More of my constables are using earpieces purchased from various private equipment providers for the new Airwaves communications system. This is because you can’t hear transmissions through the issue earpiece in a crowded or noisy environment. This is because the volume is fixed too low. This is because H & S are concerned that our hearing will be damaged (and the Chief will be sued). Personally, I’m more concerned that my face will be damaged when I can’t hear what’s going on and walk into a situation, or I can’t hear an Assistance shout. Or the fact that a motorway fast-lane is not clear yet etc The other option is not to use an earpiece. This means that anyone around you can hear our transmissions, which can be equally dangerous. Who on earth tested this kit before it was purchased? And under what conditions? They are swine and deserve to be “named & shamed”.
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Like most of our NHS equipment, it will have been tested in a ‘controlled enviroment’, in other words some unrealistic situation that a think tank came up with, with little thought to practical applications.
Pity your PC’s can’t claim back the money.
“Was the test conducted on a real situation?”
“Of course,” says think tank. “I saw it on the Bill”.
Not just the earpieces the whole radio system is a shambles. God knows how much money they have spent on a new and unreliable system. You are supposed to be able to use the new sets to make phone calls and use a point to point facility only to find its completely useless if the channel is busy. Far to many people get involved in developing this stuff who havent got any idea how it will work on the ground. Its difficult to be friendly, approachable and interested when your kit doesnt work and your boots leak!
and the earpeices look like something out of star trek!
In the NHS and the ambulance service in particular:
They buy them coz they’re cheap.
They’re probably designed by engineers who spend their days staring at a computer.
Manufactured by some ‘dodgy’ outfit in the Far East.
Tested by some officer type who has don’t a ‘real’ job for donkeys’ years. Usually tried out in the training centre and on a quiet Monday out on the road.
The purchasing department are offered a choice of 3 different models and will always go for the cheapest option which, to use a current phrase is “not fit for purpose”
Heaven forbid that kit should be tried out by us bods on the frontline – it wouldn’t last the shift!.
Pillocks. I think I am on my fourth earpiece this year. One of them the microphone didnt work on it so I had to unplug the ear piece to transmit. Damn I am glad I didnt have to shout out for urgent assistance
The radios are useless, our old ones allowed those on the ground to cut in over the sensless warblings of the control room, now we have to wait for them to finish talking rubbish before we can transmit and then get cut off mid transmission when they tell you to pass your message. And your right the headset provided is absolutely rubbish.
I don’t find the radios that bad. Using the Motorala MTH800 BTW. Ok so it can be a pain to point to point someone when it’s busy. Yeah phoning people is great, shame they don’t roll it out to everyone. The ear piece is ok, a little uncomfortable after a full shift. I’ve had more problems with the radio and the connection to the ear piece than the ear piece itself.
As for getting air time, if you need it, you can still request an urgent transmit, which should alert the control room. Mind you I never used the old radios, so I don’t really have a baseline with which to compare.
I think this blog should be made compulsory bedtime reading for John Reid. Instead of him getting sanitised information, he will get the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth!!
There are without doubt problems with airwave and the some of the earpieces supplied.
When they were first issued we never had any earpieces given to us and most of us bought our own, the ones with a small transmit button, mine lasted about 6 months before breaking.
The ones we were later issued were ok, you could hear what was being said no problem. The ones they are issuing now are rubbish and you can barely hear anything through it.
The thing I hate about airwave is not being able to stop the control room in their tracks when they start blabbing, all you want to do is tell them you cant do what they want you to do because they have already doing what they asked you to do 5 minutes before.
And another thing is when the bloody thing just bleeps constantly when you try to answer a point to point of just transmit normally, then it just freezes completely.
On the plus side transmissions are encrypted. On the minus side the sound quality is now good enough that if you don’t wear an earpiece everyone within 50 feet hears the broadcasts.
One advantage of the old analogue radios with inferior sound quality was that as your ear needed to tune in to the sound to a cetaimn extent other people seemed to be unable to understand much of the radio traffic.
Ive used both and find that the quality of the transmissions on the airwaves are much better, but thats only when it works and if you stuck in a blackspot then just give up cos you aint sending anything to anyone. We had to fit supersize arials to ours. I cant hear the damn thing if I havent got the ear piece in as you cant turn it up to anything more than slighty audible. The ear pieces we got are ok but dont hold up to the rigours of modern policing.
The old radios were terrible and I hope we never go back to them. I hope though that they can look at some of the problems with airwaves and look at rectufying them.
Ahhh… this sounds just like NHS kit too!!
What is it with government equipment that the “pilot” sites seem to roll over and accept the dross thrown at them… or is it that they are fantastically supported by the manufacturers till it is accepted?!
for all airwaves faults i do think the sets are better than the old ones…mind you the old ones were good for being able to double up as second truncheon…weighed a bloody ton!
