Dispatch question

[w4rez]

Our local comm center, when paging a rescue squad or a fire department, always, for lack of a better term "pre announce" the call before sending the page. For example, here's how a typical call wil go:

<warbler>Station X You are being set for a structural fire at XX <tones><warbler>Station X you are being set for a structural fire at XX blah blah blah

Why do they do it this way?

At first I suspected that maybe it was because the actual tone-out was done without a PL, and the pre-announcement was done for the benefit of those that were mobile or portable, but further research shows that this is not the case.

 

[car2back]

We do that around here, I honestly have no idea why though.

"Engine-24 stand by for a medical 3600 N Peoria" (Alert tone) "Engine-24, Medical Emergency Chest pains 3600 N Peoria Ave, 75 year old male, EMSA's en rt, map page 1224"

It only give like a second or 2 head start

EDIT: I guess by the time you go en route (here atleast) it's so you've heard the address atleast 3 times before you get lights & sirens syndrome.

 

[trafficdan]

They do it here in my neck of the woods (SE Pennsylvania outside Philly). Personally I think it wastes time. Here its called a "pre-alert". I don't know who it benefits except for the guys who have scanners attached to their hips and walk around listening all the time or the ones who are sitting at the station who I would guess would be the last to need an extra jump on things. Maybe someone can come up with a legitimate reason for this. I think the over-riding factor of all is the "whacker factor" to sound like the big cities.

 

[CommShrek]

I've always felt that this was done to let anyone listening that was thinking about transmitting that "Hey, we're about to page something out!". Basically, you pre announce something to help curtail someone from keying the mike when you page out a call and messing things up.

 

[car2back]

I've always felt that this was done to let anyone listening that was thinking about transmitting that "Hey, we're about to page something out!". Basically, you pre announce something to help curtail someone from keying the mike when you page out a call and messing things up.

I think you're right on the money Shrek. As a matter of fact, I am gonna start giving a "pre-alert" on Fire AND Police sides at the same time to keep Johnny Law from requesting a 10-28 when I am trying to page a Cardiac arrest. I love working somewhere that you can make your own SOPs. :lol:

 

[trafficdan]

That makes sense if you both are dispatched by the same person. In the counties around here that do it, the police hardly monitor the fire at all. They are dispatched by totally seperate consoles and different people who are uneffected by each others transmissions.

 

[CVPI4Ever]

Where I used to live it used to go like this:

Sandusky dispatch: Dispatching a squad (or fire department)

Sandusky Dispatch: Tone drops

Sandusky Dispatch: Sandusky Alarm, Sandusky Fire - Squad needed (then the address and location).

Sandusky Dispatch: Sandusky Alarm, Sandusky Fire - Squad needed (then the address and location).


And thats pretty much it.

 

[vs1988]

When our dispatch tones us out, they do the voice standby. They dispatch for PD and us (EMS), FD has their own comm center. PD are medical first responders, so the tones are sent over both frequencies (simulcasting?). The pre-alert is done so a PD unit doesn't key up right as the tones are being sent. Dispatch will usually say "stand by for a page, attention (unit XX)".

EDIT: Does anyone know what happens if you key up while the tones are being sent? I heard that for officer safety reasons, the page function gets cancelled if somebody transmits.

 

[w4rez]

EDIT: Does anyone know what happens if you key up while the tones are being sent? I heard that for officer safety reasons, the page function gets cancelled if somebody transmits.

I imagine this varies from system to system. I have seen small town systems where the dispatch "console" was a Vertex mobile with a Zetron tone encoder and a 12v power supply, setup to tx through the repeater just like anybody else would.

I'm not sure how this would work on systems where the console is connected to the repeater through a control link. I imagine this is configurable.

For simplex systems, the page would continue since the receiver is disabled while the tones are being transmitted.

 

[andrew_m]

Back when I started we all got an e-mail from our QA guy saying NOT to do this.

 

[daleduke17]

There's one county around here that pages that way. They go like this:

*Department Tones*
Macon: Still Alarm
*two second tone*
Macon: Still alarm, Warrensburg Fire. Attention Hickory Point and Niantic... 900 W North St. Crown Products, activated fire alarm. Warrensburg Fire, Attention Hickory Point and Niantic. 900 W. North, Crown Products...activated fire alarm.

