Horry County SC

[CFP387]

Guys, I'm heading down next week over Thanksgiving with my G5 and will be staying near the Sky Wheel on the Pavilion. I just checked the database for Horry County and noticed a few changes. After reading this thread in it's entirety, I just have a few questions.

Since I'm strictly looking to monitor Fire / EMS traffic, should I monitor all Fire Dispatch and individual station alert talk groups including the primary TAC channels (1, 2 and 3) for Horry County?

 

[k3sls]

The county voice dispatch (TGID 6091) is now silent and replaced with alphanumeric VHF paging. You will still hear incident response transmissions and some abbreviated dispatch on the three TAC channels (TGIDs 6080, 6081, 6082) for all HCFR units. 6081 would be the primary for your location. HCFR dispatches all EMS units for the area. MBFD may still dispatch FD units on 6250 and tone on the individual station alert TGIDs...but I'm not positive on that.

 

[rescue674aa]

POCSAG

Does anyone have the cap codes for the pagers?

 

[k3sls]

Does anyone have the cap codes for the pagers?

Frequency is 155.0925 mHz NFM

Cap codes for Horry County FR are formatted 0ss0taa where left to right:
0 always zero
ss station number as in 01 - 46
0 always zero
t apparatus type as in 1=fire 2=medical
aa apparatus number as in 01, 02, 03=engine;04=truck or ladder;06,07=rescue or brush;05=medic
Example 0180101 is engine 181, 0320205 is medic 32

Cap codes for North Myrtle Beach Fire are formatted 0700saa where left to right:
070 in North Myrtle Beach FR
0 always 0
s North Myrtle Beach station numbers 1-5
aa apparatus number
Example 0700401 is engine 741

HCFR station location list is at http://horrycountyfirerescue.com/station-information/
NMBFR station location list is at Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Officer’s – City of North Myrtle Beach – Public Safety
MBFD station location list is at City of Myrtle Beach Fire Department

I have not yet documented MBFD cap codes, but would guess they are 0610xxx-0660xxx for stations 1-6. There are also several other small municipalities as well as volunteer rescue groups using the system 077, 088 (NMBRS), etc...

 

[brian]

Frequency is 155.0925 mHz NFM

Cap codes for Horry County FR are formatted 0ss0taa where left to right:
0 always zero
ss station number as in 01 - 46
0 always zero
t apparatus type as in 1=fire 2=medical
aa apparatus number as in 01, 02, 03=engine;04=truck or ladder;06,07=rescue or brush;05=medic
Example 0180101 is engine 181, 0320205 is medic 32

Cap codes for North Myrtle Beach Fire are formatted 0700saa where left to right:
070 in North Myrtle Beach FR
0 always 0
s North Myrtle Beach station numbers 1-5
aa apparatus number
Example 0700401 is engine 741

HCFR station location list is at http://horrycountyfirerescue.com/station-information/
NMBFR station location list is at Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Officer’s – City of North Myrtle Beach – Public Safety
MBFD station location list is at City of Myrtle Beach Fire Department

I have not yet documented MBFD cap codes, but would guess they are 0610xxx-0660xxx for stations 1-6. There are also several other small municipalities as well as volunteer rescue groups using the system 077, 088 (NMBRS), etc...

This very useful information has been added to the Horry County FR Wiki page.

Excellent work! Thanks for sharing.

 

[IronsMan]

This very useful information has been added to the Horry County FR Wiki page.

Excellent work! Thanks for sharing.

A little clarification and some more on the CAPCODES:

By watching PDW, I have able to figure out much of the following:

Last four unit digits:
0101 Engines (and squads) with the exception of SQ1. For some reason SQ1 is assigned 0307
(A squad in HCFR is an engine with extrication, RIT, and some hazmat abilities)
0104 Ladders and Towers
0205 Medic units - ALS transport
0215 Basic units - BLS transport
0306 Brush trucks
I think the rehab units are assigned 0399 but not real sure.

