Essex County Fire Going Digital

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ve3hfq

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On an "all call announcement" Lakeshore Fire announced that they are or have switched over to their digital system. I assume this will be the same for those previous stations on the Passport System throughout Essex County.
Does anyone have any further information?
 

Forts

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I had heard a while back they were looking at MotoTRBO Connect Plus as an option. Do a search in the UHF band and see if any control channels turn up... I was told specifically to look in the 420's...
 

SCPD

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I had heard a while back they were looking at MotoTRBO Connect Plus as an option. Do a search in the UHF band and see if any control channels turn up... I was told specifically to look in the 420's...

Awhile back the Leamington fire and other city type people had TRBO radios with keypads on their hips so most likely they went that way perhaps even using the same frequencies as the old passport system.
 

Forts

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The XPR series portables (some of them at least) will do LTR trunking with an option board, so that may have been what they were using at the time with the option to upgrade to digital down the road. I've seen multiple fire departments that are using XPR6550's as a higher tier analog radio these days.
 

ve3hfq

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The "working frequencies" of the previously used Passport system (420 mhz) have now gone silent and a new control channel has been noted on 420.8125.
 

Forts

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Thanks for the update! Next thing we need is someone to run DMRDecode on 420.8125 and see what it has to say...
 

ve3zo

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They were using HT 1250 LS+ on the LTR Passport system.

And using CDM 1550 LS+ in the trucks



The XPR series portables (some of them at least) will do LTR trunking with an option board, so that may have been what they were using at the time with the option to upgrade to digital down the road. I've seen multiple fire departments that are using XPR6550's as a higher tier analog radio these days.
 

bosco836

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Anyone have any idea if this change over is isolated only to those dispatched by Windsor - or are the departments dispatched by LaSalle (i.e. Kingsville, Leamington, LaSalle) going to be migrating as well.

With LaSalle recently adopting NXDN for their police service, it seems strange that Fire would be moving to a TRBO based system.
 

tilt404

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I noticed one LaSalle Fire freq is no longer on RR under Essex County (159.2700) which was for LaSalle fire Dispatch. The other was 164.460 labeled as LaSalle Fire Ops. But now I hear LaSalle Fire Dispatch on the 164.460 with a 123.0 PL. The PL tone is missing from the listing on RR.

Also seems like the VHF 153.770 for Essex Fire and Rescue Service is no longer in use. I've only heard the UHF 469.9375 136.5 PL in use for the past few weeks as the dispatch for EFRS. All that I've mentioned here is analog not TRBO or digital.

I still hear Leamington and Kingsville on the old analog (listed on RR) frequencies also, so no changes there to follow the rest of Essex County yet.

Kingsville
159.27000 XJF355 BM 156.7 PL KFD Ch.1 Fire - Ch. 1 Dispatch
154.63500 XJF355 BM KFD TAC 3 Fire - Ch. 3 Operations

Leamington
154.01000 164.08500 VAZ760 RM 156.7 PL LFD TAC Fire - TAC
 
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bosco836

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I noticed one LaSalle Fire freq is no longer on RR under Essex County (159.2700) which was for LaSalle fire Dispatch. The other was 164.460 labeled as LaSalle Fire Ops. But now I hear LaSalle Fire Dispatch on the 164.460 with a 123.0 PL. The PL tone is missing from the listing on RR.

159.27 hasn't been LA Dispatch for some time. All dispatch and operations have been on 164.46 (123.0) for the past few years.
 

tilt404

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I just thought I would mention it since on RR still shows the 164.460 as Ops not Dispatch and is missing the tone of 123.0. So from what you said LaSalle just has the single frequency for Ops and Dispatch now?

The tone was on RR for 164.460 but not sure why that was removed also. Just trying to keep up with the changes.
 

bosco836

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I just thought I would mention it since on RR still shows the 164.460 as Ops not Dispatch and is missing the tone of 123.0. So from what you said LaSalle just has the single frequency for Ops and Dispatch now?

The tone was on RR for 164.460 but not sure why that was removed also. Just trying to keep up with the changes.

As far as I know, it is single frequency for the majority of calls-for-service. The use of a simplex frequency on the fireground is possible; however, I have not observed this being routine practice. As for the removal of the tone, I'm not sure what the case is there. It was (last I checked) 123.0.
 

tilt404

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Ok Thanks, I'll keep listening and see what I hear. I submitted the tone today so should be back up there soon. Its been a while since I monitored them due to the TRBO changes in the area.
 

tilt404

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I had been wondering why I no longer hear the VHF side of the EFRS dispatch and only the UHF for quite a while now. The VHF as listed for Essex on RR below:

153.77000 XJH397 BM 123.0 PL EFRS - Disp Fire and Rescue Service - Dispatch

Just for kicks I put the frequency in my scanner with no tone today and heard EFRS do a tone alert test for Amhurstburg so I guess they just removed the tone from this frequency in use. So looks like both are still active and I submitted the change. Just thought I would post in case someone had this VHF one in their scanner with the tone and wasn't hearing it.
 

bosco836

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I had been wondering why I no longer hear the VHF side of the EFRS dispatch and only the UHF for quite a while now. The VHF as listed for Essex on RR below:

153.77000 XJH397 BM 123.0 PL EFRS - Disp Fire and Rescue Service - Dispatch

Just for kicks I put the frequency in my scanner with no tone today and heard EFRS do a tone alert test for Amhurstburg so I guess they just removed the tone from this frequency in use. So looks like both are still active and I submitted the change. Just thought I would post in case someone had this VHF one in their scanner with the tone and wasn't hearing it.

Have you - or anyone for that matter - been able to confirm that the tone was completely remover - or was it just changed, perhaps?
 

tilt404

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I've been scanning still with the PL and that's why I never heard anything on it, but put it in today with no PL tone and then heard the same tone test as I do on the UHF frequency all the time. So you might want to try the same. I had my scanner on tone search and nothing came up. If it had a tone it would of shown on the display. Just my experience though, I could still be wrong.
 

bosco836

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I've been scanning still with the PL and that's why I never heard anything on it, but put it in today with no PL tone and then heard the same tone test as I do on the UHF frequency all the time. So you might want to try the same. I had my scanner on tone search and nothing came up. If it had a tone it would of shown on the display. Just my experience though, I could still be wrong.

Yeah. Sounds like they've for sure dropped any sort of PL tone then.

Many thanks! :)
 

tilt404

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Just heard it again on the 153.770 with no PL at the same time the UHF 469.9375 one was on with the PL. So heard them both in tandem like they were before.

There's 13 or so listed at Industry Canada in this area on that freq but they are all local town fire departments, all the ones it dispatches to. So at least its not shared at least this side of the border. So guess going no tone will be fine.
 
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