Fairfield Co and Lancaster

[WeldGuy]

Does Violet Fire have its own TGID... I hope???

 

[ibagli]

No, they're on the MECC talkgroups with the other five departments.

 

[WeldGuy]

OK... thanks to your help, I have good coverage now for Fairfield County Sheriff, Pickerington PD and OSP. The last piece of my coverage is Violet Fire. I have it programmed using MECC in MARCS and have tried using both the Columbus MARCS frequencies and Franklin County MARCS frequencies but have heard no activity. I remembered to select Fire and EMS Service Types. I also verified that Scan was checked.

I tried the Columbus and Franklin County MARCS frequencies because MECC is in Franklin County. I have not tried the Fairfield County (Lancaster) frequencies.

Any suggestions???

 

[au1344]

MECC is on the Columbus City site (1-10)

 

[WeldGuy]

So, the same as I have used for FCSO and Pick PD, right?

 

[au1344]

Should be the same as FCSO. Pickerington shouldn't affiliate to that site but for all I know it might. The control channel is 859.2125

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

 

[W8RMH]

So, the same as I have used for FCSO and Pick PD, right?

No. Fairfield County and Pickerington use the Columbus MARCS (state) site 016 (and the Lancaster (state) site 011). MECC uses the Columbus 'City' site 010. They are supposed to be building a new site around Baltimore which should allow coverage to the northern portion of the county. (They may or may not continue to affiliate with Columbus MARCS after that).

MECC area police agencies use the Columbus MARCS site 016, Gahanna, Bexley, Whitehall, and New Albany. (they switched to MARCS before Franklin County and Columbus did so the state site was the only one available at that time).

(Remember when using 'FCSO' it could be Fairfield County, Fayette County, or Franklin County, which may cause some confusion).

 

[WeldGuy]

That could explain nothing heard yesterday afternoon and evening. I'll redo the frequencies again.

I mentioned Fairfield County Sheriff in my question, so shortcut second mention with FCSO, but it can be confusing.

Thanks for your help. I'll let you know if I get it figured out.

 

[au1344]

(Remember when using 'FCSO' it could be Fairfield County, Fayette County, or Franklin County, which may cause some confusion).

Yep, I saw FCSO in the question and my mind immediately said Franklin County since they do affiliate to Site 10.

 

[WeldGuy]

Thanks to everyone I've now got Violet Fire MECC running.
This old man would never figure it out without your help.
(Still haven't figured out where to plug in the crystals, LOL)

 

[oesjmr]

Have the Fairfield County Sheriff's Office DMR system and Pickerington's FM frequencies been officially deprecated? If so, their tags haven't been changed in the database yet.

 

[WeldGuy]

I can't speak to Pickerington PD, but I know all the Fairfield County Sheriff DMR radios were traded in to help offset the cost of the new MARCS radios.

 

[WeldGuy]

Interesting information today... I asked a Violet Fire Lieutenant at lunch today, how the new MARCS radios were working out for them. He told me Violet Fire has NOT switched yet, even though they are still being dispatched from MECC.

 

[au1344]

Interesting information today... I asked a Violet Fire Lieutenant at lunch today, how the new MARCS radios were working out for them. He told me Violet Fire has NOT switched yet, even though they are still being dispatched from MECC.

Taking a guess and thinking he doesn't realize the City of Columbus site is part of MARCS, or the less likely is that Violet is leaving MECC which I highly doubt.

 

[WeldGuy]

He nodded at his portable radio indicating it's the same one they've been using.

 

[jscott02]

They're likely using the same radios, just reprogrammed.

 

[W8RMH]

Most firefighters, as well as police officers have no knowledge about the radio systems they use. The agencies hand them a radio and say here is the volume control and this knob here changes the channels.

 

[TailGator911]

Most firefighters, as well as police officers have no knowledge about the radio systems they use. The agencies hand them a radio and say here is the volume control and this knob here changes the channels.

You said a mouthful right there. I have a younger brother, a nephew, and a cousin all police officers (late father was, too) and whenever I try to converse about their communications systems (picking their brains lol) they don't have a clue. They know where the PTT button is. For the most part, that's it. No knowledge of how a trunked system works, what frequencies they are on, nothing. My nephew (Germantown PD) knows a little about the Ohio MARCS system, but very limited knowledge. I've been trying to dig up some more talkgroups for them, to no avail. So far, all I have in my scanners for GPD are the south regional dispatch tg and south records. Would love to know what tg they utilize for car-2-car, etc.