Myrtle Beach FD Alerting - Horry Co P25 System

Hey folks, I'm in Myrtle Beach for vacation and I'm monitoring the Horry P25 system with my Unication G5. I listen each time we come down but just happened to notice something I've missed before. I'm monitoring MBFD DISP and when they dispatch a call I'm hearing a long tone before hand. I saw in the database the different TG's listed for station alerting also. I'm assuming the long tone is used for station alerting, or possibly to alert their portables? Is there anything to hear on the alerting TG's or is that something similar to the old MOSCAD systems?

I live just north of Charlotte (NC). We have a Motorola P25 Phase 1 system also. In addition to using VHF analog for FD & EMS paging we also have Quick Call II set up on our APX portables.

I was curious does anyone happen to have the tones for each station (if that's how it works) and if so would you consider sharing them? I'd like to set up a knob position for the station closest to us. I looked in the Wiki here and did a Google search as well but didn't see anything. Any help or insight you guys could help with would be great. Thanks in advance!!!




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Horry County FR and the various municipalities are now using alphanumeric text paging as the primary dispatch method. Unication E3 pagers are the primary portable device. The county uses TGIDs Tac1, Tac2, and Tac3 for voice confirmation of dispatch. Other municipalities vary...some still have dispatch channels...some do not. Some municipalities continue to use QCII pagers for individual notification. MBFD does use QCII long tones for station alerting, both on the dispatch TGID and on the individual station TGID. Sorry, I don't have the tones. More info can be found on the Horry County Wiki page (bottom half), located at https://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Horry_County_(SC)_Fire_and_Rescue

k3sls said:

Horry County FR and the various municipalities are now using alphanumeric text paging as the primary dispatch method. Unication E3 pagers are the primary portable device. The county uses TGIDs Tac1, Tac2, and Tac3 for voice confirmation of dispatch. Other municipalities vary...some still have dispatch channels...some do not. Some municipalities continue to use QCII pagers for individual notification. MBFD does use QCII long tones for station alerting, both on the dispatch TGID and on the individual station TGID. Sorry, I don't have the tones. More info can be found on the Horry County Wiki page (bottom half), located at https://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Horry_County_(SC)_Fire_and_Rescue

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Hey Steve, my apologies for not responding to your reply. I've been wide open running around today. After I saw your reply I went back into the PPS & added the HC TAC talkgroups you mentioned & that did the trick on hearing calls.

The G5 is a heck of a device. I'm the Disaster Action Team Chief for my county in North Carolina. I've got a department issued XTS5000, & my personal owned XTS2500 I use on the Rowan-Salisbury P25 7/800 system. The days I'm around the office I use my G5 to scan our primary dispatch talkgroups. Sorry, kinda got off on a rabbit trail there LOL

Thanks again Steve!!

You're welcome Daniel. Enjoy your stay on the strand.

MBFD Paging

I was thinking of getting a E5 pager to get calls for MBFD. I was winding if it was possible or how you would monitor it?

rescue674aa said:

I was thinking of getting a E5 pager to get calls for MBFD. I was winding if it was possible or how you would monitor it?

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I'm not familiar with the E5, but it looks similar to the E3 which is the alphanumeric device used in the MB area. I use the E3 and it works well. You'll need a VHF model that covers 155-160mHz and of course you would need to be within range of the transmitters for that service. The programming requires defining each POCSAG code (each apparatus has a unique code). The E3 has a limit of 64 codes, so you may have to pick and choose the stations/apparatus you want to monitor.

I've also used an old conventional discriminator tapped scanner with a feed to an old Windows PC running a POCSAG decoder. The intercepts are filtered by station/apparatus and then sent via SMS or email to a smartphone. Works well too.