Douglas County FD

[MikeyB]

I've noticed something strange with Douglas County FD Dispatch TG 1053. During the day I can hear it on many metro towers (Lookout, Riley, Westcreek, Chevron, Smoky Hill, sometimes Thorodin). But at night I can't hear it anywhere! I have logged all of these towers the past couple days. During the day I see affiliations and voice on all these towers while at night I don't see affiliations or voice on any of them! I hear calls on the old VHF channel during this time. What's going on? I can't get Silver Heights well which should always have Castle Rock FD units on it. Do they switch to a different TG at night?

 

[abqscan]

Sounds like radios are being shut off at night to me.

 

[CRfan1]

Sounds like radios are being shut off at night to me.

Could it be from the problems at west creek? Or the addition of Elbert County?

 

[abqscan]

I don't think it has anything to do with West Creek. As other agencies and or units drive around their radios affiliate with sites up north. So as the radios get shut off for the night, they deaffiliate with these sites.

 

[MikeyB]

I don't think it has anything to do with West Creek. As other agencies and or units drive around their radios affiliate with sites up north. So as the radios get shut off for the night, they deaffiliate with these sites.

I could see if they showed up on an odd site that doesn't show a footprint that way like Glendale or Thorodin and only has them on once in a while, but when they basically drop off the map and no longer show up on 5 towers I normally hear them on it seems a little odd. Especially when they are towers that show a good footprint in the Douglas County like Westcreek. There should be a lot of radios on this channel - Castle Rock, Franktown, Larkspur, Jackson 105 and all of the Elbert County radios. Smoky Hill should have a good footprint in the Rattlesnake district which should get at least one affiliation on it! I hear the Elbert Fire Tac channels on Smoky Hill quite often.

 

[MikeyB]

Could it be from the problems at west creek? Or the addition of Elbert County?

I started listening to Douglas County FD extensively once Elbert County joined and I used to be able to hear it at night but recently (last month or so) I don't. If anything Elbert County should make them hit on more sites.

BTW - Westcreek is up on an alternate CC tonight.

 

[abqscan]

Your statement of not hearing as many sites carrying their traffic at night still supports my theory of radios getting shut off at night.

 

[MikeyB]

Your statement of not hearing as many sites carrying their traffic at night still supports my theory of radios getting shut off at night.

I agree it does support that and it is probably the reason. I'm trying to and understand why so many of the sites would be losing it (in other words I'm curious what types of radios are hitting them during the day - volunteers (but why would they shut it off at night), non-emergency units (maintenance, etc) or actual apparatus). I'm also curious why sites that have good to great footprints in the fire districts wouldn't carry them since there are in theory a good number of radios tuned in.

I did put in Silver Heights which I sometimes get a weak signal last night and I heard traffic on 1053 almost immediately.

 

[jimmnn]

Have you compared the traffic you are hearing directly vs the traffic on the dougco fire feeds online or even the available archives?

Remember also Silver Heights would be the CRFD traffic, the busiest of those 1053 depts.

The others are slower Franktown, Larkspur, Jackson etc and may not even have an overnight call many nights.

Jim<

 

[MikeyB]

Have you compared the traffic you are hearing directly vs the traffic on the dougco fire feeds online or even the available archives?

Remember also Silver Heights would be the CRFD traffic, the busiest of those 1053 depts.

The others are slower Franktown, Larkspur, Jackson etc and may not even have an overnight call many nights.

Jim<

I have not compared them. I have compared to 151.115 which I hear with a good bit of static but I can understand them. So I can listen to 151.115 and 1053 at the same time and hear when the traffic is not the same.

I have a question then on when radios are on and off. For a staffed department like Castle Rock will their apparatus radios be on all of the time? What about an all-volunteer department like Jackson 105 or North Central Elbert? Will they be on all of the time or only when going to a call? Do volunteers typically have radios that would leave on at all times? Some volunteer departments such as Golden and Sable Altura pop up all over the place.

