Okaloosa County Changes

[ki4wbn]

Yes, the new frequencies are only for tones, and is one way only. The transmitter is fed by fiber, and two way comms. are not permitted, so there is no transmit freq. The south fire VHF will continue to be silent, however, all of the agencies will continue to have them remain as a back up for SLERS, or mutual aid agencies coming in who do not have SLERS (which will likely be very seldom).

However, they have FINALLY agreed, as of Monday, to add a PL tone in to help with the interference issue on the south end. It's 186.2.


(looks like you got that in the database already)

[wise871]

FYI, Both new freqs are active tonight with a 186.2 tone. I also noticed that north fire still has 2 way com on old frequency but toneout is on new freq.

[ki4wbn]

Correct. The original VHF channels now narrowband will continue to carry radio traffic (mainly on the north end since south is SLERS). The north ends will remain that way for the foreseeable future due to SLERS coverage issues in the northwest part of the county.

Their main idea behind the new wideband paging only frequencies was to streamline things at dispatch (they no longer have to patch and unpatch things to tone out) and also they didn't have to worry about if equipment was going to work with the narrowband receive. Audio wise it wouldn't effect much, but some wideband only pagers (Minitor 4's and below...) sometimes (though rarely) have trouble decoding the tone frequencies due to the audio not being as "full" and coverage not being as strong with narrowbanded things.

[BamaScan]

KI4WBN, Heard tonight that you were moving to Texas. :-( Thanks for all the updates you gave us all here on RR. Now that you are moving any hope in getting some "private" frequencies for the area that are not published ?? You can send them to me by private email here on RR.

[ki4wbn]

Yes, I will be moving very soon, Jan 8th. I plan on continuing to provide any information I know, but I know once I move it'll be pretty limited for this area.

As for the private frequencies, there really aren't any in this area (and I'm not just saying that) to my knowledge, all of the frequencies listed in the database are up to date and correct. However, if there is anything you would like to know, just PM me, and I'll do my best to find out before I depart if I don't already know it off hand

[bravo14]

I see the story in the goss port paper the Ocean Wright F/D got new HYT Radios not sure what model but found this online.

WEAR ABC 3 :: Top Stories - Man donates money for Okaloosa Co. fire department to get new radios

[BamaScan]

The new Okaloosa County Fire Tac Channels that was posted today in the datatbase are they repeaters ?? I thouught that once Okaloosa Fire went to SLERS we would not be able to hear them.

[ki4wbn]

I sent the new fire tac channels in (effective as of Jan.1), and the Okaloosa CTAC channels. Wanted to make sure that was all there before I left, since I had the information

The only one that is a repeater is the Tac-1, which is basically the former Fire South Primary. Any on scene traffic will be either on the VTAC/8TAC frequencies or on the Okaloosa CTAC (stands for conventional tac) frequencies. Some agencies use the Okaloosa TAC channels (mainly on the south end), some use the VTAC (basically the DOF red, white and blue channels-and usually on the north end), some use the 8TAC (sometimes used for LZ), and some use the Okaloosa CTAC. There is no set 'rule' that dictates what they must use from the county, though sometimes the county will assign a Okaloosa TAC channel to them.

You will not be able to hear dispatch traffic though (after the initial tone out), as that is all done through SLERS, except the north side, where they have the two patched together.

[wise871]

Since were on the topic, does anyone know if Okaloosa is now using the pre banding or post banding 8TAC channels. It was a year ago that I heard Engine 51 talking to life flight on Mutual Aid Tac-1 (866.5125 - pre) when there was a accident on Highway 98 at the county line.

[wise871]

Just to add to the Okaloosa Fire confusion, I can still hear two way communication between dispatch and Florosa Station 5 on the old south dispatch/new Tac-1 channel 154.860 (186.2) and simulcast on the old florosa repeater / Tac-4 153.770 (186.2).

What a pain in the butt way to run a radio system. Everything is patched or rigged in some way to work because not everyone is on SLERS. Funny thing is I've seen the SLERS radios in the trucks. Maybe it's due to many of the FF being volunteers and they don't have enough radios to go around.

[ki4wbn]

Post rebranding, as of about April...

All of the south end truck and rigs have SLERS radios. Some of the north end doesn't, but most do. All departments have some SLERS portables, and the paid ones have a good enough supply, however some of the volunteer ones doesn't have enough SLERS portables to go around. To my knowledge Florosa is the only department in the south end that is in this situation. The north end has a shortage, plus coverage issues.

[wise871]

I knew you would know the answer. What are we going to do when you leave the area.

[treybell]

Okaloosa County Fire/ems just needs to go back to VHF as there Primary Dispatch operation and use the SLERS as backup or just dump SLERS all together i know thats not going to happen but i sure can dream. It was the good days when you could turn your VHF portable or mobile on and hear tones and two way traffic on the one channel and the five tac channels that was assigned for that call. What are we all going to do???

[ranger821]

Wish that would happen Treybell, but I think they will be staying there. Thank goodness the SO is still on the regular freq's. I do hear some traffic on the old fire freq's every once in a while. I been out of pocket for a long time. Been really busy with other stuff.

[treybell]

I know Florosa FD Sta 5 gets on VHF after they get tones but the only reason they do that from what i hear is because they dont have enough SLERS radios. KI4WBN How will this change work with the Minitor V pagers?

[ki4wbn]

Hey Trey...not sure what you are asking.
I know Florosa uses VHF due to lack of SLERS radios....
However, are you referring to when everything does switch over to SLERS, and how that will work with the Minitor V's?

[treybell]

ki4wbn, I'm sorry my fault. What i mean is what do we do when programming and useing the new Page freqs in a Minitor V pager? Since there is now a PL Tone for the new paging freqs and the minitor V dont allow you to use PL tones. Will the V's still work? I should already know this but theres still alot of learning to do for me when it comes to this communications stuff..

[ki4wbn]

Ah!
Yes, even without the PL tone programmed in, they will still work no problem.

The PL tone is basically another squelch method on the receive. On recieve, you have your RF squelch, and then in addition you have the PL squelch. It will only allow the audio to unsquelch if it matches that specific subaudable frequency, in this case 186.2.

If you don't have a PL option, then it'll just work as usual, with the RF squelch-which with the Minitors are auto-squelch.

Transmitting work a little different with PL tones, but the same basic concept, but since the new paging frequencies are receive only, I won't go into those details, unless you would like to.

[treybell]

Thanks Chayne, Do you or someone else happen to know the bandwidths that are available for the V's? I know Okaoosa is operating at the 25khz bandwidth for paging/tones so its not an Issue for Okaloosa. Can you narrowband the Min V's to 12.5 or lower? I'm wondering so if i ever move to another county or state i would beable to do so if there paging channels are narrowbanded.

[ki4wbn]

I don't know if there is a spec, however the V's are 12.5 narrowbandable. It's literally a check mark within the programming software.