Borough scanning

B

bstan270

Joined
May 10, 2008
Messages
51
Why do scanners stay keyed on a borough frequency when there is no radio traffic being transmitted? Is there a way to set the squelch to eliminate this?
 
Sometimes the transmitter hangs open, there is no way around it.
 
I knew a couple dispatchers who, on the overnight tours, would intentionally leave the mixer on...  just "to annoy the buffs" by locking up their scanners.  I don't think that happens any more.
 
Leaving the mixer on?

I think George Muench does that when he's on the radio... either by accident or the button gets stuck.. it even happens while the units are transmitting, once I heard him sneeze while BC41 was giving a preliminary.
 
I have to say, if there ever was a Great FDNY Dispatcher, it had to be George Muench. I could be wrong, but I think he retired a few years ago. I"m sure it wasn"t him to leave a mixer on to mess up the buffs. He had to be one of the BEST. I would hope its just a mistake that a dispatcher would leave a mixer on. I have too much respect for them. They are the behind the scene heros, that never get praise. As a Retired Firefighter from Connecticut, they have my highest respect. And George (Disp 247), had to be one of the Best
 
nfd2004 said:
I have to say, if there ever was a Great FDNY Dispatcher, it had to be George Muench. I could be wrong, but I think he retired a few years ago. I"m sure it wasn"t him to leave a mixer on to mess up the buffs. He had to be one of the BEST. I would hope its just a mistake that a dispatcher would leave a mixer on. I have too much respect for them. They are the behind the scene heros, that never get praise. As a Retired Firefighter from Connecticut, they have my highest respect. And George (Disp 247), had to be one of the Best
Click to expand...

Hey, he hasn't retired yet......his Disp # is now 102.... tune in to Brooklyn, you'll hear him. Try fdnyradio.com
 
There are a few reasons why you're hearing the mixer left on for a while, prime of which is the new setup. The powers that be moved the ON AIR lights. We used to sit in a rough circle, everyone facing the center of the room. The lights were on top of the radio console. If you left the mixer on, it was apparent.

Now we sit with our backs to each other facing out and the lights are behind all of us. No one sees them unless they turn around. (And, since we no longer can see each other, nonverbal communications [nods of the head] are out. This forces us to yell at each other thus the increased noise you hear in the background.)

The radio is no longer a console, it's a touchscreen LCD. It's mounted so far away that one has to use a mouse. The icon for the mixer is only a few pixels larger than the cursor. It's very easy to simply miss hitting the icon. This also has the effect of delaying our response time on the radio, one has to move and aim the cursor before clicking.

Also, believe it or not, we have a few people in our employ that do not own PCs and have a hard time using a mouse.
 
FD347 said:
There are a few reasons why.....
Click to expand...

I'm so glad I'm out!  The city fathers are taking a super operation and stuffing it into the same bucket as all it's (other) ineffective dispatch operations.
Given half a chance I'm sure they would integrate fire dispatch into 9-1-1.

Can you imagine that? 

Disp: "Holding 3 jobs in the 8th Division... we're going into backlog...what units available?  K "

It's enough to make you barf.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top