As a ‘civillian scum’ (As some officers feel we are, I know it’ll never change, but i’m try not to be an arse to officers) radio allocater I absolutely love (I am a bit of a geek which could contribute to it) the Airwave system compared to the old one which was quite frankly on its last legs and a load of old shite.
Earpieces ain’t ever gonna solve everything, I’ve seen officers take it out to speak with members of the public (and don’t unplug it to hear out the speaker) – Er…Is’nt this even worse?
If you are ever want to cut us off, just reach for status 14 (Urgent Call back) which makes our desk flash orange and a warble tone and unless dead or deaf we will hear – and make us (or at least me) shut up
In dire emergencies obviously go for red, this makes the desk flash red yellow and black, warning siren goes off which even if dead or deaf could wake you up.
For technical (read impossible) reasons you can’t point-to-point someone on your talkgroup (and if the recipient is also on yours) if there is a group call in progress, even if you press the red button which should end the group call (ie the recipient is still on the group call and can’t be taken off it [unless an emergency call goes in])
However if the other party is on another talkgroup feel free to end us pesky civvies conversation by hitting the end call button and talk away!
Those tones (the channel open/close ones) drive me up the wall though, you have my sympathies for listening to them for 8/10hrs at a time, do my fruit in!
The whole not being able to cut in over the operator talking thing is a real pain and, frankly, is going to prove to be dangerous in the long run.
Tonight we have had a hectic night involving a number of chases. On every single occasions the officer chasing was unable to put out across the airwaves where they were to let other officers know where to go, as the control room were busy asking for the officers shoulder number and other questions that could wait. Which is really more important? I know they could use their amber buttons to cut in, but we tend to save them for when we really need help, not for a chase. It would be so much better if we could cut over them or if they would leave the airwaves free for us until we are in a position to answer their questions.
On this, for any operators out there, why the desperate rush to know the officer chasing’s shoulder number? Can this not wait?
Re the point to point “cutting out” problem – In Sussex where I work we found that instead of dialling the ISSI if we input 70 and the last 5 of the ISSI it would not get cut off when the controllers used the talkgroup.
The 70 part may be different in other forces but maybe worth a try?
Also you will find if the talkgroup is busy it will come back with an engaged tone but once you get through, no cut off.
As a controller I put some feedback to our IT re the system, even saying it had too many bells on and whistles that the Officers and support staff would never use. I never got a reply.
When I raised the “cut off” problem the reply was “thats how the system works” Great!
As yet I’ve not quite got my head round the fact that the system was imposed on us by HMG who then allowed the providers to charge for its usage. Already have been told certain force wide talkgroups cant be used because they cost too much. Uggh.
Yes I’ve cut off Officers in mid speech, but honest Gov, did’nt mean too. Sorry it you’ve been a victim.
Re Inner London PC…I suspect the reason that they wanted that would so that a ‘Emergency Incident’ on CAD can be created, this is a log which is created for chases/back up shouts as it is an easy way of getting a log on and writing it down which some dispatchers feel the need to do. All the log will say is ‘Emergency Incident Created’, Unknown Location, AK02 PC Bloggs, AK02 Arrived At Incident – None of this goes on the system until the collar number/call sign is enetered and can be a ballache if booked on under different callsign/collar number. Certainly this is in my force and imagine the met is the same or similar.
Although all radios are allocated to an officer and the Radio ID containing collar number should display on whichever radio system in use which should be easy to read…Myself i’m more concerned in the short term of actually dealing with the problem in my head and can worry about the computer log a bit later.
Somewheresouth…70 would’nt happen to be the FULL ISSI number for your force would it?, like West Mercia is 20xxxxx, Staffs 21xxxxx – I’d be interested if it was as there might be some sort of priority on the system thinking you are trying to contact someone out of force? I’m intrigued…
I also apologise for cutting people off mid-flow its usually officers who sound like they have stopped talking but stopped for a breath and i’m too eager and quick for myself…
What we need is stricter radio discipline and a break every 10secs or so to allow for any urgent traffic. All Officers who are ex-army will know about this. With the old radios we got used to chatting knowing that you could cut in if you needed to. Now we have to wait until whoever talking finishes. This means you won’t be able to rabbit on for ages.
Instead of criticising control-rooms ad nauseum why don’t people VISIT their control-rooms and speak to the staff there about their perceived problems and what can be done to rectify them?
badnamechoice,
No the ISSI’s normal start with 34 so if I want to speak to an officer who’s ISSI is 3412345 I’ll dial 7012345 for him/her.
re the cutting off of officer’s yes its quite often when you think they have said all or you have all the info you feel is needed that you can cut them off, although sometimes I will do it to shut them up so I get get the next high priority incident covered or to allow another officer to speak that I know is likely to be urgent etc
Somewheresouth
How many people have accidently pushed the red button when trying to read the screen and change channels or swap to an admin channel to pnc vehicles/persons.
