Large Farm Fire North of Wellington

[mpg0515]

There is a large fire just North of Wellington (I-25 exit 278). Pretty good listening for those up here in Northern Colorado. Unknown how it started at this time. Several large piles of grass and hay, some small buildings etc. up in flames.

Couple of PFA engines and tankers on scene as well as Livermore and most of Wellington FPD.

Listen on 158.880 and 154.340 fireground
155.565 Larimer Sheriff traffic control
TG 2455 CSP traffic control

 

[jimmnn]

Mike I am getting fireground on 154.100 also.

Thanks for the heads up.

Jim<

 

[RF-Intel]

Mike I am getting fireground on 154.100 also.
Jim<

Yeah, Wellington's 158.880 output is also the input to Aurora's 154.100 Civil Defense repeater... Aurora disabled tone squelch on the input so they would know when the interference was happening.

Seems like poor frequency coordination to me.

-Mark

 

[mpg0515]

Mike I am getting fireground on 154.100 also.

Thanks for the heads up.

Jim<

Thanks Jim, I forgot to add that on there. Yes, 154.100 is the town channel and for some reason the FD seem to use this freq too????

Sounds like things are starting to slow down, crews are asking cadets on scene for food and water. I posted this kind of late, they have been working this fire for about three to four hours now.

Just heard a crew getting ready to attack another fire that has caught on to a wood fence from the original fire. I will add to that it is extremely windy up here right now, upwards of 60mph

 

[mpg0515]

Yeah, Wellington's 158.880 output is also the input to Aurora's 154.100 Civil Defense repeater... Aurora disabled tone squelch on the input so they would know when the interference was happening.

Seems like poor frequency coordination to me.

-Mark

This is kind of funny, I never even noticed that. I had to hook up a beam to hear the repeater down there, but sure enough I could hear it 154.100 with a 131.8pl. Which is kind of ironic because Wellington is using 154.100 fireground with a pl of 156.7, I would have never even noticed the Aurora repeater because I have 156.7 in there.

And yes, I would say that this is some very poor frequency coordination.

 

[mpg0515]

Yeah, Wellington's 158.880 output is also the input to Aurora's 154.100 Civil Defense repeater... Aurora disabled tone squelch on the input so they would know when the interference was happening.

Seems like poor frequency coordination to me.

-Mark

Just thought I would add from the ULS FCC site Aurora is licensed for 158.880 however it is not tied to any repeater. My understanding is that the repeater pair has to be licensed under one callsign. This could be why this is happening. If Aurora just decide to use a couple of freqs they are licensed for and make a repeater, then it is there fault. 154.1 is also licensed by itself however it is shown as a repeater (FB2) for Aurora with no input to it.

Enough with the technical stuff, I still think that frequency coordination in Colorado is horrible.

 

[scanlist]

Can't really fault Aurora on this one considering the 154.100 Repeater 158.880 assignment has been in effect since the early 1970's when this was used as Aurora Police Channel 2 up until the summer of 1979 when the PD moved to a 4 channel UHF system.

The frequency pair was used by public works (when they were on VHF) to communicate with public safety dispatch until 1989 when public works moved to the 800 system. It's primary use was taken over by fire dispatch for signaling the citywide siren system which is it's current use.

The open squelch anything on 158.880 being repeated started shortly after the Motorola 800 system was taken off the air.

From way up here I have determined there is more than one repeater in operation in Aurora and can hear the collisions when they do the testing of the siren system. Tones from dispatch come from a different repeater site than the one retransmitting everything on 158.880.

I think someone screwed up.

Phil.

 

[scanlist]

If Aurora just decide to use a couple of freqs they are licensed for and make a repeater, then it is there fault.

Been this way for over 30 years.

Original callsign is KAO808.

Who doesn't remember the synthesized motorola voice ID aurora had on all their repeaters back in those days before all this trunking nonesense.

Phil.

 

[jimmnn]

Denver Rescue Missions Farm

Fire crews are battling a fire that has consumed the Denver Rescue Mission's farm in Wellington.

No one has been injured.

The farm is located at Larimer County Road 66 and Larimer County Road 7 just North of Wellington.

Jim<

 

[Thayne]

Thanks, Phil. That history is very interesting. About the only VHF I used to listen to back in the 70's was Denvers--and all I had was an old Air force surplus AM Receiver that I coaxed up to 159.21. I had to use the "Slope detection" method since it was AM but I thought it was cool. Then when everybody moved to UHF I finally got a scanner.

 

[mpg0515]

Been this way for over 30 years.

Original callsign is KAO808.

Phil.

Phil, thanks for the info, Wellington also has had the 158.88/153.77 pair for probably 20 years+. I still just can't believe that there isn't a better way to coordinate freqs around the state. 153.77 is also used in Laramie County, WY and as well as Boulder County. Considering the distance between Aurora and Wellington, this is probably why no one thought there would be any problems. But Wellington is pretty much a straight shot to most of Denver metro areas at 5201ft as well.

 

[mpg0515]

Just an update: Crews are still on scene (9:30pm) of the fire, still putting out hots spots. Looks like four major news companys on scene. I can't believe Wellington is in the news again for being such a small town.

 

[epbernstein]

There is a large fire just North of Wellington (I-25 exit 278). Pretty good listening for those up here in Northern Colorado. Unknown how it started at this time. Several large piles of grass and hay, some small buildings etc. up in flames.

Couple of PFA engines and tankers on scene as well as Livermore and most of Wellington FPD.

Listen on 158.880 and 154.340 fireground
155.565 Larimer Sheriff traffic control
TG 2455 CSP traffic control

Fire's origin seems to have been in a pile of--um--manure...