the scanner buffs, lol.

[SA Firey]

I dont believe that CFS will be encrypted even if it does go digital. It doesnt have to be encrypted just cos its digital. Hopefully it wont be encrypted for the scanner buffs, lol.

We can only hope it isnt

[5271rescue]

I wounder why they have put it on hold.... : thats right the cost is the killer

[Darius]

I wounder why they have put it on hold.... : thats right the cost is the killer

and the fact it is unnecessary and a waste of money.  For CFS use the current analogue ones are probably better. (I don't believe there was ever any plans to go encrypted, but going digital is inevitable at some point, but no rush).

also you can still get the motorola parts, eg. http://www.firetrader.com.au/category4_1.htm, not to mention many places in the USA.

[Alan (Big Al)]

Our new 34 came without a radio so they took the one out of our old truck and put it in the new one it took 5 mins, why would you put a new radio in the truck that has to have the alias changed at SHQ why not use the old one??? That would be the sensible thing??

[mengcfs]

Was your old truck a 34? if not the alias would have to be changed anyway (it's onlay another bit of paperwork! ).
I know you said it took 5 minutes to swap the radio but you would think a new truck should come raring to go, and it is an inconvenience for someone to open the station....again.

[bajdas]

I have seen at the major auction yard websites, mutliple MTS2000 radios for sale. I believe they are from security and courier companies that are upgrading.

[Alan (Big Al)]

Was your old truck a 34? if not the alias would have to be changed anyway (it's onlay another bit of paperwork! ).
I know you said it took 5 minutes to swap the radio but you would think a new truck should come raring to go, and it is an inconvenience for someone to open the station....again.

Yeah it was swap 34 for a new 34, the region 1 training officer delivered the truck and while we were going through stowage sheets he swapped the radio's over, absolutley no hassle, but if you were losing a 24 and gaining a 34 then it really wouldn't matter which way you did it i suppose

[mengcfs]

Wow, im amazed he swapped the radios over, thought it had to be an approved Government contractor. Prehaps the main installation was done and all he had to do was "plug it in".
Oh well less hassle for you.

[Alan (Big Al)]

Basically the mounts were already there it was unscrew from old mount put onto new mount plug in and do radio test with SHQ and took 5 mins.

[Mike]

As long as the installation of cables is done professionally, there are no problems with simply swapping a radio.

When we de-commissioned our 14, we were told it was OK to remove everything from the appliance ourselves!

[loopylou]

Yeah we were told to strip our old truck when we got our new truck too, and all the cabling and mounts were pre-done when we changed the GRN over, so yeah it only took a couple of minutes. As for there being no more MTS2000's, i got a brand new one back a couple of months ago when i had one repaired. Also i heard that roll-out for the digital un-encrypted system is more like 2011?

[SA Firey]

I have seen at the major auction yard websites, mutliple MTS2000 radios for sale. I believe they are from security and courier companies that are upgrading.

They are not the same model/frequency as ours which is why they are hard to come by.Cosmetically yes we can use the outside parts for breakages and repair them,but getting the right frequency is the problem.