Wilkes County

Hey All!

I went to the Brushy Mountain Apple Festival today.

I noticed that the North Wilkesboro Police were carrying ICOM VHF Radios

The rescue personnel were carrying both ICOM and XTS-2500 portables and Minitor VI pagers.

I stopped one of them and asked it they were using Viper and if they were still being dispatched on

155.280 Mhz. like before.

Well to my surprise he was very rude to me to say the least.

His reply was we are dispatched on their own private frequency. He wouldn't say what it was.

He did say they were operating on Viper and that was it.

I did have my scanner and was able to hear a hospital encode on the Wilkes General Hospital Talkgroup.

As I was leaving they did happen to dispatch a fire call that came across the Wilkes Fire Talkgroup.

Question is does anybody know what Ems and Rescue is dispatch on now?

I figure it is either on one of the following frequencies:

155.175 Mhz.
159.195 Mhz.
155.400 Mhz.

Just wanted confirmation and the correct PL Tones as well.

There was no ems or rescue dispatch to confirm same.

Also the Sheriff Department is still being dispatched across VHF and no Viper..

It is bad when one emergency worker snubs another emergency worker. I was very disappointed and a

little ticked off when I walked off.

Any help would greatly be appreciated

Thanks

David

I don't have a specific answer for your question, but merely a query and an observation . . .

Did you identify yourself as a "fellow" public servant, or just strike up a conversation and ask about radio communications? I have found that the thin blue (or red) line has a more noticable separation when individuals are perceived to be "just" civilians.

It's amazing how much different a conversation can be when it begins with, "I work for [xyz department/agency] and we have/haven't switched to VIPER . . ." or some variation of that opening.

On the other hand, some people are just plain rude to begin with, and get rudER as they practice.

David

Sent from my Note 8 using Tapatalk

"a more noticeable separation when individuals are perceived to be "just" civilians."


Which is very unfortunate because the civilians is who they work for.

joncleve said:

"a more noticeable separation when individuals are perceived to be "just" civilians."


Which is very unfortunate because the civilians is who they work for.

Click to expand...

Barring them being in the Guard or Reserve, they just civilians, too.

WA4MJF said:

Barring them being in the Guard or Reserve, they just civilians, too.

Click to expand...

While tehnically true, the *average* public servant feels that their radio transmissions are "private," and if no one on the "inside" shares the channel (frequency/talkgroup) information then no one else can hear what's going on.

The other side of that is the unfortunate reality that there are certain individuals who listen to public safety feeds over smart phones, and have even made the comment that they aren't worried about getting caught (doing whatever), because they can "listen to th' po-leece on th' phone."

Thankfully, respectable feed providers will not broadcast Narcotics or Surveillance channels/talkgroups, nor channels/talkgroups with patient information.

It's this mentality of a few that create the image of the proverbial bad apples which ruin it for the law-abiding scanner listeners who keep things to themselves.

Sent from my Note 8 using Tapatalk

Of course

I had a squad tee-shirt on with our agencies name on the front and back.

I also had my VHF XTS-2500 on my side and the speaker-mike across my shoulder clipped to the front of

my shirt.

I know last year I went everybody was carrying VHF Radios.

I even stopped and talk to a N.Wilkesboro Police Officer doing traffic and he told me they didn't know

about if Viper would work or not but they were still on VHF.

When they re-schedule my state medical training again, maybe some of the instructors from Wilkes Ems

will be there again and maybe they will answer my questions.

David

In that case, the person you asked was either having a bad day, or . . .

Fortunately not everyone is as rude as the person you spoke with. Better luck with the next experience.

Sent from my Note 8 using Tapatalk

Thanks

David

yardbird said:

I had a squad tee-shirt on with our agencies name on the front and back.

I also had my VHF XTS-2500 on my side and the speaker-mike across my shoulder clipped to the front of my shirt.

Click to expand...

Don't take offense to this but if some out-of-district guy that I didn't know walked up with a radio on and a speaker mic stretched across his back I would be a little apprehensive about giving out any information as well. Too many wackers out there. Not saying that is you, but think about it from their side.

