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CATHERINE E. SHOICHETOldsmar's 16-year-old system will give way to lighter, more compact radios with greater technological range.
OLDSMAR - An $83,068 grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will allow the city's fire department to replace its 16-year-old radio system.
Oldsmar Fire Rescue has used the same radios since 1988, Chief Scott McGuff said.
"Some of the old portable radios that we still have in service, we can't get parts for them anymore," he said.
But by December, McGuff hopes to use the grant money to buy seven new mobile radios, 10 new portable radios and other communication equipment.
The department also plans to use some of the grant money to buy two portable radios that will allow firefighters and rescue workers to communicate with Hillsborough County firefighters, McGuff said.
"It will give us as much communication capability in our rigs as we can possibly have," he said.
When the countywide emergency communications system was created, McGuff said, the Motorola radios distributed throughout the county were state-of-the-art.
Over the years, however, they've been mostly phased out.
Of the 8,500 radios currently used by Pinellas County fire rescue departments, about 300 are the original models purchased in 1988, said Pam Montanari, the county's radio systems manager.
Officials now refer to the Motorola STX - the portable radios distributed throughout the county in 1988 - as "the brick," she said, due to its weight and size.
The new radios are lighter and more compact, she said, and have more technological capabilities.
In Oldsmar, the older portable radio models will be replaced with the Motorola XTS5000, each of which costs about $3,900, Montanari said. The new mobile radios will cost about $4,100 each, she said.
Oldsmar Fire Rescue originally requested money for new radios from the Legislature in 2003, but the money was cut from the state's budget.
Last year, Montanari said, Tarpon Springs and Palm Harbor used grant money to replace their radios.
-- Catherine E. Shoichet can be reached at 727 771-4303 or cshoichet@sptimes.com