Great response, Snoboy! You're right on the money with your comments. When I went to our meeting with the CMC guys, I thought, "Here we go again. Another expensive piece of equipment," but it definitely is expensive--$650 each--but seems to be well worth it. They're sending us two CMC MPD devices in a week or so, so we can play around with them and get everyone's opinion on them. I like the analogy that the one CMC guy gave, "I teach the raise/lower system to sixteen guys and it takes me sixteen hours to get everyone qualified. In using the MPD, I've got everyone on the same level in 15-minutes." That's what blew me away; thus, when we get them and try them out with our team, I'll try and get back with any of our comments. We've done the 540...and we've done the Petzl piece of equipment, which is similar. Can't recall the initials for some reason.
We used it when working with the Rural Metro FD. I was not impressed, but one of the guys, who's the son of the FD chief, has been working over in France, so he was pushing it.
This MPD will have to be purchased for $1300, as our lead wants two of them for various reasons--the mirror system that we use and practice with, plus other ways of using the two devices. Time will tell, as requistion time is coming up for 2012.
Yesterday, we had our last day out on the point, overlooking the river, so hopefully we're all finished with filming the various SAR units for this PR video.