Polk county changes underway

Early yesterday morning (6/12/15), a short announcement appeared on the Facebook page of West Polk Volunteer Fire and Rescue:

“Today is reprogram day for all repeaters. Pay attention and switch to the New zone when advised”

All of the customary VHF analog frequencies thereafter went silent, except Public Works (151.1150 MHz), which remains unchanged with CTSS 100.0.

It appears that frequencies have not changed for any of the channels. However, squelch tones have been changed.

Here’s the new information:
E-911 Comm District 155.7375 MHz DCS 664
Emergency Mgmt 155.9550 MHz DCS 754
Fire and Rescue 154.3850 MHz DCS 365
Sheriff and EMS 154.8600 MHz DCS 431

Good catch. Any idea if the repeater input PL/DPL tones changed and why the changes were made?

I also see in the database that Polk County now has two 800mHz P25 repeaters for EMA. Wonder if they'll slowly migrate to the TACN?
BG..

I haven't had a chance to check the input frequencies yet, but will try to post more info. when it becomes known. In January, West Polk F & R announced on their FB page that they would be re-programming radios for DCS tones, with no reason given. Recent FB post suggests there have been some problems with excessive use of repeaters in violation of dept. policies. I suspect that the re-programming is an effort to address that problem. When the 800 MHz system was installed, a FB announcement, since removed, acknowledged that there were areas of the county that it would not cover. Same is true about TACN. With current sites, primarily Oswald Dome and North Bradley, coverage of the county is not complete. Decades-old Polk County problem remains unchanged. Terrain makes whole-county coverage by any one system very difficult, and the money needed to accomplish it is simply not available.

I can now confirm that the input frequencies remain unchanged. They have changed to DPL tones on the input, but it would probably be contrary to the public interest to post any of those tones here, since the information could facilitate malicious interference with communications. I've noticed that the database very wisely omits input tones.

Everybody has different opinion on the PL Tones. Our county has them list so that other agencies that respond to our county can have them if and when they need them. Most of the interference we have had is radio keyed up accidently. But you are right they can be use malicious too.

776

So do the west side and east side repeaters work with same DPL or tones or are they different to reduce interence between Ducktown and Oswald?
BG..

I have not yet been up to East Polk to see what input tones are in use. I suspect they are the same, however, because I am still hearing the same unintelligible transmissions from East Polk while monitoring here in West Polk. It makes me believe that there is either a microwave or landline link between East Polk repeater and West Polk (Central One) dispatcher, because dispatcher often communicates with those unintelligible East Polk mobiles without difficulty. I'm not sure if any dispatching is being done from East Polk. The last time I went to court in Ducktown, the dispatching room appeared to be abandoned.