We ask for the collar number as if you’ve called in that you’ve landed at the job, we know exactly where you are, and if we don’t know who is doing the chasing, how do we ask for descriptions, direction of travel etc? And speaking as a bobby who spent 6 years on response before being nobbled for 3 years in an ops centre, and has been involved in footchases from both ends of the radio, by all means hit the orange button on a footchase, it gives you 15 seconds or so to pass everything you need when everyone else knows to shut the f*ck up and listen before they shout to put their collar numbers on the log, if they don’t know where you are and what direction you are going in etc, how can they help you?
Badnamechoice and Innerlondon pc re your post about asking for collar numbers, the Met CAD system doesnt need much to start a log, it doesnt need a callsign or collar number so that cant be why the operators are so insistent on getting them straight away. I can only suggest that a lot of the ops are inexperienced and there are too many supervisors telling them what to do who dont seem to know that much either. Of course collar numbers are needed but routing the CAD and getting units running is surely the most important thing.
I thought collar numbers are show on the screen, when you transmit!
pcsouthwest it seems your force is using a more advanced system than the Met if it shows the collar number on screen when someone transmits. I get the ISSI number but thats not always associated with a callsign/collar number, it would make life easier if that was the case
In my force, the operator gets the collar number, name and vehicle index if they are in a in a vehicle. We also do “abient listening” when the red button goes off but the officer cannot transmit becuase they are fighting etc they will also GPS your position. They do all of this if the red button is pushed and they can’t get any sense from you after that. To do the ambient listening, they need Supt authority, which is automatic if the red button goes off. Oh my gosh, we actually have something good in our force!!!
In my force we get the callsign and/or warrant number on screen however that relies on the officer having booked on duty and also “registered” their airwave set. Quite a lot don’t (too difficult light or too lazy light in many cases).
If he/she hasnt registered then all we get the payroll number of the person the set has been issued too, unless its a replacement radio. Why payroll number, god only knows, most of us know the warrant numbers of the officers on section but with payroll numbers we have to interogate another system to check who it is.
If you have something good in your force boss it has to be offset by at least two bad things. We to have the system that you mention, although I am not sure about the GPS on the handset yet.
Plenty of crap things exist though.
i agree totally….Airwave was so hyped up before its launch, etc etc and yet, half of my Met borough falls into a “blackspot” (something to do with a pirate radio transmitter interefering with our transmissions) and it’s got so bad that you could be calling up for urgent assistance and the control room are thinking you’re going for refs!! It’s dangerous….and someone is going to get really hurt before anyone does anything about it……plus…..now we don’t have local control rooms, you waste most of your time trying to explain simple geographics to a (not local) controller beforw you get anywhere…..oh dear…..it’s a question of wait and see…..who gets hurt/what happens before something gets done!
With my force using the 70 code mentioned above means you end up in a telephone call with the other person rather than point to point.
Moose is right I think. People are seeking a technical solution to a procedural problem. A break in a long transmission to facilitate anyone needing to cut in should be part of good radio discipline
roger so far?
works for me. In regard to mic and volume, from what I’ve seen on TV you have your earpiece plugged direct into your radio. We use a big square mic box into which the earpiece goes. Earpieces are mandatory at all times for security. Volume for me most of the time is fine.
I do find the issue earpiece a bit uncomfortable – if anyone has a link to a replacement they’d recommend I’d appreciate it.
As a former soldier, I can assure you that you aren’t alone at all in the crappy procurement stakes, if that’s any consolation!
It seems to me that many of the problems suffered in the Met come down to trying to do too much at the same time. At Hammersmith we are trying to come to terms with the changes (I’m reluctant to use the phrase ‘benefits’) that Metcall brings whilst simultaneously trying to work out how to use the radios to the best advantage. A staggered change would have been much less painful
Yes there are many areas of poor or no reception, but we all to often fail to report them to engineers for rectification. PR procedure is generally poor in both directions and just as us Officers are frusrated at the Control Room cut ins, as a CAD operator I was equally frustrated when cut over by officers on the street.
Yes there are some huge issues to address but most of them are within our control. The one issue I have got a major problem with is the O2 service agreement of providing 99% coverage at 1.5 metres high in the open air…..not going to be much use to me when I am rolling around on the floor in The Broadway Centre and trying to call for urgent assistance. I just can’t get my head around the fact that they can make my mobile phone work almost anywhere and in the areas where my PR doesn’t! However thought that this was acceptable has obviously been removed from the front line for a very long time.