Pageland firefighters used to share its radio system with another department. Now they’ve upgraded
PAGELAND, S.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — It’s never quiet inside the Pageland Rescue Squad and fire department.
The radios are always alerting first responders when their help is needed. Now, rescue workers will hear those calls on new radios and a system through a statewide public safety network.
Squad members previously used a system that was at least 13 years old, and it shared a frequency with a nearby fire department.
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“This is the single largest step in technology we’ve ever made,” said Pageland Rescue Squad spokesperson Rob Petrucci.
Pageland rescuers got more than $67,000 from the federal Homeland Security Department to cover the communications upgrade.
Local officials added another $3,000 and bought 20 new radios. Petrucci says static through older radios like this made it hard to talk and listen.
The new radios sound like they’re talking on a smartphone.
“These radios allow us to communicate with our mutual aid partners who are on the 800 system in North Carolina and South Carolina,” said Petrucci. “So compared to the 14 or 15 channels we utilize and the VHF system, these have over 100 channels allowing us to utilize multiple agencies. We can move the event to a specific channel. We can use multiple channels on a single event depending on the size and scope.”
The radios have a full GPS feature, so personnel and the radio can always be found. They also have an emergency alert function, so should something happen, the member can hit that button, and that alerts the rest of the radios and a dispatch with a geolocation and signals “It’s this radio and we know who this radio is assigned to.”
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Petrucci says if they’re out in the rural parts of the county, where sometimes radio traffic is hard to get because they’re farther away from the repeater side, these radios will be crystal clear. They’ll be able to hear what’s going on, as well as talk to helicopter communications to help land it, and talk to the hospital and other responders.
Officials say this is a 10- to 12-year solution for their communication systems.
But places like Kershaw County to the south and Union to the north have already made the change to the 800 MHz spectrum.
“From the federal government, the push has been down to transition into the 800 spectrum,” Petrucci said. “So, our surrounding counties have all made that switch and we’re Darlington County all it, in fact, and we’re slowly as a county moving in that direction.”
Each rescue squad member is going to be able to have one. And officers will have the dual-band radios.
“When we’re able to provide this level of technology, which is cutting edge and we’re able to operate with those volunteers and our small funding in this type of technology, it really is heart-filling because we can fulfill on a mission to do everything, we can to save that one extra life,” Petrucci said.
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