Within the past year the county sheriff (who dispatches EMS, Fire, and Police for a large area) stated that they, and the State police were switching to the y2k compliant 800mhz radio system. And as of this writing, they have made the switch. In newspaper stories at the time, they indicated that the current 911 dispatch system which is VHF for EMS and Fire, and UHF for the various smaller police departments is 12 yrs. old and if it broke, they weren't going to be able fix it.

The new radios are ungodly expensive, about $3000 for a handheld. and for contractural reasons they can only be purchased from Motorola.

For a typical small volunteer ambulance/fire service in the area, the total cost would be about $90,000.

Neither the county, nor the state will pay for the small town and village emergency services to aquire these needed radios, and the municipalities themselves which are mostly rural agricultural, do not have the needed funds.

So when y2k hits, and fries the 911 dispatch system in Berrien County, Mi. There will be no Fire, EMS, Or Police Dispatch in many towns, villages, and rural areas of the county.

Loco

-- Loco (Loco@PocoLoco.com), February 27, 1999

Answers

Look for the nearest guy dressed in Green or Camo, he'll have a radio that works.

Bet on it.

-- Greybear (greybear@home.com), February 27, 1999.

Somebody had better start passing the hat in a hurry. The Motorola 800 frequency system has quite a long break-in period, never mind any Y2K problems. If they switch, by the way, get yourself a Uniden or Radio Shack TrunkTracker.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), February 27, 1999.

Dumb question of the day, Old Git: What's a Uniden or Radio Shack Trunk Tracker?

-- FM (vidprof@aol.com), February 27, 1999.

Loco:

Are you in Berrien County? I'm in Kalamazoo County, moving out of town soon. I have a small group I keep in loose touch with that are more or less local.

Set yourself up a yahoo or hotmail account and drop me a private line.

It is good to know your locals. I have some family GI in Berrien County.

-- Jon Williamson (pssomerville@sprintmail.com), February 27, 1999.

No, no, FM, not a dumb question--dumb of me not to be more specific. I was talking about police scanners!

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), February 27, 1999.

i'm in elkhart county, indiana. howdy neighbor. berrien county is in quadrant 4 of IMO skywarn, along with us. at least it will be the slow season for skywarn up here, small comfort.

-- jocelyne slough (jonslough@tln.net), March 01, 1999.

I'm in Berrien County, and am wondering if anyone has the freq. for Lincoln TWP. Police and the 5 County Sheriff sections. Thanks.

-- Robert T. (neon@i2k.com), August 16, 2004.