For over the last four years I have been assigned to the Big Bend station on the Tahoe National Forest there has been issues with the station base unit radio. Little to no effort has been put into fixing the issue.
What is wrong? We have no communication with dispatch on the tone they use to send out messages to the forest. When the Tahoe ECC sends out a call, Weather, Sit Report, or any other message that needs to be heard by all personal on the Tahoe N.F. they do it on Tone 8. Here at Big Bend we only can be reached on tone 5. They know this and have not made an effort to switch to a tone that works for us to hear the calls that are going out.
This issue has caused us to miss forest extensions in staffing, Emergency calls, and daily weather and fire updates. This is a big safety concern to us.
Solution. Make an effort to find room in the forest budget for upgrades to repeater towers or to add repeater towers where needed.
Or simply switch to Tones that work for the stations that need it. Repeat the message on the proper tones. Other forest do this and have been for years.
I have made multiple calls to the radio shop and have sent out emails to the forest and radio techs for the last four years. Why has it come to this? |
