Thursday, September 30, 2010

Atta Boy Award!

Every minute of every day we are bombarded with negative news from the media.  That’s a shame, because there is so much good news that can be shared. For example, let us introduce you to Allen Treadaway, Junior Alabama State Representative for District 51, and our nominee for an Atta boy award.  As a past president of the Birmingham Fraternal Order of Police, he is well aware of the needs of rural community first responders.

All Alabama state representatives receive discretionary allowances each year for distribution in the districts they serve. All too often, this money goes to special interest groups with voting clout.  Allen didn’t hold true to form.  He reached out to the volunteer fire community and offered financial assistance to those who could demonstrate a specific need to make their communities safer, both for the citizens and those who serve those citizens.

As always, only a few responded.  We were delighted to assist two departments who were successful in obtaining grants.  Our services, and those of Representative Treadaway and his staff, were provided at no cost.  Those who participated included the Cane Creek and Palmerdale VFDs. Cane Creek received a grant for some much needed fire fighter radios and Palmerdale received a grant for public assistance wireless call boxes at their fire stations and a wireless power failure notification system at their repeater site.

Thank you Representative Treadaway for helping those who help others, and thank you Cane Creek and Palmerdale for allowing us to help you!

And you know what?  Opportunities for year round grant money are still available and we are still here to help you get your share.  Click here for more information.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Crows in the field, deers in the woods, somebody’s done come, and stole all the goods…

Many of our readers know that our business is built on a foundation of service to others, not beating the other guy, not getting the Atta boy awards, and sometimes just doing what has to be done to take care of our customers, even if it means conflict with others.

We are well known for endeavors in assisting those we serve by finding grant money and helping develop cooperative programs, creative ideas, and service beyond the ordinary. The single objective is to help those who can most benefit through combined effort. It's called the Together Everyone Achieves More (TEAM) program.

We occasionally speak in parables, parodies, or prose (such as the poem above). Sometimes the parables tell a story (such as the one that follows), and occasionally we will use a musical selection to make a point. The purpose is always the same – to better communicate with those we serve, sometimes to share information, sometimes to encourage, sometimes to invoke creative thought and sometimes to reflect on the concept of mutual respect for the betterment of all. The following is about mutual respect.

Over a year ago, we introduced the idea to a group of volunteer fire departments in a rural Alabama county to come together for the purpose of improving communications in their communities. We explained the concept of a regional communications grant, got them organized, and set them up with a professional grant writer who offered to help them for little cost (It worked out to $125 per participating department). In return, they were rewarded with a quarter million dollar grant. We all understand the concept of quid pro quo. At least we thought we did. This group did not. Instead of working together with the one who made it all possible, they chose to consider us as just another bidder. Our response to them might better explain what business (and life) is all about. Here is an excerpt of this response. We should preface this by noting that the point of contact is involved in large farming activities and is the fire chief of a small volunteer fire department.

As a farmer, you know the process of preparing, planting, caring, and reaping with the anticipation that your efforts will be rewarded if this is in accord with the will of your Creator. He doesn’t owe you a crop but if the crop comes in, it is your crop. There may be others who didn’t plant a crop or those whose crop didn’t come in. That is unfortunate, but the fact remains that it is your crop.

Business is like that. We have gone through steps one through three and I now learn that another dealer has been given the opportunity to submit “a price”. He didn’t prepare, didn’t plant, and was not involved in the process of taking care of the details. Should he get the crop, or in this case, the business?

We understand that a highly publicized grant of the size awarded to your department would gain the attention of other dealers. We understand past relationships with local area or existing service providers. We understand brand preference and even personal likes and dislikes. We also understand people who didn’t plant a crop would take yours if they could. You now have the opportunity to give my crop away because we am simply  tenant farmers– not an owner. Like your Creator, you owe us nothing, but it may just be that treating us fairly could be of benefit to you and the others concerned.

In farming, you define not only what you are going to plant, but the specific type of seed to be planted. In business, we call this defining specifications. Without standards and specifications, we don’t know what we will get. All corn is not the same. All radios are not the same. You have to define a specification. To accept a price from another dealer without a defined specification is inviting disaster. That is why I made the effort to produce a twenty page document to explain your options, the theory of operation, the cost, and the intended result.That is a whole lot more than “a price”.

By following the previously provided product specifications , you can be assured that you will be acquiring equipment capable of meeting your requirements. You will know that the prospective vendor has experience in providing systems of this type, and you will know that you are getting top of the line equipment at prices that are in line with your grant limits.

