Douglas County Digital Pagers

[usfsengine]

Hello all I would like to tell the forum that Douglas County Communications will go digital for all page/tap outs. Its official after much fighting all of the fire departments will solely use Digital pagers by the end of March. The Minitors will no longer work. Our department much like the rest of the county will use Swiss Phone pagers. I belive Douglas County is the only agency doing this in the state. Is there anyone else doing the same thing? Any thoughts??

Dylan

[Baker845]

Will they respond on the radio like they do now just wont hear tone outs for calls ??

[usfsengine]

Yeah well still use radios to respond, but I dont know if they'll continue the tones or the pre-alerts. My guess would be no on the tones if there is no voice pagers, theres no need to send the tones that open the pagers up.

[Baker845]

ok, that makes sense, hope the new paging systems works ok. This is the first i heard of this type of paging fire depts in state.

[Hopscotch]

Originally Posted by usfsengine

Hello all I would like to tell the forum that Douglas County Communications will go digital for all page/tap outs. Its official after much fighting all of the fire departments will solely use Digital pagers by the end of March. The Minitors will no longer work. Our department much like the rest of the county will use Swiss Phone pagers. I belive Douglas County is the only agency doing this in the state. Is there anyone else doing the same thing? Any thoughts??

Dylan

I dunno? Without a pre-alert or tone out for incoming calls like there currently is on the minitors, I can foresee some possible problems with this type of system going into service, such as Douglas County, where firefighters could be miles from the nearest station and to the incident itself. I can see a system like this going to a more populated area such as Portland, Salem, but in a rural area like Douglas county, I just can't see it working in a countywide operation.

[cifn2]

interesting so these are more like Alpha numeric pagers? All the incident information is sent in what a text message to the pager?

http://www.pwservice.com/pagers/fire...one_re629.aspx

I think there is confusion but I will try and clear it up, these pagers still operate on the same frequency and such, just the tones will be silent to most scanners, and radios as they will be in a digital format.

[Baker845]

Reading about swiss Phone pagers they will work like the Mintior pagers in the vhf band but they be on diffent freq and will be in digital format, so sounds like each dept will get voice info about call just not on the freq they use now. There no changes to the radios, they will be analog and units will respond on the freq they use now.

[usfsengine]

Correct they will be alphanumeric digital pagers. They will have a few details like the actual Dispatch and details associated with them. I think they operate on something like 162 or 163 Mhz range. Yes I agree and I think so does everyone else in the County why does rural Douglas County need a system like this, better system for populated metro areas. I think the major problem we have with the digital pagers is the lack of info. Alot of our people go POV to a scene and if the dipatcher forgets to type in "Scene not safe stage for law enforcement" They could be walking into something really bad. That probably goes for all the departments around here. I dont think anyone knows what its going to be like until it happens???

[Baker845]

All of bugs should be taken out of paging system, from info i read they been working on paging system for last few years. The dispatcher will be able to sent other page and let unit responding know, it may be diffent from main page for call. The paging system is 14-site system. Quess we have to see how it works,before saying it wont.

[DCMon]

The frequency is 163.2500. FCC INFO: WPZE473 WPZE475 WQFQ674 PAGING SYSTEM TO BE USED BY MEDICAL, FIRE, LAW ENFORCEMENT AND OTHER EMERGENCY SERVICES WORKERS WITHIN DOUGLAS COUNTY. Each site transmits 350 watts of power.

[Baker845]

DCMon you hear anything on the freq?

[DCMon]

Originally Posted by Baker845

DCMon you hear anything on the freq?

Yes it is a digital garble type paging sound.

[DCMon]

Now that Douglas County has switched to digital only paging they still announce calls on Fire 1. So all that is actually missing so far anyway is hearing the tones.