Ahhh lets see... The ambulances that end in "9" are gonna be AMR rigs out pittsfield, for example - AMR 459. "849" (154.310) and Great Barrington "Central" (155.775) is the same person, diff freqs. Chances are, if you heard an ALS request given to 849, it was either for the towns of W. Stockbridge, Sandisfield, or New Marlborough. SBVAS is the primary ambulance co for Great Barrington, Egremont, Sheffield, Monterey, Mt. Washington, and Alford, as well as certain parts of W. Stockbridge, and Stockbridge. (SBVAS is toned and operates on GBPD Central 155.775).
As far as I know, there was no test tonite, I was workin in my parents backyard but I did have my pager open and I think i had a scanner outside, and I didnt hear it... They do tend to skip them often, espsecially if there is a call or 2 going right around 6.
You are correct about "385"... It is used as a secondary means of contacting the hospitals (155.340 is the main channel used AKA "340") Ambulances have to dial into the hospitals to talk to them (I konw the DTMF Codes if you want them). Mostly 385 is used for coordinating ALS intercepts between the two rigs, however when 470 gets really busy, they will switch EMS calls over to 385 as they have the ability to both monitor and transmit on that channel.
GBPD central transmits off of Fairview Hospital, so the signal doesnt get out very well, especially to the north (I have heard them as far south as the Bronx though). When they transmit on the fire channel as 849, they are transmitting from the top of the mountain that Butternut basin is on, so they get excellent distance and coverage. I heard a number of calls go out from them while i was at college in Rindge, NH.
OK enough rambling... Let me know if you need any info at all from this area, I've got most of it figured out, and (sadly) memorized most of the freqs, etc... I;ll work on getting the tone tests next week recorded (including GBPD's monday test (all kindsa pagers, dont know what half em are used for)).
