wire every room and open space with fire detectors link all detectors to a central dispatch office equip the dispatch office with 1 master drone that carrys 3 baby drones when alarm received - launch the master drone to the scene - view the situation - if required - break a window with a pebble - launch the 3 baby drones to go thru the window and each will drop one drop of water on the smoking lithium ion battery - return to base the craxy part is - we have 99.9% of this capability now - maybe (getting thru a kitchen door or bedroom door or bathroom door might be harder - but buckshot or tiny laser might do the trick - burn a tiny circle thru the top of a door and fly the baby drone right thru the hole - gonna need to put a cow catcher on the front of the mini drone)
Saturday, June 27, 2026
does nifc have a shortwave radio system?
if the phones and internet go down - does nifc have a shortwave (sw) radio system or sat phone system to coordinate with the GACCs and the local wildfire dispatch centers (tier 3 / layer 3 / level 3 ? whatever they call them) reportedly fema has a shortwave system to link the fema regions and the sate ems HQs to mount weather or dc or whoever we have never heard of the us military having a shortwave net to link their bases - but maybe they have the gear hidden somewhere on every base there are 6,000 counties in the usa iirc - wou;d be nice every county could talk to washington dc - or to their state capital do the hams have any hard capabilities in the shortwave bands - or is it just the 80yo hams that have sw gear? - geezers - pfffft - boomers - pfffft
fema daily headsUp for Sat June 27 2026
National Current Ops / Monitoring – June 26-27, 2026 New Significant Incidents / Ongoing Ops: • No new significant incidents / operations Hazard Monitoring: • Extreme Critical Fire Weather – Southwest, Central Great Basin, and Central Rockies • Severe Thunderstorms – Central / Northern Plains and Central Appalachians to Mid-Atlantic • Heavy Rain / Flash Flooding – Northern Plains, Middle Mississippi Valley, Tennessee Valley, and Central Appalachians • Tropical Activity ○ Atlantic: Disturbance 1: Low (20%) ○ Eastern and Central Pacific: Disturbance 1: Med (50%) ○ Western Pacific: Invest 95W (Low) Disaster Declaration Activity: • No new declaration activity Event Monitoring: • FIFA World Cup / America 250 ○ New York / New Jersey, NJ; Philadelphia, PA; Atlanta, GA; Miami, FL; Dallas, TX; Kansas City, MO (WC)
Friday, June 26, 2026
some boston fd historical info
from bfd special orders at the bfd history website March 5 1971 - HTs might not work in subways or subbasements - relay messages to dispatcher via District Chief car or use messengers May 11 1971 - E26 E7 L17 Dist 4 moved to new station at 200 Columbus Ave from 194 Broadway - Special Service Unit 1 moved to Engine 22 at 700 Tremont St May 20 1971 - all companies are supposed to reply to the 9 am daily radio test - see Section 28 of Radio Procedures Jan 10 1972 - Boston Ambulance Squad added 2nd ambulance - will be A18 and A19 - will respond to all calls with smoke showing in the Dorchester area March 29 1972 - follow radio rules May 2 1972 - Boston Gas Company has a new dry chemical truck at Commercial Point - maybe that is Victory Rd - 3000 pounds of dry chem and 2 hoselines - 250 foot range in calm air - needs FD or police escort to any incident - FAO has to call Boston Gas Company dispatcher to request the truck May 16 1972 - testing new 2 tone paging system on Ch 1 - disregard any tones heard Sept 1 1972 - Channel 3 is 153.83 at 3 watts - Ch 1 is 33.74 - Ch 2 is 153.89 - Ch 4 is 154.265 - radios in (?district chiefs cars?) should be kept on Ch 2 unless told to switch to Ch 4 - fire alarm will assign ch2 or ch 4 as FG channels when needed Nov 21 1972 - 911 starts in Boston - some calls in Brighton will go to Brookline dispatchers and then be forwarded to Boston - 911 callers in Boston will reach Boston PD - callers reporting a fire will be forwarded to BFD Dec 14 1972 - E48 L28 moved from 30 Winthrop St in Hyde Park to 60 Fairmont Ave 1973 - K3 car discontinued / false alarm car - mew SOP 7 for radio procedures Aug 23 1973 - WBZ AM causing some interference on BFD Ch 1 - send in any reports Oct 4 1973 - new radio call signs - A44 is Regan Ambulance - ??? Oct 9 1973 - must use cover for HT - never set HT down - never allow anyone to play on radio - lock vehicles when parked unattended Nov 7 1973 - procedures for backing up vehicles 1973 - EMT class - 83 hours 1973 - on inhaltor calls - turn patient over to BCH ambulance crew - they will follow their medical protocols
maxwell hid in manchester mass in 2019
fema daily headsUp for Fri June 26 2026
