Anne Arundel mutual-aid back channel?

I'm working on the list of unidentified frequencies for Calvert County and have recorded some traffic on 154.280. The frequency appears to be between Anne Arundel 911 and the surrounding counties. So far I've only heard Calvert and Queen Anne Counties talking to Anne Arundel regarding mutual aid fire and EMS responses. Doesn't seem to be a patch from the TRS as I've not heard any of this traffic there and it seems a little less formal than what you'd normally hear on the TRS.

I'll post more when I hear it. I'm hoping to grab the CTCSS (or other) when I hear it next.

I don't know why that left the DB - as soon as I saw that freq I recognized it from 5-6 years ago when I last saw it on here. That's the area mutual aid coordination net, used from comm center to comm center to laterally coordinate what units are available and can be dispatched on a MA assignment.

For some reason it seems to have left the DB despite still being in use.

dpcain said:

I don't know why that left the DB - as soon as I saw that freq I recognized it from 5-6 years ago when I last saw it on here. That's the area mutual aid coordination net, used from comm center to comm center to laterally coordinate what units are available and can be dispatched on a MA assignment.

For some reason it seems to have left the DB despite still being in use.

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Okay, that's a good-enough confirmation for me. I'll go ahead and submit it to go back into the DB.

What counties does it cover; all of Maryland or just this area?

Septa3371CSX1 said:

This is the National VHF Fire Mutual Aid channel. This channel is used during inter-agency responses often to patch in out of area units to the local channels and also provide a common frequency for everyone to talk. It is not in the database because it is a national interop channel.

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Well, I'd point out that 155.160 is designated as the national search and rescue channel but is used in a county in which I used to work for EMS dispatch. There are many such "mutual aid" channels designated nationwide but, in my opinion, should be in the database if they are actually being used for something rather than just being another channel in the radio (I used to have a lot of those).

155.160 is not indeed designated (by the FCC) for SAR. It is just a general convention.

154 280 on the other hand is (per FCC regulations) an intersystem channel that is by standard named VFIRE21. With that being said, there are locations that have it licensed prior to the intersystem requirement including the Eastern Shore of VA. That being said, in the Baltimore Metro it should be referred to now as VFIRE21 as it is being used for its intended purpose. The "old" name for it in the Baltimore Metro was FMARS .

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DB Admin Handbook says:

Nationwide frequencies shall not be duplicated on state, county or other agency pages, except when there exists a confirmed local-specific usage, e.g., a MURS frequency confirmed to be used by a specific business at a specific location on a permanent basis.

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I can see it initially being pulled from the local page as being a nationwide frequency, but it is used very commonly in the Baltimore Metro area PSAP to PSAP for mutual aid coordination as I remembered and as WG3K has shown. I guess from here it really comes down to how dtscho reads it given that information.


@Disaster (you posted while I was typing) - YES, that's the name I remembered, and good point.

dpcain said:

DB Admin Handbook says:



I can see it initially being pulled from the local page as being a nationwide frequency, but it is used very commonly in the Baltimore Metro area PSAP to PSAP for mutual aid coordination as I remembered and as WG3K has shown. I guess from here it really comes down to how dtscho reads it given that information.

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Yeah, the fact that it's actually being used seems to make it okay. I agree that we shouldn't be listing all the mutual aid frequencies just because they are available.

DisasterGuy said:

155.160 is not indeed designated (by the FCC) for SAR. It is just a general convention.

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Opps, you are correct. I haven't had to dig into 90.20 in quite a while...

I have also heard AACO coordinating with Baltimore City and Baltimore County in recent weeks on 154.280, so it is used fairly commonly.

Mark
WS1095/536/436/996P2/HP1e/HP2e/996XT/325P2/396XT/PRO668/PSR800/PRO652

154.280 is still known in the Baltimore Region as The Baltimore Regional Fire Mutual Aid Radio System. The official memebership of the Baltimore Regional Fire Radio System are Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Anne Arundel Co, Carroll County, Howard County, Harford Count, BWI Fire Rescue, and US Coast Guard Sector Baltimore. However we in Anne Arundel do communicate with other many Jurisdictions that are on 154.280. Calvert, Prince George, Montgomery, Queen Annes. We also have 154.295 as a back up Mutual Aide to use when The main one is busy with radio traffic. We mainly use that one with Howard and Prince Georges County. We used to have a continuous patch between our 800 MHz system and 154.280. Unfortunatley Several years ago it was decided to drop thefulltime patch. The Baltimore Region has not yet adopted the naming convention VFire21 for that frequency. There is a daily morning check around 815AM in the Baltimore Region of 154.280 by the group mentioned as the Baltimore Regional Fire Mutual Aid Radio System.

dpm797 said:

We used to have a continuous patch between our 800 MHz system and 154.280. Unfortunatley Several years ago it was decided to drop thefulltime patch. .

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I didn't realize that it was dropped. I had always had it "locked-out." Thanks for the information.

We have been through this with the admins over and over. Just because VFIRE21 is in the NIFOG does NOT make it a national channel. It is NOT licensed nationally. It is licensed and controlled locally. There is not a FCC rule that allows anyone to use this like VCALL10. If there is not a local license for VFIRE21, you CAN not use it. There for it should be listed in local listings not in the National Database.

If the intent of the database is to assist users who program their radios by location or zip code and make the process easy, then it would seem this also should point to listing it locally in the database as it was at one time.

This is of course in addition to the fact that it is licenced locally and not nationally. Seems like a no brainer.

It apparently is also being used under the guise of the regional group and not as a nationwide interoperability frequency.

But the best and obvious solution seems not to be the one followed by RR sometimes.

Mark
WS1095/536/436/996P2/HP1e/HP2e/996XT/325P2/396XT/PRO668/PSR800/PRO652

marksmith said:

I have also heard AACO coordinating with Baltimore City and Baltimore County in recent weeks on 154.280, so it is used fairly commonly.

Mark
WS1095/536/436/996P2/HP1e/HP2e/996XT/325P2/396XT/PRO668/PSR800/PRO652

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It's used dozens of times a day, even into PA with MD counties that border PA.

WG3K said:

I'm working on the list of unidentified frequencies for Calvert County and have recorded some traffic on 154.280. The frequency appears to be between Anne Arundel 911 and the surrounding counties. So far I've only heard Calvert and Queen Anne Counties talking to Anne Arundel regarding mutual aid fire and EMS responses. Doesn't seem to be a patch from the TRS as I've not heard any of this traffic there and it seems a little less formal than what you'd normally hear on the TRS.

I'll post more when I hear it. I'm hoping to grab the CTCSS (or other) when I hear it next.

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Although many jurisdictions do transmit different PL tones, none is normally used or required.

fourwd1 said:

It's used dozens of times a day, even into PA with MD counties that border PA.

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Yes... put it in my normal frequent scan list and hear regular coordination between Anne Arundel County and numerous adjacent counties daily.

Generally coordinating whether or not the adjacent county has received the call and whether or not they are running an assignment for it. Often determine to or not to dispatch.

Gives me a heads up to listen to the adjacent county response sometimes.

Mark
WS1095/536/436/996P2/HP1e/HP2e/996XT/325P2/396XT/PRO668/PSR800/PRO652