John Lenihan, Battalion Chief Los Angeles County Fire Department, and NPSTC’s Interoperability Committee Chair writes: Mr. Schwartz begins his article “P25: Not a One-Size-Fits-All Technology” by taking an offended posture. An offense he assigns to “all public-safety communications managers.” As a firefighter who has been in operations since 1977, I think I’ve earned the right to have an opinion on this.

Mr. Schwartz starts by pointing out the problem of multiple radio bands being in use. I live that problem daily in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) and NXDN will not solve that without multiband subscriber units or patching. This may surprise Mr. Schwartz, but responders cannot rely on infrastructure. Patching is not always a solution in my area. Patching does not help responders who are split between in coverage and out of coverage. Read more of Chief’s Lenihan’s letter here:  http://mccmag.com/onlyonline.cfm?OnlyOnlineID=507