Silver Heights gives good coverage for Castle Rock but I hear Castle Rock PD 100% of the time on Riley and Westcreek as well as Silver Heights and granted they would probably have more radios but they cover the same area. And even the smallest of departments like Federal Heights PD can usually be heard on up to 4 towers.

I think I will log which Radio IDs I log on the towers and try to match up with what unit they are.

 

[abqscan]

Most FF's don't leave their radios on all night waiting for a call. They have other means of getting dispatched like pagers and station alerting options.

 

[Toneslider12]

At night all of the radios in the rig are powered off until the truck is started up and unless someone leaves a portable on all night those would be off and waiting in the rig too. The only radios that would for sure be on are the base radios in the fire house (Castle Rock, Franktown 181 & 184, Larkspur 161 & 162 and maybe Jackson 142) that are connected with the FirstIn alerting system. They aren't set to scan so TG 1053 would be the only one monitored.

None of the other stations have FirstIn, so there's no reason for their radios to be on if they have any.

Most of the Doug / Elbert volunteers use Minitor pagers or something similar that tone off of 151.115 for all DougCo and on the individual department freq's for Elbert County. Many of the volunteers have an 800 portable but likely wouldn't turn it on until their pager sounded.

I agree with Erick on the night time answer...During the day Medics are transporting, Chiefs are going to meetings and Volunteers are going to work into the metro area.

 

[MikeyB]

At night all of the radios in the rig are powered off until the truck is started up and unless someone leaves a portable on all night those would be off and waiting in the rig too. The only radios that would for sure be on are the base radios in the fire house (Castle Rock, Franktown 181 & 184, Larkspur 161 & 162 and maybe Jackson 142) that are connected with the FirstIn alerting system. They aren't set to scan so TG 1053 would be the only one monitored.

None of the other stations have FirstIn, so there's no reason for their radios to be on if they have any.

Most of the Doug / Elbert volunteers use Minitor pagers or something similar that tone off of 151.115 for all DougCo and on the individual department freq's for Elbert County. Many of the volunteers have an 800 portable but likely wouldn't turn it on until their pager sounded.

I agree with Erick on the night time answer...During the day Medics are transporting, Chiefs are going to meetings and Volunteers are going to work into the metro area.

Thanks for putting in terms I understand! All is not lost, I guess I just have to listen to 151.115 at night!

It looks like the staffed stations are using FirstIn. Would Elizabeth 271 and 273 have it since they are staffed (or are they only staffed during the day?). Too bad none of them hit the towers I hear. I imagine Franktown and Silver Heights would have them. Has anybody else listened to them at night?

 

[Toneslider12]

Glad that helps a little. As far as I know, Elizabeth has not installed FirstIn in their fire stations but it's something that could happen. Elizabeth as well as the other DougCo stations all have Minitor pager base units in the firehouse that can tone, open up the PA and alert the station as a back up or as primary for much lower cost.

 

[MikeyB]

Or there is a simpler explanation. I'm embarrassed that somehow that bank got put into STAT mode so it was locked on the first tower (Chevron). I had checked it before and it had been fine and I had noted it going through multiple towers. Anyways, I have been hearing Douglas County FD again - mainly on Riley and Westcreek. Maybe the scanner had locked somehow? Anyways it was neat to learn about the systems in the trucks and which departments have them and which don't.

 

[abqscan]

Do you mean that the TSYS was in ROAM mode, not STAT? Roam mode tells the scanner to lock onto the 1st CC it hears and to only listen to that CC until the signal drops below the threshold you have set up. In Stat mode, the scanner will scan every CC it can hear.

 

[MikeyB]

Do you mean that the TSYS was in ROAM mode, not STAT? Roam mode tells the scanner to lock onto the 1st CC it hears and to only listen to that CC until the signal drops below the threshold you have set up. In Stat mode, the scanner will scan every CC it can hear.

Yes - you are right. Actually I think it somehow went to Multisite off. Not sure when because when I first posted the problem it was in Stationary - I checked and double-checked everything. At least this is what it was in Win500. Anyways I've been hearing good at night now.

 

[abqscan]

Now that would make sense. I'm glad you got it figured out!