I did some more reading about this radios capabilities. On a small scale, 5 or 6 in my department might actually be useful. It appears that they have the capability to be teamed together to field assemble a local repeater or a bridge on the fly. There actually might be some use for that.

They also have a link on their website to sign up for a demo radio. I talked to my Chief and we are going to do exactly that. Maybe in a few months, I will actually get my hands on one and can do a full review.

Yep, sounds like what my department does too.

One thing that our dispatch center added recently was bridge capability. They can bridge a variety of different frequencies and sources so that people with handhelds don't have to have new radios to talk to someone on a different channel. They can even bridge in phone calls to the command net on hazmat incidents, if we need to bring in State level resources

A couple years ago, DHS was offering a portable radio bridge device through their CEDAP program. Small police and fire departments were eligible to get free equipment. It would bridge between 8 different sources, ran off of AA batteries, would fit in a command rig. Acted as a local repeater if necessary as well. Sells retail for about 10,000. Much cheaper solution than replacing everyone's handhelds.

I was annoyed to see Boise Fire is part of the pilot program. They are the biggest department in my region. My department really likes our $300 Vertex radios, City Council would **** a brick if we asked them for 20 new $5,000 radios.

It's still a waste of money. My podunk county dispatch center can flip a couple switch and bridge any radio channels we need to have done. Don't need fancy handhelds to do it. Most dispatch centers either already have bridging capability, or it can be added on for a reasonable cost. There is no need for multiband handhelds.

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At one time I was a Pavilion Warranty Technician, before HP changed all Pavilion warranty work to be depot repair.

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