Other station assignments:
090=Battalion Chief station assignment: 0301=BC1, 0302=BC2, 0303=BC3
095=Rescue station assignment: 0102=R2, 0103=R3
096=Medical officer station assignment. I think 0200 is a general announcement and 0201=EMS1, 0202=EMS2, and 0203=EMS3
075=Investigator station assignment: 0101=INV1, 0102=INV2, 0103=INV3

 

[k3sls]

A little clarification and some more on the CAPCODES:

By watching PDW, I have able to figure out much of the following:

Last four unit digits:
0101 Engines (and squads) with the exception of SQ1. For some reason SQ1 is assigned 0307
(A squad in HCFR is an engine with extrication, RIT, and some hazmat abilities)
0104 Ladders and Towers
0205 Medic units - ALS transport
0215 Basic units - BLS transport
0306 Brush trucks
I think the rehab units are assigned 0399 but not real sure.

I also gathered most of my info through PDW and comparing with realtime dispatching. But there appears to be some inconsistent unit assignments...i.e. Tower 2 and Tower 7 both carry 102 unit #s, and even more odd, Rescue 18 carries a 102 unit #. I've also identified at least two brush units ending in "7"...Brush 2 carries a 107 unit # and Brush 7 carries a 317 unit #. It's possible those stations have multiple brush units.

Maybe some unit #s are from an earlier era and they decided to avoid reassigning and relabeling the unit #s?

 

[CFP387]

The county voice dispatch (TGID 6091) is now silent and replaced with alphanumeric VHF paging. You will still hear incident response transmissions and some abbreviated dispatch on the three TAC channels (TGIDs 6080, 6081, 6082) for all HCFR units. 6081 would be the primary for your location. HCFR dispatches all EMS units for the area. MBFD may still dispatch FD units on 6250 and tone on the individual station alert TGIDs...but I'm not positive on that.

Thanks Steve! I've got all those and a few more in my G5 and it's ready to go.

 

[IronsMan]

I also gathered most of my info through PDW and comparing with realtime dispatching. But there appears to be some inconsistent unit assignments...i.e. Tower 2 and Tower 7 both carry 102 unit #s, and even more odd, Rescue 18 carries a 102 unit #. I've also identified at least two brush units ending in "7"...Brush 2 carries a 107 unit # and Brush 7 carries a 317 unit #. It's possible those stations have multiple brush units.

Maybe some unit #s are from an earlier era and they decided to avoid reassigning and relabeling the unit #s?

I have checked my logs against responses and Tower 2 and Tower 7. They definitely have the 104 unit identifiers. The 317 unit identifier you are seeing at Station 7 is the utility truck (no brush truck there). The utility truck is a Chevy 1500 pickup.

Station 7's unit identifiers are as follows (All confirmed against response):
0070101: Engine 7
0070104: Tower 7
0070205: Medic 7
0070317: Utility 7

Station 2 is a little more of a complex story. It houses the following units (All confirmed against response unless otherwise noted):
Engine 2: 0020101
Tower 2: 0020104
Medic 2: 0020205
Brush 2: 0020306
Marine 2: Haven't confirmed - may be the 0020107 that you found
Boat 2: Haven't logged a response yet

Rescue 1 and Rescue 18 are no more as of approximately two or three years ago. The rig and personnel for R1 were reassigned to Station 45 and renamed as R2. The rig and personnel for R18 were reassigned to Station 27 and renamed as R3. Rescues are identified by the Battalion they are assigned. R2 (0950102) for Battalion 2 and R3 (0950103) for Battalion 3. There is no R1 at the moment so R2 is at Sta 45 to provide a central location for the east side of Battalion 1 and Battalion 2. R3 covers the west side of Battalion 1 and Battalion 3.

 

[k3sls]

Perhaps some of those calls I logged were either dispatcher errors or the station turned out a different unit than originally paged. For example, the page/voice dispatch I recorded some time back to 0070317 was definitely called out as a brush unit...I remember that and put multiple question marks in the log because it didn't sound right!

Saw a page today to 0180101 and the responding unit turned out to be Squad 18, not Engine 181. I'm surmising each station has some discretion as to what apparatus is sent as long as the response is effective. I've also heard stations turn out alternate apparatus due to staffing, probably more likely at volunteer stations.

The unit numbering doesn't matter much when using PDW because of the wild card capability. Gets a little more complicated when programming a pager where you need capcode tied to an apparatus ID for effective use.

Anywho...seems to be confusing at times!

 

[k3sls]

Also Tanker apparatus may carry 108 capcodes. Saw/heard Tankers 28, 15 and 9 dispatched.

Still a learning experience!

