Ottawa MOH PTAC is alive

[DaveH]

I heard MOH activity last night on PTAC (149.605 repeater) which indicates as
I previously thought (having heard it keyed up once in a while), it is alive and well.
Also heard was dispatching on PCOM 150.100. So, leave these in your scanners.

Looks like MNR parks which are using PTAC frequency pair for analog/P25 operations
won't be doing so near Ottawa.

On the last topic has any new P25 activity been heard on the new MNR high-band
which include 149.620 and 148.450 ?

Dave

 

[IdleMonitor]

What is the new MNR high band? Please elaborate.
And there's always activity on PCOM 150.1 it's where Ornge hangs out.

 

[DaveH]

PCOM was dispatching within the city of Ottawa, a bit unusual; I know about
air ambulance being there regularly. Unknown if there was any 800MHz EDACS
activity at the time (EMS1-8). Must have been a Fleetnet problem, or scheduled
maintenance.

MNR has been transitioning away from lowband for the past while, for
parks. There is a thread about it here, some time back. They use 3 repeater
pairs, sometimes analog but also P25. Check TAFL for 149.605, 148.450
and 149.620 and their paired frequencies. At least now they are on the same
band as Fleetnet and in theory should be able to inter-operate with other MNR
operations, without crossband repeaters etc.

Dave

 

[IdleMonitor]

There was mention of Kinburn being down last night so that may have something to do with PCOM/PTAC.

 

[exkalibur]

Curious...

There is (was) still a PTAC repeater on the air in Niagara that I've heard the odd (very rare) transmission on.

I'm surprised they don't throw MNR folk onto Fleetnet and call it a day.

 

[mikewazowski]

PTAC was left in place but BMR would not support or maintain it for the MOH. I suspect what you're hearing is a repeater that is still going and hasn't died yet.

MNR in this area went to UHF. No sign of any of the other parks going to VHF or UHF.

Still having lots of lowband activity.

 

[exkalibur]

Interesting. Howcome they wouldn't support it I wonder? Seems like it'd be a good backup for when Fleetnet is down for maintenance and what not.

 

[DaveH]

Curious...

I'm surprised they don't throw MNR folk onto Fleetnet and call it a day.

Not sure why you would think MNR parks need to be on Fleetnet. Localized
fixed sites like this don't need to add more load to an essentially mobile
network; might have to add frequencies, alter coverage areas etc.

Fleetnet is not meant for HH coverage so they would probably end up with
a crossband (UHF) arrangement. Besides that UHF is not great in wooded
areas, why bother? Looks like what they have should work, and they don't
have to bother with BMR charges, admin, etc.

Likely (hopefully) MNR looked at this and concluded that Fleetnet would
not be the right solution. Does not mean they can't interoperate on
conventional.

MOC has their own site systems but can use Fleetnet when necessary,
a good model.

BTW a question for the "real radio" people: can a Fleetnet radio (Astro25)
talk to a pure P25 radio (MNR's) in P25 mode?

Dave

 

[exkalibur]

Yes, they can. P25 has a Common Air Interface such that as long as a radio is equipped for P25 Conventional, it can talk to any other P25 conventional radio. That is to say, an Icom could talk to a Harris, could talk to a Motorola, etc...

 

[exkalibur]

Not sure why you would think MNR parks need to be on Fleetnet.

I didn't say they need to be on Fleetnet, but Low Band radios are becoming increasingly difficult to source these days.

A few years ago, a friend and I were up in Algonquin and heard what started out as a dispute on the Low Band with a park warden. A native person was hunting from the side of Highway 60 (which they're allowed to do) - the warden thought it wasn't legit. Buddy aimed at the warden. Anyway, long story short, they followed this guy through backroads and it was a mix of Low Band and Fleetnet use. An MNR Conservation Officer essentially acted as a "repeater" between Low Band and Fleetnet. It was quite the cluster. If they had some kind of interop, I think it'd work much better.

 

[mikewazowski]

Interesting. Howcome they wouldn't support it I wonder? Seems like it'd be a good backup for when Fleetnet is down for maintenance and what not.

That's what PCOM is for.

As far as I know, BMR transferred PCOM and Paging over to the Fleetnet sites. Anything else the MOH wanted, was left to them.

There was a job advert for an MOH radio tech shortly after Fleetnet. My understanding was that one of the tech's responsibilities would be to look after the legacy network.

 

[IdleMonitor]

PTAC was left in place but BMR would not support or maintain it for the MOH. I suspect what you're hearing is a repeater that is still going and hasn't died yet.

MNR in this area went to UHF. No sign of any of the other parks going to VHF or UHF.

Still having lots of lowband activity.

What area of the UHF band was that?

 

[DaveH]

Have a look at Simcoe/Wasaga Beach....410-420MHz.

Dave


And one of the pairs 413.975/418.975 according to TAFL is also used in Pembroke...says for OPP (!),
maybe OPP/MNR link?

 

[bpsmicro]

Catching up on my reading...

There was Fleetnet maintenance in the Ottawa area (appears to have been specific to the Paramedic TGs) the evening in question. The *plan* was to, as usual, go to the 800MHz (EDACS) portables as backup. All trucks were issued portables.

"Something bad happened" and for whatever reason that backup plan didn't work, so they had to resort to the backup of the backup, which is PTAC/PCOM. Since PTAC would still be programmed in the radios, presumably somebody decided to give it a try, found it was still working, so just used it. There was a lot of stuff done by cell phone too, and some things (like patches) just not done.

If you were listening, you probably got the impression the dispatchers were a tad stressed.