Now, we have a question for you dear reader. If YOU had been the one who made the decision not to respect the efforts of the ones who helped you and YOU had received the aforementioned letter, what would YOU do?

That’s what business and personal ethics is all about – MUTUAL respect. That is the way we do business, and the way we will continue to conduct business and personal relationships for as long as our Creator allows us to continue to serve.

And what happened with the farmer/fire chief you may ask? It’s not important. What IS important is that we all do our best to live our lives in love and service to others. Sometimes, it is a very easy thing to do. Sometimes, not……..

The slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting; But the substance of a diligent man is precious.              Proverbs 12: 27

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

It's All FREE!

What would you say if we told you that you could have a FREE Wireless Intercom System for your fire truck, ambulance, or for on-scene use?  How about a FREE portable In-Building Repeater for use inside large buildings such as hospitals, large retail stores such as Wal-Mart, schools and industrial plants?  How about a FREE Wireless Alarm Notification System for your fire station, municipal building, or other location where instant fire and intrusion alerting would be beneficial?

So what's the catch? The explanation is that there is 100% grant money available to purchase equipment that allows fire and rescue agencies to do their job a little better.  We know where the money is available.  We know how to write a winning grant application and we have the equipment available to meet your needs.

We will write a grant for your choice of a Wireless Intercom System (Click here for more information), an In-Building Repeater system (Click here for more information) or a free Wireless Alarm Notification System (Click here for more information).  We charge one-hundred dollars for our services with a 100% money back guarantee.  You get your grant, or we refund your money - GUARANTEED!  If you do get your grant approved, we will double your investment with a TWO HUNDRED DOLLAR CREDIT toward the purchase of your equipment!

You can apply for a single product, a couple of products, or all three products.  The refundable fee is the same.  So what do you have to lose? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

Want to make this a little more interesting?  What if we offered you a field programmable DUAL BAND portable radio complete with a speaker microphone and a PC programming kit at our regular low price of just $297?  And then, what if we gave you the programming kit and speaker-microphone FREE?  That's a $98 savings!  This means your net investment in our grant participation is JUST TWO DOLLARS!  (Click here for more information on the Dual Band Radio).

Want to get in the game?  Just give us a call at 205.854.2611 or email us, TODAY!

Monday, September 6, 2010

Interoperability Made Simple

The Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) recently requested proposals for upgrading the Alabama Hospital Emergency Radio (H.E.A.R.) network.  Our proposal could be a model for advanced interoperable communications at the municipal, county, regional, or statewide level.  Although this proposal deals only with hospitals, it can easily be adapted to a localized or wide area interoperable plan to coordinate EMA, EMS, Fire, Law Enforcement, School, Transportation, and Utility communications.

The H.E.A.R. system (also known as EACOM in Mississippi, and WISPERN in Wisconsin) was conceived in the late 1960’s and implemented in the early 1970’s.  These systems evolved from a need for improved ambulance-to-hospital and hospital-to-hospital communication to speed up patient transport to a trauma center most capable of addressing critical care needs.  Two VHF frequencies were used (151.280 MHz for hospital-to-hospital communications and 155.340 for ambulance-to-hospital communications.  A network was established combining Continuous Tone Coded Squelch system (CTCSS) and Interrupted Pulse Dialing (IPD) to allowing selective calling to an individual hospital, transport vehicle, personal 2-way radio, or user group.

The need for networking emergency communications is well known at the highest levels of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).  As a result, DHS has established guidelines for the establishment of emergency networks similar to H.E.A.R., but also inclusive to other first responders.  The current guidelines call for a standardized communications network known as APCO-25, or just simply P25.  This new standard addresses the need for narrow band capability (unknown in 1970), common technical operating standards that can communicate with current 2-way radios in an analog operating mode, as well as an open standard digital mode for enhanced capabilities.

We felt P25 was the ideal upgrade to bring the H.E.A.R. system into compliance with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulatory standards while simultaneously meeting the guidelines of the Federal SAFECOM standard (used by DHS) as well as the State Communications Interoperability Plan (SCIP) approved in most states.  By continuing operations on the VHF band, the hospitals will maintain frequency compatibility with the majority of EMA, EMS, Fire, Law Enforcement, School, Transportation, and Utility communications both in rural and urban areas.  Low cost devices are available to “bridge” VHF with either UHF or 800 MHz systems used in larger metropolitan areas.

