Personal Vehicles

[Thumpit]

Hello all,

As you see, I'm new to the forums, and I have a question.

in Nebraska, their volunteers are able to use Red/Blue lights, have base radios in their vehicles, and use sirens if need be.

in Iowa, I understand we can use Blue/Blue Lights.

My question here is:
Can Iowans have a base Radio in their vehicles?
and can we use sirens if need be?

[JOSFIREMAN]

I am not aware that Iowans can use sirens...maybe unless its a chief vehicle, even that is questionable. If you go direct you can have a radio, but a base radio I am not sure about. It probably depends on the department.

[hustond]

You are allowed to have a blue light with a permit from your Chief Officer. Sirens are not allowed in non-emergency vehicles. However, one could try to make the argument that you are an emergency vehicle while responding to a call (I wouldn't try it). Base radios are allowed, but this is usually a department call. We only have a couple of people with them in thei POV. Not only are they expensive, the antennas are hideous depending on what frequency you are on. Most departments have portable radios for their Officers and medics, but each area is different.

I don't like to have my guys do a lot of modifications do their POV. It tends to lead to faster driving when repsonding to the station which introduces a lot of issues. Don't get me wrong, I love all of the cool lights and stuff, but if you don't make it to a call, but cause a call you have made things worse.

[Thumpit]

Thanks for the reply.

I've known about the Blue lights for a long time, I have one in boths vehicles I own. I find that the base radio will help me for more than just fire. I'm an EMT-B with our Squad as well. And I just got accepted into the upcomming EMT-PS Program nearby. I am also a Reserve Deputy with our County. having a radio will help out quite a bit, so I was just wondering if it was allowed.

Now that I know the answer, would you happen to know a few good sites where I might find some?

[medicmaster]

My suggestion for the radio would be to get a Motorola Visar. If your department gets the communications grants, it should work off the repeaters that (hopefully) will be installed.

Visars are great because they are small (slightly larger than a cell phone) and can serve as your pager as well as a two way radio. The vollie service I was on provided paramedic first response, and the medics were issued Visars for communication purposes. There was some pissing and moaning from the non-EMS members about it, but they eventually got over it.

[Thumpit]

Looked like a damn good radio. Motorola says they don't manufacture it anymore. :(

[medicmaster]

That's right...I forgot they quit making them.

We replaced ours last year, and we I have grown accustomed to calling them Visars...

This is what we went to...
http://www.motorola.com/governmentandenterprise/northamerica/en-us/public/functions/browseproduct/productdetailpage.aspx?navigat ionpath=id_803i/id_1388i/id_2353i/id_1759i (http://)

[Thumpit]

That link just takes me to the home page of Motorola.

[medicmaster]

I don't know why the link won't work!

The radio we went to was the EX 500

[Thumpit]

Thanks, I'll take a look