National Current Ops / Monitoring – June 25-26, 2026 New Significant Incidents / Ongoing Ops: • No new significant incidents / operations Hazard Monitoring: • Severe Thunderstorms – Northern Plains and Southern Plains to Ohio Valley • Extremely Critical Fire Weather – Southwest to Central Great Basin and Central Rockies • Excessive Rainfall / Flash Flooding – Southern Plains to the Central Appalachians • Tropical Activity: ○ Eastern Pacific: Disturbance 1: High (70%) ○ Western Pacific: Invest 95W (Low) Disaster Declaration Activity: • No new declaration activity Event Monitoring: • 2026 FIFA World Cup / America 250 ○ Boston, MA; Houston, TX; Seattle, WA; Toronto, CAN; Vancouver, CAN; Guadalajara, MEX (WC)
history of fire radio channels in boston mass area
we have probably covered this before - but lets write it up from memory one more time - (we confirmed some of the bfd dates) Boston FD - shortwave for fireboats and chiefs - around 1 Mhz - 1937 Boston FD - 37.74 for fireboats - 1940 Boston FD - changed from 37.74 to 33.74 - 1948 Boston FD - 153.89 for portable radios (HTs) - 1952 Boston FD - 154.265 for 2nd fireground (FG) channel - 1971 Boston FD - 4 channels at 483 mhz - 1982 approx - also 453.65 for station alerting maybe Boston FD - 700 / 800 - some usage maybe started around 2001 MetroFire - 154.22 for dispatchers - 1965 - some mobiles added in 1970s MetroFire - moved to UHF in 1980s other FDs started on shared channels or on police channels or on shared dpw channels shared fire channels - 153.95 - quincy + milton + dedham + needham - 154.13 - waltham + belmont - 154.34 - lexington + burlington + bedford + wilmington - 46.06 - stoneham + reading + wakefield + melrose + lynnfield + middleton - 154.37 - saugus + nahant + marblehead + swampscott lexington fd might have started on 158.82 with dpw winchester fd started on dpw channel at 45 mhz arlington fd started on 158.76 with pd and dpw - arlngton fd went to 460.60 R around 1972 cambridge fd started on 33.94 then 154.355 then ?uhf? then 800T somerville started on 33.86 and then went to uhf newton fd started on 33.82 and then went to uhf waltham fd went from 154.13 to 154.40 weston fd maybe went from 45.16 to 154.16 to 154.16R to uhf quincy fd went from 153.95 to 153.785 to uhf - (did they have 153.785 R at one time ?) milton fd and braintree fd shared 483.5125 for a few years brookline fd went from 33.78 to uhf and maybe had 460.625 for mo3 when on 33.78 in 1970s watertown fd went from 46 mhz to uhf wobrun fd went from 46.38 to uhf chelsea fd went from 154.325 to 154.325r to uhf - they had 153.83 HTs also winthrop fd was on 156.00 with dpw and then went to uhf revere fd was on 154.175 then 154.175 r then uhf everett fd was on 154.31 then 154.31R then uhf malden fd went from 154.25 to uhf - maybe they had 154.25 R at one time melrose fd went from 46.06 to ? 159.405 R ? saugus fd went from 154.37 to 159.765 R or similar then to uhf stoneham fd went from 46.06 to 460.625 R reading fd went from 46.06 to uhf wakefield fd went from 46.06 to uhf medford fd went from 46.20 to 153.89 to maybe 153.89R to uhf belmont fd went from 154.13 to uhf wellesley fd went from 46.10 to uhf weymouth fd went from 154.19 to 154.235 to maybe 154.235r to uhf milton fd went from 153.95 to 483.5125 r to ? 482.775 r ? dedham fd went from 153.95 to uhf needham fd went from 153.95 to 153.95 R to uhf all info is approximate more or less burlington fd went from 154.34 to uhf lexington fd went from 154.34 to maybe 154.34 R - yes with 150.805 as input iirc - then to uhf for a while 154.22 was patched to 483.3125R - sometimes Burlington County NJ and ? windham maine ? would be heard on 483.3125 r coming thru the patch saugus was on 154.37 with nahant and marblehead and swampscott - then saugus went to uhf was lynn fd ever on 154.37 ? lynn fd was on 154.415 then maybe 154.415 R then uhf braintree was on 46.14 then uhf hanscom afb fd was on 173.5875 then 166.225 r then 380T massport fd was on maybe 156.015 then maybe 453.55 then 800T ez8 at hanscom was on 155.82 with lincoln fd for many years - they had 1 daily radio check - maybe just for coord lincoln fd was on 155.82 then 154.145 then maybe 154.145 R then uhf ge fd in lynn was on 462.20 r iirc watertown arsenal fd was on maybe 165.0125 or close boston navy yard fd was maybe on 34.33 - wild guess - some lowband channel in the federal band maybe - maybe late 1960s to early 1970s weymouth Naval Air Station FD was on 140.10 iirc state forestry was on 31 mhz then a 159 mhz repeeter then 151 mhz then state trs boston medflight (medevac helos) was maybe on 155.16 then maybe 155.235 then 460.80 then 461.45 recently - circa 2020 to 2026 - many FDs are adding 2ndary channels on UHF