 

[IronsMan]

A little clarification and some more on the CAPCODES:

By watching PDW, I have able to figure out much of the following:

Last four unit digits:
0101 Engines (and squads) with the exception of SQ1. For some reason SQ1 is assigned 0307
(A squad in HCFR is an engine with extrication, RIT, and some hazmat abilities)
0104 Ladders and Towers
0205 Medic units - ALS transport
0215 Basic units - BLS transport
0306 Brush trucks
I think the rehab units are assigned 0399 but not real sure.

Other station assignments:
090=Battalion Chief station assignment: 0301=BC1, 0302=BC2, 0303=BC3
095=Rescue station assignment: 0102=R2, 0103=R3
096=Medical officer station assignment. I think 0200 is a general announcement and 0201=EMS1, 0202=EMS2, and 0203=EMS3
075=Investigator station assignment: 0101=INV1, 0102=INV2, 0103=INV3

Perhaps some of those calls I logged were either dispatcher errors or the station turned out a different unit than originally paged. For example, the page/voice dispatch I recorded some time back to 0070317 was definitely called out as a brush unit...I remember that and put multiple question marks in the log because it didn't sound right!

Saw a page today to 0180101 and the responding unit turned out to be Squad 18, not Engine 181. I'm surmising each station has some discretion as to what apparatus is sent as long as the response is effective. I've also heard stations turn out alternate apparatus due to staffing, probably more likely at volunteer stations.

The unit numbering doesn't matter much when using PDW because of the wild card capability. Gets a little more complicated when programming a pager where you need capcode tied to an apparatus ID for effective use.

Anywho...seems to be confusing at times!

Squad 18 is Engine 18... I know... It's a little confusing. HCFR decided to make four apparatus into Squads. They are engine companies that have extra extrication gear, RIT capabilities, and limited HAZMAT abilities. The apparatus itself is no different than an engine. It just has extra equipment. The four rigs are E1 became SQ1, E3 became SQ3, E6 became SQ6, and E18 became SQ18. All unit identifiers are the same as engines (0101) except for SQ1 which is 0307 for some weird reason.

You're right about the tankers being 0108.

 

[IronsMan]

Perhaps some of those calls I logged were either dispatcher errors or the station turned out a different unit than originally paged. For example, the page/voice dispatch I recorded some time back to 0070317 was definitely called out as a brush unit...I remember that and put multiple question marks in the log because it didn't sound right!

Saw a page today to 0180101 and the responding unit turned out to be Squad 18, not Engine 181. I'm surmising each station has some discretion as to what apparatus is sent as long as the response is effective. I've also heard stations turn out alternate apparatus due to staffing, probably more likely at volunteer stations.

The unit numbering doesn't matter much when using PDW because of the wild card capability. Gets a little more complicated when programming a pager where you need capcode tied to an apparatus ID for effective use.

Anywho...seems to be confusing at times!

Oh yeah, forgot to add... You may have been correct in hearing a brush unit as 0070317. If I am not mistaken, HCFR staffs and takes a brush truck to Atlantic Beach for Memorial Weekend and it may have been called Brush 7. Maybe they just used the Utility's pager. I don't know if they do the same thing for fireworks displays on the beach, but unless something changed recently there is no brush truck kept there.

 

[k3sls]

Thanks for the Squad clarification.

One other interest thing...on 11/17 there was a flood of test pages to 00202nn. Somewhere around 30 or more pages. I'm taking a WAG here that each station 2 responder was issued (or is about to be issued) individual pagers and this was a confirmation test?

Some additional test pages went to station 1 as well, but nothing like the flood for station 2.

 

[IronsMan]

Thanks for the Squad clarification.

One other interest thing...on 11/17 there was a flood of test pages to 00202nn. Somewhere around 30 or more pages. I'm taking a WAG here that each station 2 responder was issued (or is about to be issued) individual pagers and this was a confirmation test?

Some additional test pages went to station 1 as well, but nothing like the flood for station 2.

Interesting. I don't know whats going on there.

 

[k3sls]

Interesting. I don't know whats going on there.

I can send you the log if any interest. Can't tell much other than "test page" text and a new capcode.

 

[ocn29rsc]

anyone else using a G-5?

 

[k3sls]

anyone else using a G-5?

Yes, x 2. One in the house, one mobile and carry.

 

[ocn29rsc]

I don't see Pocsg is the programming?

 

[k3sls]

I don't see Pocsg is the programming?

See response in the other thread you started:

https://forums.radioreference.com/unication-forum/362028-g-5-pocsag.html#post2844894