I drove through Wilkes yesterday and while I did not hear any EMS or Rescue being dispatched, I did hear Fire responding to several medical calls on VHF that did not sound like they were patched. I'll look at my codeplug when I get home and advise the frequency and tone.

BigLebowski said:

Don't take offense to this but if some out-of-district guy that I didn't know walked up with a radio on and a speaker mic stretched across his back I would be a little apprehensive about giving out any information as well. Too many wackers out there. Not saying that is you, but think about it from their side.

Click to expand...

Maybe these volunteer wannabes in Wilkes County should be held to the same public courtesy standard as professional departments. It's public information and because of this FACT the guy shouldn't have been a d*ck. Try to do that in the agency I am professionally employed with and you'll find yourself looking for another job and another career. No dept in the Piedmont will hire you for being a d*ck to the people who pay your paycheck or fund your volley house. Funny thing is Wilkes County is so hard up for manpower they call mutual aid for everything and resources all over the state anytime they get a little rain. When you are in need of so much help because you can't do your damn job by yourselves maybe you shouldn't be rude to a potential new member from the community. Maybe just maybe that guy will save your life someday.

Motoman55 said:

Maybe these volunteer wannabes in Wilkes County should be held to the same public courtesy standard as professional departments. It's public information and because of this FACT the guy shouldn't have been a d*ck. Try to do that in the agency I am professionally employed with and you'll find yourself looking for another job and another career. No dept in the Piedmont will hire you for being a d*ck to the people who pay your paycheck or fund your volley house. Funny thing is Wilkes County is so hard up for manpower they call mutual aid for everything and resources all over the state anytime they get a little rain. When you are in need of so much help because you can't do your damn job by yourselves maybe you shouldn't be rude to a potential new member from the community. Maybe just maybe that guy will save your life someday.

Click to expand...

I think you are jumping to a lot of conclusions based on one person's perception of an interaction with an unknown "rescue squad" guy that may not know anything about radios that you weren't even present for. Give the guy the benefit of the doubt before you condemn the whole county.

FWIW 154.400 151.4 is what I have in my radio for Fire 1. I have 159.195 151.4 as Rescue Private however I did not hear anything on it and I was not scanning 155.280. I typically do not listen to fire/EMS so I may have missed a few things.

BigLebowski said:

I think you are jumping to a lot of conclusions based on one person's perception of an interaction with an unknown "rescue squad" guy that may not know anything about radios that you weren't even present for. Give the guy the benefit of the doubt before you condemn the whole county.

Click to expand...

I've known David (YardBird) for a long time. I can assure you David is very versed in radios. His knowledge is quite extensive not only to the scanner community but in Motorola Mission Critical Radios as well

Motoman55 said:

I've known David (YardBird) for a long time. I can assure you David is very versed in radios. His knowledge is quite extensive not only to the scanner community but in Motorola Mission Critical Radios as well

Click to expand...

I'm not questioning David's knowledge.. I'm just saying that you shouldn't base an opinion of a county's ES personnel on a reaction by one member of a conversation you weren't present for. Maybe the guy isn't a radio guy and doesn't know about them, maybe they've had incidents with wackers and were told not to give it out. Who knows.... if you want detailed radio info maybe befriending someone with knowledge is in order. Asking a random person that you don't know about information they may think is sensitive doesn't usually work.

Sorry,

I wasn't trying to start something.

I was just curious if they were still dispatching across 155.280 Mhz. or not.

Like I said Wilkes Fire and Wilkes General Medical Center was on Viper.

I would have never approached anyone if they would have dispatched a medical call.

If I am not mistaken Wilkes is like Alexander and Yadkin Rescues they dispatch rescue on all medical

calls along with first responders.

I was also just curious to see if they were like a lot of other mountain counties with going either NXDN or

DMR.

I have been watching to boards and the Kenwood Dealers are pushing NXDN big time over Viper.

Like I said I was not trying to start a war among members here.

Just trying to update my radios for next years festival.

Both Ems and Rescue have separate talkgroups on Viper and that was what caught my attention.

David