ORCO low band fire Sta.net

scottyhetzel · Sep 12, 2016

Hello All,

I noticed their is a low band net under the talk around group. Does all the fire station have a low band radio for back up if the 800mhz is down? Or this just for batting Chiefs ? Thx

allend · Sep 12, 2016

I think the fire low band is for a backup source of communications to The EOC centers.

I hear testing maybe once every six months or so but that's it for this low band frequency being used for anything.

CommLt · Sep 12, 2016

No low band in the OCFA stations for decades.

Probably for EOC use or for contact with OES Sacramento.

PaulNDaOC · Sep 14, 2016

Not saying one way or the other but fire agencies do get a better rating from ISO for having dispatch backups in case of failure of primary systems. IE: MDC and pagers

f40ph · Sep 14, 2016

PaulNDaOC said:
Not saying one way or the other but fire agencies do get a better rating from ISO for having dispatch backups in case of failure of primary systems. IE: MDC and pagers

This is a good point, although I think the ISO rating is just for paging. Two alternate paths to get the call out.

After that, I think they're good with one radio path. If there was a higher rating for 2-way communications, an agency could easily say that their backup is cell phone rather than maintaining low band.

PaulNDaOC · Sep 14, 2016

f40ph said:
This is a good point, although I think the ISO rating is just for paging. Two alternate paths to get the call out.

After that, I think they're good with one radio path. If there was a higher rating for 2-way communications, an agency could easily say that their backup is cell phone rather than maintaining low band.

NFPA 1221, which ISO defers to, one radio path is fine, as long as there is a secondary fallback that meets NFPA/ISO standards. IF a phone is to be used as a secondary notification method it must be routed to the station via dedicated circuit, not a public switching system. If primary and secondary are both via radio a second separate radio unit would need to be at each station.

Sounds like cell phones and pagers are out.

Must be why LA County Fire still has SCU's at each station.

Still curious about that ORCO freq. They sure were fun to listen to back in the 70's when they also had tone-outs like LA County.

Robertolson · Sep 15, 2016

It's The O.C Access Channel (151.08500 PL tone 136.5) (AKA Control one)

O.C Fire (at time's) will patch the 800 system Talk group channel to the O.C Access channel

They do this for dual response's with Corona fire, Also Ortega hwy incidents with the US Forest service & Cal Fire. Also the Holly-Jim Canyon Remote Rescue's.

You will also here all of O.C 's Sig alerts & Traffic advisory announcements on the O.C Access Channel. (AKA Control One)

f40ph · Sep 16, 2016

Robertolson said:
It's The O.C Access Channel (151.08500 PL tone 136.5) (AKA Control one)

O.C Fire (at time's) will patch the 800 system Talk group channel to the O.C Access channel

I haven't heard OC Fire patch to OC Access ever since their "FIRE OC" channel came on line. (see DB)

PaulNDaOC · Sep 16, 2016

The earlier post by Allend about the low-band freq use by EOC is right-on. EOC's all over the county are licensed to use it, so I'm puzzled where the fire connection came about.

scottyhetzel · Sep 16, 2016

PaulNDaOC said:
The earlier post by Allend about the low-band freq use by EOC is right-on. EOC's all over the county are licensed to use it, so I'm puzzled where the fire connection came about.

I should not have said fire stations...EOC make sense that is where the freq. could have been used.

PaulNDaOC · Sep 16, 2016

scottyhetzel said:
I should not have said fire stations...EOC make sense that is where the freq. could have been used.

They only kind of person I might have expected to have known it was really an EOC freq would be somebody involved in RACES.

Markb · Sep 17, 2016

Well, looking at a few of the licenses, some show fire station addresses, with Fullerton being one of them. The current license for Fullerton - KYT250, shows a few stations including the old address for Station 6, which was relocated about 10-12 years ago, so they obviously renewed in 12/2014 without verifying the license info.

KNGQ961 - Anaheim also shows licenses at fire stations.