Repeat as needed.

At least they aren't as "professional" and "coded" as Sangamon County. Yes, very good they know the ten-codes, but, chill out a bit.

 

[rescuecomm]

Our rescue dispatch is on the same channel as the public works, landfill, and building maintenance. This dates back to the "Civil Defense" days. There is a lot of radio traffic on this frequency. Dispatch will ask stations to hold traffic for tones, then send the two tone sequential group. They do the same on the rural fire channel because it is the dispatch, working, and mutual aid all in one.

Bob

 

[tnf]

In madison county, ny, the call is pre announced, then tones, and then the announcement. I find that its very helpful in that you hear the address twice and know the call before you go on it. I know down south in chenago county they pre announce it, drop the tones, announce it, drop tones again, and then announce one last time. but the more you think about it, the less sense it makes because if you dropped the tones first, everyone would mobilize and thus get to the station/call quicker... interesting question! -nick

 

[wilbilt]

They do it around here. I always thought it was to save time and have units rolling before the tones get input/sent.

For example, I work for a school district whose office is right next to a fire station. The radio traffic is broadcast on a loudspeaker, so it's easy to hear (and also to see what's going on).

"Attention tones" (3 quick beeps) would go out, followed by the unit and incident.

"beep, beep, beep, Station 72, TC with injuries, HWY 70 and Palermo Rd."

Trucks are started, the crews load up, and they are on the way.

Meanwhile, the DTMF is input and the "dispatch tones" are generated. by the time the actual dispatch goes out, the units might already be on scene. This is especially noticable during fire season, when dozens of resources are being dispatched for each incident. Sometimes it seems like 5 minutes go by while the tones are input/broadcast.

???

 

[srt1026]

a 'smaller' combination department does this near me. their reasoning is two fold:
1) the people on duty keep their pagers/portables on monitor, and they use several different tones to alert, so they can get a 30 second head start on the call with the 'pre announcement', as the dispatcher still has to hit the tones to alert the on call people whose pagers are on 'alert'.
2) they simulcast the 'pre announcement' on the police frequency to alert the cops of the incident.

so it goes like this-
-pre announcement (simulcast on FD and PD) alerts on duty FF's and cops
-tones (on FD only)opens on call FF's pagers and back up to on duty FF's
-announcement (on FD only)

 

[bwhite]

I have to agree that in many environments the pre-announce probably just slows things up a tad. I can tell you that in my younger, poorer pre-pager and pre-plectron (that will tell you how far back I go) days that I used a monitor/scanner exclusively. I was out the door (from a dead sleep--yeah, I only woke up to the mention of my station....I'll never figure that out) and on the way many times before dispatch finished a set of 5 or 6 tones and oftimes made it to the station 1.7 suburban miles away to make a piece within the alloted 3 minutes. In many cases newer technology and the wide-spread availability of pagers probably obsoletes the benefit of a pre-announce though.

 

[INDY72]

In Memphis for the FD they usually do a "Companies stand by for page"... In Charleston they used to do that too... in Jackson it depends on if its a busy day and who is on the radios.... In Rural MS when you have like six to eight VFD's, and First Responders all over, we used to do an "Stand by for tone".. and for general announcements "Stations stand by for a non emergency page"...

 

[crashcrew]

Elizabeth NJ FD message prior to tone: "Stand by for fire traffic"

 

[Jay911]

Calgary and area: Nothing. Tones are the designed-in alerting mechanism that lets you know a call is about to come in.

 

[Raven95150]

I am near Minneapolis and they do the same thing here, but counties do it differently. One county simply announces "all units stand by for a page for (dept name)." Another county sends out a series of 4-5 short beeps, then the tone, then announces the call. They still use VHF for paging and the tones are not heard on the digital radios, so when listening on digital, you hear the intial short beeps, then a 3-4 second pause while the tones go out on VHF, then the dispatcher announcing the call.

On the police channels, they send out the same 4-5 short beeps before dispatching a medical or PI accident and they use a series of 4-5 High-low tones before dispatching other emergencies like a robbery in progress.