REACH opens new base in Oceanside

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scottyhetzel

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Socal got a new base 24/7 helo at the 4th new base in partnerhip with Oceanside fire dept.. The base will be located at the Oceanside fire training center.

REACH ops out of el centro, thermal, upland, with the state of the art Eurocopter EC-135 capable to 150 mph under IFR equipment and night goggles with terrain awareness. Helo will match their usual color scheme.

I imagine they will still use the same vhf freq. as the other bases.

Screw up: title should be oceanside
 
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MtnBiker2005

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KF6DGN

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I also heard them landing at KOBK on 123.000 using "REACH HELO" the other day. The Oceanside Fire training center is very close to the airport.
 

inigo88

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I just saw N313RX shooting an approach into the Scripps La Jolla (and/or UCSD Thornton) helipad this morning. My thought was, gee that Mercy Air EC-135 looks an awful lot like REACH! Very cool to see those guys expanding their ops down here.
 

scottyhetzel

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I just saw N313RX shooting an approach into the Scripps La Jolla (and/or UCSD Thornton) helipad this morning. My thought was, gee that Mercy Air EC-135 looks an awful lot like REACH! Very cool to see those guys expanding their ops down here.


~Very cool Inigo... a pic would have been a plus !!! thanks for the update. Listening to them fly over head while hearing them on the VHF frequency is very exciting. I usually hear them on calcord on the hospital approach. Is that what you hear ?
~ They usually give the hospital the ETA and the direction of their in-bound flight.
 

K6CDO

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~Very cool Inigo... a pic would have been a plus !!! thanks for the update. Listening to them fly over head while hearing them on the VHF frequency is very exciting. I usually hear them on calcord on the hospital approach. Is that what you hear ?
~ They usually give the hospital the ETA and the direction of their in-bound flight.

They are communicating with hospitals on CALCORD?
 

seh911

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They're reporting their movements with AMR's Comm Center on Med Air.

This is a mess. MEDAIR has always been a tactical air to ground between helos and LZ coordinators, with Mercy Air using MERAIRDISP (Mercy Air Dispatch ) for routine dispatching such as positioning updates, etc.

Now Reach16 is using MEDAIR for its routine dispatch communications with AMR. While I am sure that Mercy Air has no interest in dispatching Reach16 (or letting them use MERAIRDISP), this is a bad use of this tactical frequency.

I wonder if Don has any details as to if this is temporary, etc?
 

KI6AOK

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I caught REACH at Oceanside Airport yesterday:
BMawPPGl.jpg
 
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KI6AOK

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Thanks, Scotty! As SEH911 mentioned, REACH is still using MEDAIR for dispatching. I would think they at least would rate their own talk group, like Mercy Air. Maybe in the future....
 

mpneill

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Hello folks - I work for REACH and may be able to clear some stuff up here:
I also heard them landing at KOBK on 123.000 using "REACH HELO" the other day. The Oceanside Fire training center is very close to the airport.

123.000 is KOKB (Oceanside Airport) common traffic advisory frequency (CTAF), so aircraft operating around KOKB can advise their intentions. Our call sign is actually "REACH MED 16". REACH MED is what you would hear us call ourselves on any ATC frequency, much like a United Airlines aircraft would call themselves "United 1234".
 

mpneill

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~Very cool Inigo... a pic would have been a plus !!! thanks for the update. Listening to them fly over head while hearing them on the VHF frequency is very exciting. I usually hear them on calcord on the hospital approach. Is that what you hear ?
~ They usually give the hospital the ETA and the direction of their in-bound flight.

San Diego, and Imperial Counties EMS agencies operate on SD MED AIR or IC MED AIR. Rarely we'll use CALCORD in SoCal, with the Bureau of Land Management for scene calls. We NEVER use CALCORD to contact a hospital, as each hospital operates on their own 800Mhz frequency/identifier. CALCORD is specifically set up for Air to Ground scene call landing information.
 

mpneill

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This is a mess. MEDAIR has always been a tactical air to ground between helos and LZ coordinators, with Mercy Air using MERAIRDISP (Mercy Air Dispatch ) for routine dispatching such as positioning updates, etc.

Now Reach16 is using MEDAIR for its routine dispatch communications with AMR. While I am sure that Mercy Air has no interest in dispatching Reach16 (or letting them use MERAIRDISP), this is a bad use of this tactical frequency.

I wonder if Don has any details as to if this is temporary, etc?

It's a temporary solution from the County for both REACH and Mercy to use SD MEDAIR to communicate with AMR and advise them when we're responding, lifting, etc. We are NOT dispatched on SD MEDAIR. We are dispatched by our own communications center after they receive a phone call request from AMR. Confused yet? This is not the final solution, but a stop-gap for now.
 
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