Ellis County Fire

[Russell]

Can someone please explain Ellis County Fire to me? I see that 154.77 is listed as Dispatch and 155.58 is listed as fire ground. However, I only hear calls on 155.58. I recently monitored a fire call for Italy and heard the dispatch and all ops traffic on 155.58 and nothing on 154.77, so I'm very confused. Also, these are both listed as repeaters, but I can't find the inputs.

AF5RN I see you monitor these guys, can you help me out? Which towns use their own freqs and which ones operate on the county channels?

Thanks,
Russell

[hiegtx]

Originally Posted by Russell

Can someone please explain Ellis County Fire to me? I see that 154.77 is listed as Dispatch and 155.58 is listed as fire ground. However, I only hear calls on 155.58. I recently monitored a fire call for Italy and heard the dispatch and all ops traffic on 155.58 and nothing on 154.77, so I'm very confused. Also, these are both listed as repeaters, but I can't find the inputs.

AF5RN I see you monitor these guys, can you help me out? Which towns use their own freqs and which ones operate on the county channels?

Thanks,
Russell

Russell,
I've tried to monitor 154.7700 the past couple years, well before Waxahachie switched to the ETMC system.

From my house S/W Dallas, using a ScanTenna, I've yet to hear anything on 154.77. Plenty of activity on 155.58, none on 154.77, regardless of whether I use tone/code search, leave it at "none", whatever. Most of the other Ellis County agencies come in. I occasionally visit or shop down there as well. No activity heard then either, even with calls being worked on 155.58. It may have been active at one time, but for now, I'm not finding any activity on 154.77.

[Russell]

Yes, that's the conclusion I've come to, as well. I been monitoring these guys for years. I can hear a lot from Allen, but obviously not everything. I drive through Ellis county twice a weekend and have never heard anything on 154.77 either. I think 155.58 is the primary channel.

I plugged several unidentied frequencies in last week and learned a few things when I drove through last night. I will be adding this info to the DB.

Russell

[af5rn]

Well, now I am confused too! I never even had 154.77 in my scanner for some reason. I hear fire traffic regularly on 154.265 and 155.58. I frequently lock out 155.58 because of all the cop talk on there from Parker County (no PL in my conventional scanner). I'll stick 154.77 in and see if anything comes up. They are close enough that it shouldn't be a problem to hear if they are actually there.

I am not an avid listener of Ellis County. They are just one of many programmed into my conventional scanner that I monitor continuously for "the big one". Consequently, my word is certainly not gospel. Just another voice in the crowd. Other channels noted active in Ellis County:

151.460 Midlothian Fire (possibly Ovilla also?)
154.205 Ennis Fire & ETMC VHF Dispatch
154.220 Red Oak Fire
154.325 Ferris Fire
154.385 Waxahachie Fire (yes, they still sometimes use it apparently, because I hear them. Not sure of when or why.)

I hadn't heard anything on 46.46 in quite awhile, so I pulled it out, but I don't know for sure if it has been completely abandoned. Anybody else listen to it?

Also, remember that "Regional" (the combined DeSoto, Duncanville, & Cedar Hill fire departments) frequently responds mutual aid into Midlothian. By frequently, I mean almost every day. Midlothian actually abuses the relationship pretty badly, and I'm surprised that "Regional" doesn't tell them to F-off. They commonly call Cedar Hill just to go down and fill-in at their station when they are busy, even if there are no runs holding. They are on 155.925.

You'll also hear Lancaster (151.235) doing mutual aid with Midlothian, as well as with Regional.

[justin180199]

155.265 is what the firefighters call the page channel.
155.580 is the Response channel.

as i am typing this they are toning out Garrett Rural on a med call

[Russell]

Originally Posted by justin180199

155.265 is what the firefighters call the page channel.
155.580 is the Response channel.

as i am typing this they are toning out Garrett Rural on a med call

I read this as 154.265. Does it have a tone?

[justin180199]

I meant 154.265

the following list is also what the county has advised them to have in their mobile radios

154.950 154.950 Texas Law 1 Calling channel, on-site, mobile to mobile

155.370 154.950 Texas Law 2 Calling channel, to contact base stations

155.475 155.475 Texas Law 3 On-scene tactical - command channel

154.280 154.280 Texas Fire 1 On-scene tactical - command channel

154.265 154.265 Texas Fire 2 On-scene tactical - command channel

154.295 154.295 Texas Fire 3 On-scene tactical - command channel

155.340 155.340 Texas Med 1 On-scene tactical - command channel

151.385 151.385 Texas Air 2 Air-to-Ground communications with state

and federal aircraft ONLY

[MaxTracker]

Lets not forget Palmer Police & Fire 151.01750 158.99250 WQHH843 RM 343 DPL

About the time of Palmers repeater, 154.7700 vanished. I do remember hearing use on it and even called "Wide Area" but shortly after Palmers licence became active. 154.7700 stopped its operations.
Itialy has some new radio licenses as well. My guess might be since these other towns are licensing up and the other Fire site is online 154.77000 is offline waiting to be removed or reassigned.

[justin180199]

Alot of the cities are getting fireground channels

Italy's is 154.965

[Russell]

Y'all have got some great info. Thanks for responding to my post.

Russell

[MaxTracker]

I don't think 154.2650 has a tone on it. The State is requiring a 127.3, but I believe Ellis operates it in CSQ.

[wosinek]

155.580 is the County Fire Repeater and is used for both pageout and check-in-route.
The 154.265 is no longer used for pageout but sometimes used as
a simplex fireground channel.
These other simplex interop channels might be used:
154.28000 TEXAS FIRE 1 VHF Tactical
154.26500 TEXAS FIRE 2
154.29500 TEXAS FIRE 3
155.34000 MED 1
151.38500 TEXAS AIR 2