Phila, PA - PennSTAR Activity

[rgchristy]

Hi,

I was wondering what am I hearing on PennSTAR channel 1, 155.385 PL 100.0. It doesn't sound like helicopter traffic. I hear what I believe is "CCT1" and they're giving mileages, etc. Are they dispatching an ambulance service now, also? Also, did the alert tone change for the helicopter dispatches?

Thanks,

Rich C

[CommJunkie]

Yes, they now have a ground unit that is the CCT1 you are hearing.

They also added the little warble sound after tones, but I don't know why.

[jjimenez01]

Correct, they have two ambulances based at Wings Field to do interfacility transports. Both units are using Motorola CM300's. Only 1 truck is staffed at a time.

When the radio system was overhauled including turning two sites into repeaters, new consoles, adding a third position and narrowbanding, it was decided to add extra alerting for each Pennstar two tone sequential pair. Each base including the ground trucks use the Federal Signal Informer for station alerting.

Pennstar 1 and its back-up still have older Wulfsburg radios that cannot be narrowband. The Raytheon voter used in the new system, does not like the wideband signal at all. Which has caused lots of grief for the crews and dispatchers. Until new radios can be purchased and installed by Air Methods they are using the old simplex system.

JJ

[RadioDitch]

Originally Posted by CommJunkie

Yes, they now have a ground unit that is the CCT1 you are hearing.

They also added the little warble sound after tones, but I don't know why.

Critical Care Truck 1