Question | Answer |
Base station | Any radio hardware containing a transmitter and receiver that is located in a fixed place. |
Cellular telephone | A low-power portable radio that communicates through an interconnected series of repeater stations called "cells" |
Channel | An assigned frequency or frequencies that are used to carry voice and/or data communications. |
Dedicated line | A special telephone line that is used for specific point-to-point communications; also known as a "hotline" |
Duplex | The ability to transmit and receive simultaneously. |
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) | The federal agency that has jurisdiction over interstate and international telephone and telegraph services and satellite communications, all of which may involve EMS activity. |
MED channels | VHF and UHF channels that FCC has designated exclusively for EMS use. |
Paging | The use of a radio signal and a voice or digital message that is transmitted to pagers ("beepers") or desktop monitor radios. |
Rapport | A trusting relationship that you build with your patient. |
Repeater | A special base station radio that receives messages and signals on one frequency and then automatically retransmits them on a second frequency. |
Scanner | A radio receiver that searches or "scans" across several frequencies until the message is completed; the process is then repeated. |
Simplex | Single-frequency radio; transmissions can occur in either direction but not simultaneously in both; when one party transmits, the other can only receive, and the party that is transmitting is unable to receive. |
Standing orders | Written documents, signed by the EMS systems medical director, that outline specific directions, permissions, and sometimes prohibitions regarding patient care; also called protocols. |
Telemetry | A process in which electronic signals are converted into coded, audible signals; these signals can then be transmitted by radio or telephone to a receiver at the hospital with a decoder. |
UHF (ultra-high frequency) | Radio frequencies between 300 and 3,000 MHz. |
VHF (very high frequency) | Radio frequencies between 30 and 300 MHz; the VHF spectrum is further divided into "high" and "low" bands. |