Edmonton AB EMS

[gotdigital]

Two questions:

1. When I hear them say "Alpha 11, I'm gonna send you to Beladere. Are they refering to fire stations?

2. Will Edmonton be moving to the new AB Provincial radio system? Or going digital ProVoice with thier current EDACS system?

Thank you.

[Jay911]

Alberta Health Services EMS has committed to migrating to AFRRCS when it is available, according to the AFRRCS officials.

[edmscan]

Originally Posted by gotdigital

Two questions:

1. When I hear them say "Alpha 11, I'm gonna send you to Beladere. Are they refering to fire stations?

2. Will Edmonton be moving to the new AB Provincial radio system? Or going digital ProVoice with thier current EDACS system?

Thank you.

I can answer the first question. What they are referring to are EMS stations. You will hear them direct them to stations like Kildare, Belvedere, Glenora and Lendrum. Since EMS are now under the control of AHS, these are not fire stations as you may have seen in the past when EMS in Edmonton were sometimes housed in fire stations.

The second question has already been answered.

[gotdigital]

thanks guys for your help!

[ahp309]

Station List from 2009 when AHS began administration of Edmonton EMS.

http://www.capitalhealth.ca/NR/rdonl...2009_March.pdf

[edmscan]

I am pretty certain that Highlands doesn't have any EMS units anymore. Don't know about Callingwood but I would guess it would be the same situation.

[seanhenderson]

While we're on the subject I notice listening online when the dispatcher lets go of the mic button/foot pedal whatever it is... it takes about a second and a half to finish the TX. any ideas why this happens?

[edmscan]

Originally Posted by seanhenderson

While we're on the subject I notice listening online when the dispatcher lets go of the mic button/foot pedal whatever it is... it takes about a second and a half to finish the TX. any ideas why this happens?

I don't listen online .. I use my scanner. Maybe you could let us know some more details on HOW you are listening online ? Are you using one of the two "Edmonton Fire Radio" feeds here on RR, or is there another feed I don't know about ?

[Jay911]

Originally Posted by seanhenderson

While we're on the subject I notice listening online when the dispatcher lets go of the mic button/foot pedal whatever it is... it takes about a second and a half to finish the TX. any ideas why this happens?

You sound like you're familiar with the ins and outs of radio comms, so I'm not sure if you're talking about the "repeater tail" (dead air at the end of a transmission) or not. Is it possible that's what you're hearing, and/or the radio being used for the online stream is not configured to skip the end tones (typically on EDACS the five high-pitched beeps)?

[edmscan]

I just listened to the 2 RadioReference feeds (EMS/Stars and EFR) .. and there is NO tail .. or Edacs beeps. There is however considerable delay from the live transmissions.

[harryshute]

It could be the STARS transmissions that are combined with EMS on EFRadio. There have been complaints of about a second and a half tail.

[EdmontonFireRadio]

seanhenderson I'm sorry I didn't chime in here before now. I don't check the forum as often as I probably should.

Could you clarify a little about what you mean by a second and a half after dispatch unkeys? Are you hearing this all the time or just every once in a while?

Also, are you only hearing this on the EMS/STARS side or do you also notice it on the fire feed?

[edmscan]

Jeff ..

As mentioned above, I didn't find that there was any tail on the EMS or EFR feeds. I don't know about Stars .. as I didn't hear a stars transmission. I was using my computer to listen to your feeds. Just thought you would want to know that I experienced no problems.

[EdmontonFireRadio]

Thanks, Kevin. harryshute also mentioned STARS so that may be what they were hearing. I seem to recall that STARS was having issues with their repeater a week or so ago. So what they were hearing may have been related to that.

[seanhenderson]

Originally Posted by EdmontonFireRadio

Thanks, Kevin. harryshute also mentioned STARS so that may be what they were hearing. I seem to recall that STARS was having issues with their repeater a week or so ago. So what they were hearing may have been related to that.

I wonder if the whole City of Edmonton, Calgary public safety will move to the new provincewide radio system.

[edmscan]

Originally Posted by seanhenderson

I wonder if the whole City of Edmonton, Calgary public safety will move to the new provincewide radio system.

I would be very very surprised if the City of Edmonton does go to the provincial system. The situation being that they just spent a ton of money installing new radios in the transit vehicles. I cannot see them changing radio systems. I expect other than EMS EFR and EPS all other services will stay with the Edacs system.

[Jay911]

Originally Posted by edmscan

I would be very very surprised if the City of Edmonton does go to the provincial system. The situation being that they just spent a ton of money installing new radios in the transit vehicles. I cannot see them changing radio systems. I expect other than EMS EFR and EPS all other services will stay with the Edacs system.

Two things about them "installing new radios in the transit vehicles":

(1) The AFRRCS folks have already stated this radio system will not be for commercial users or non public-safety entities, so transit is a non-starter in the first place.
(2) As EDACS is in the process of being sunset by M/A-COM (meaning it is not going to be around more than a few more years), any brand new radios would most likely be compatible with new or emerging networks - very likely P25 capable at the very least. So agencies that are installing new radios are doing so with future compatibility in mind.

[edmscan]

From what I know .. the radios in the ETS buses are NOT P25 capable. Maybe someone will confirm this.

[Jay911]

Originally Posted by edmscan

From what I know .. the radios in the ETS buses are NOT P25 capable. Maybe someone will confirm this.

If you know the make and/or model, it would be easy to figure out. As I said, it's kind of academic since transit won't be invited to the party in any case.

[harryshute]

I would expect Calgary Transit Peace Officers would be on the system. Currently the Edmonton Transit Peace Officers have Provoice and have access to both Analog and Provoice police groups. They have also bought new radios that are 700 MHz capable.