Radios - Inside your gear? Or Out?

[FFMcDonald]

How do you - or how does your departments handle the wear of a radio by interior FF's?

Do you guys have radio pockets on your turnouts? Do you wear a radio in a pouch on a strap (FDNY Strap-style)? Do you have a speaker-mic for ease of communication - if so - what do you do to keep the wire from becoming tangled?

[Weruj1]

We recently got the FDNY straps and in the begining I wasnt a fan until I tried one, and I really like it. I have a Motorola MT2000 with the public safety mic that is NOT coiled. We have radio pockets on our turnouts, however no matter where we put them we have never had sucess. SO for now we have these, when we had the pocket on the chest it interfered with the SCBA chest strap, now on our new gear we have them on the left jacket sleeve, the problem with this is that you play hell trying to get to the radio for volume or to change the channel. Only have had a few complaints so far about the FDNY style holders.

[FFMcDonald]

Weruj1 - when you use the FDNY strap - do you wear it under your turnout coat - or on top?

Thanks for replying.

[firefiftyfive]

In my department there is no specified way that you have to carry a radio.Some guys carry it in their pockets and some wear the leather radio straps.I am a big fan of the radio straps underneath my turnout coat. The only problem I run into is where exactly to let the radio hang. Either let it hang above the waist strap of my SCBA or let it hang under the strap and slightly protruding from under my coat. Usually let it hang under the strap..... anyone els????

[MalahatTwo7]

We don't have carry straps for ours, but I prefer to have mine in the radio (breast pocket) with an extended mic, that I can clip to either the BA chest harness or I can drape around my neck, so that it is both near at hand and also close to my ear for noisy pump operations (which seems to be my mainstay job recently) - at least until we get more drivers qualified on the pumper.

[Kobersteen]

I prefer to carry mine in the tunout left breast pocket. That makes it infinately easier to attach the Envoy to the radio and hear what is going on and be able to communicate with people while masked up.

For runs where I don't need SCBA, the FDNY holster on top of my bunker coat or uniform shirt.

[Weruj1]

So far we are using them OVER the coats, again if they were under our coats we wouid have a hard time with volume, channel changing etc.

[PFire23]

You can keep the pumper job ......... I'll keep "being in da action", and driving the rescue

[FireCapt1951retired]

You people actually have radios that work and mikes too? Wish we did!

[WVFDCap]

Where's the radio!?

I carry my radio in the radio pocket of my coat (left breast). I also use a speaker mic.

[Engine11Tower]

I carry mine in an FDNY radio strap under my coat. I used to wear it over my coat but found it liked to get caught up at embarrassing times Our department does not issue the straps or mics, but probably about 50% of our membership owns them. I believe the mic on your shoulder greatly increases your ability to hear and understand radio traffic.

[shammrock54]

In my dept we have exterior radio pockets on or bunker coats and thats were most peoples radios live. Several of us have FDNY straps, i wear mine under my coat and just pull the cord up through the collar of my coat and clip it into one of the fabric mic holders on the outside of the coat. The only problem is if u dont have a portable already in your strap than its not really practicle to use it and the radio ends up in the pocket. btw all but a handful of our portables have speaker mics.

[AVFR452]

Mic Keeper

After several occasions of tripping on the speaker-mike dangling between my feet, I went searching for a solution. Found the Mic Keeper from www.gearkeeper.com It is attached to the coat and has a retractable stainless steel cable. Keeps the mike out of the way and readily accessible. Radio sits in the pocket on the left chest area.

Out of all of the odds and ends fire/ems gadgets I have accumulated over the last 14 years, This probably is the most useful. About 20 dollars-Well Spent

Jim

[AFD368]

Radio pockets on the left chest of the bunker coat.
All of our new gear has the radio pocket with mic tabs above the pocket (for those lucky enough to have the mic).
Much easier to hear what is going on, and to get to radio if you have to.

[SamsonFCDES]

Ok, for us not so up to snuff on gear people, what is a FDNY radio strap, can you give me a link or a picture?

We are revamping all of our gear this year, it is old, nasty, and worn out.

We are hopefully soon going to be comeing into a cash of radios from USFS surpluss stocks, big old bendix kings, powerfull, durable, big.

We have a small department with a small amount of gear. We are hopeing to put a bendix on each SCBA we have, mounted in a custom made pouch (nylon with nomex cover). They would be in on the left shoulder strap, easy to reach, standard. This way anybody that is going in a structure has a radio, something that has not been possible for us before.

Other wise we are planning to carry them in the SCBA radio pockets, left chest.