With that being said, I believe this frequency is referred to as "OA-1" OA = Operational Area.
So EOC-EOC/disaster use is probably the right call, especially since most of the ~50 licenses are at the various city halls, colleges, police stations etc...

Mark

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

allend · Sep 17, 2016

Markb said:
Well, looking at a few of the licenses, some show fire station addresses, with Fullerton being one of them. The current license for Fullerton - KYT250, shows a few stations including the old address for Station 6, which was relocated about 10-12 years ago, so they obviously renewed in 12/2014 without verifying the license info.

KNGQ961 - Anaheim also shows licenses at fire stations.

With that being said, I believe this frequency is referred to as "OA-1" OA = Operational Area.
So EOC-EOC/disaster use is probably the right call, especially since most of the ~50 licenses are at the various city halls, colleges, police stations etc...

Mark

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

The backup EOC is at Fullerton Fire Station 3.

I had a friend that worked for HP that supported all of Anaheim City computer systems and when Metro-Net was being remodeled and was taken out of service for a few weeks the backup EOC was being used for Metro Net Fire Dispatch for OC cities.

scottyhetzel · Sep 17, 2016

Mark & Allend thank you!

I (we) appreciate your detailed responses... I understand low band is a great back up...san Francisco police still has their low band for fall-back. It is reassuring to know if the 800 MHz T-1 line goes down there is some redundancy .

Kingscup · Sep 19, 2016

PaulNDaOC said:
NFPA 1221, which ISO defers to, one radio path is fine, as long as there is a secondary fallback that meets NFPA/ISO standards. IF a phone is to be used as a secondary notification method it must be routed to the station via dedicated circuit, not a public switching system. If primary and secondary are both via radio a second separate radio unit would need to be at each station.

Sounds like cell phones and pagers are out.

You don't want to have to rely on an outside company to fix a problem after a disaster hits. You want in-house people working on equipment should something goes down. Digital pagers I can see why those are not appropriate (outside company generally). Radio pagers? why not? The infrastructure is usually in house unless maybe the pager itself which is usually not in house.

Most large departments have redundant systems. Voice (radio), print (printer) and digital (MDC) can be used to alert personnel that they have received a call. If 1 or 2 go down, you still have a third method.

Must be why LA County Fire still has SCU's at each station.

I believe I remember hearing that battalion chiefs can tone out stations from their vehicle within the battalion should LA dispatch go down. I could be wrong but one of many reasons to still have the SCUs.

Still curious about that ORCO freq. They sure were fun to listen to back in the 70's when they also had tone-outs like LA County.

I don't really know anything about the OCFA radio system but I am a little surprised they don't have tone outs as a back up unless it is hidden deep in the system somewhere where the only the one old time dispatcher knows about it. I guess they have enough back up systems in place where they feel they don't need them but good for them.

PaulNDaOC · Sep 23, 2016

Kingscup said:
You don't want to have to rely on an outside company to fix a problem after a disaster hits. You want in-house people working on equipment should something goes down. Digital pagers I can see why those are not appropriate (outside company generally). Radio pagers? why not? The infrastructure is usually in house unless maybe the pager itself which is usually not in house.

Most large departments have redundant systems. Voice (radio), print (printer) and digital (MDC) can be used to alert personnel that they have received a call. If 1 or 2 go down, you still have a third method.

My comments had nothing to do with who maintained what equipment, it was about the required dispatch and redundant system that is required to be in place to satisfy ISO when they issue an evaluation on all departments across the nation that gives top departments to say they are Class1, etc.... These ratings are coveted and compared by every department you'll ever talk to.

ORCO low band fire Sta.net

scottyhetzel

Member

allend

Member

CommLt

Member

PaulNDaOC

Member

f40ph

Member

PaulNDaOC

Member

Robertolson

Member

f40ph

Member

PaulNDaOC

Member

scottyhetzel

Member

PaulNDaOC

Member

Markb

Member

allend

Member

scottyhetzel

Member

Kingscup

Member

PaulNDaOC

Member

Similar threads