P25 will provide enhanced selective signaling without the need for additional equipment added to mobile or portable radios operated by private ambulance services or 2-way radios used by volunteer rescue departments.  P25 supports a high level of encryption in both analog and digital operating modes for addressing HIPAA requirements.  In short, P25 is the ideal technology to address emergency medical communications as well as interoperability with other first responder and support agencies.  Additional information on P25 is available at www.info4u.us/P25Guide.pdf.

Best of all, today’s technology allows the integration of computers and 2-way radios through the power of broadband networking including cable, fiber, the Internet, and wireless broadband. The use of IP addressable base station radios allows every radio on the system to be connected to any other IP connected base station anywhere in the world!  In addition, any Internet connected PC can talk to any mobile or portable radio connected to any base station in the network!  And if that wasn’t enough, these new generation base stations allow remote diagnostics and programming.  If service is required, the faulty module can be diagnosed and replaced without the need of a technician!

You can review our proposal to ADPH for an update to the H.E.A.R. system by going to www.info4u.us/ADPH090310.pdf. Check it out.  We think you will find it to be of interest.  Then give us a call at 205.854.2611 or email AtYourService@falcondirect.com for an assist with YOUR communications interoperability planning.  You’ll be glad you did!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Alerting Solutions!



We received a call the other day.......

from a fire communications officer asking if we had a fixed monitor station for use in a fire station.  As it turns out, that was only part of the question. This caller also wanted to hook up the receiver to a PA system so the calls could be heard throughout the station.  And, if that wasn't enough, the question came up as to whether the monitor station could acknowledge calls.  Suddenly, things were getting complicated. Fortunately, we have a solution for virtually any fixed monitor station requirement - hopefully one of these solutions will be of benefit to YOU!

Simple Solution -  The 2TR9 fixed monitor receiver shown at the top of the photo on the left is in use all over the USA.  Available for use on VHF or UHF operation, the 2TR9 is compatible with virtually all 2-tone paging codes and is affordably priced at just $310.  A wide variety of options including an external relay for controlling door switches, lights, or sirens is available as well as battery backup and CTCSS decode.  Additional information is available by clicking here.

Exotic Solution – For only $35 more, you can get a fixed station monitor that TALKS BACK!  The incredible Patriot base station an even send paging tones and scan up to 10 channels with your choice of VHF or UHF.  That’s it shown on the lower right hand side of the above left photo.  This incredible mini-base station can even be programmed to automatically acknowledge page calls and an optional external audio output jack allows connection to most PA system amplifiers. More information is available by clicking here

Ultimate Solution – The Loudmouth LM is a combination page alert receiver, relay controller and PA system all built into a simple and affordable alerting solution that is ideal for use in any situation where large groups of people need to be alerted.  The Loudmouth LM works equally well in a fire station, on an athletic field, on golf courses, manufacturing plants, and the list goes on.  Priced at just $698, this may be the right solution for YOU! Additional information is available by clicking here.

Got a question or ready to order?  Just give us a call at 205.854.2611 or email sales@falcondirect.com.  We await your call!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Grants-Grants-Grants, and unique things that qualify!


Hardly a day goes by that someone doesn't call to ask about grants.  Let's face it.  Every government agency and volunteer organization vitally depends on grant money.  That much we know.  What many of us don't know is where to find non-traditional grants or for that matter what to apply for and how to write a successful narrative.

As most of our readers know, vendors are precluded from assisting in the preparation of FEMA Fire Grants (other than providing budgetary pricing information and product literature).  That restriction does NOT apply in the case of corporate endowments such as the programs extended by Firehouse Subs, Georgia Pacific, State Farm Insurance, and Walgreens (among others).

In our September eNewsletter (www.falcondirect.com/newsletter/september), we cover the specifics of one opportunity.  What we did not cover were the specifics of a simple, efficient, and affordable in-building communications range extender that is of particular benefit for firefighters working in office buildings, schools, hospitals, large stores, plants and warehouses.

The price of this device falls within the limits of most corporate grants and the benefits extend to all parties concerned.  It's called the I-Box2.  If you would like to know more about this unique device, give us a call at 205.854.2611 or email us - ibox2@falcondirect.com.  

If you would like to know more about available grant opportunities, check out www.homeland1.com/homeland-security-grants/grants.  Another good site for information on government grants is www.grantsoffice.info.  Check them out -  You'll be glad you did!