Jasper County Fire Dispatch Tone Out PL Tones

[SCPD]

I have been monitoring the Jasper County Fire Dept. Dispatcher doing her 6pm Tone Out Radio Test and I have made a list of all the PL-Tones for each Fire Dept. but I might be missing a few because she switches towers for the towns on the other side of the County. I am hoping one of you guys might be in an area that receives the other PL Tones and help me complete this list for submission to RR later.

These are what I have confirmed so far:

VHF 154.415..............................UHF 453.3125
173.8-Monroe Fire.......................192.8
186.2-Prairie City Fire .................173.8
179.9-Lynnville / Sully Fire...........203.5
162.2-Kellogg Fire.......................186.2
131.8-Reasnor Fire......................192.8

Still Need:
Lambs Grove Fire
Oakland Acres Fire
Valeria Fire

Not sure if these towns have their own frequency like Baxter & Colfax

 

[N0GX]

I'm not 100 percent sure, but I would guess that none of those three have their own FD as they are literally spots in the road.

 

[SCPD]

Thanks for the info I sometimes get these real weak signals with low audio as she calls out to some other stations but I can't make out the town and the scanner can't decode the PL too weak and broken to get a good fix. I need and outdoor antenna real bad!

Baxter Fire has a repeater 154.190 PL-141.3
Colfax & Mingo Fire share a repeater 156.1575 PL 151.4
Newton Fire has a repeater 154.355 DPL 432

I thought I heard someone say they might also dispatch for Grinnell but that town is outside the county so I don't know for sure.

This sure is a fun project I am really enjoying searching for all this information

Dave

 

[N0GX]

Grinnell may cover Oakland Acres, could be Kellogg too though.

 

[SCPD]

Oakland Acres is on our side of the fence and I think I may have heard that one me or Lambs Grove being mentioned with Newton. She calls Newton twice Volunteers and then first responders they get the same tone out DPL-432 I recall hearing a name too next time I will listen harder.

 

[cwsplinter]

There are ten fire/ems departments in the county Baxter, Mingo, Colfax, Prairie City, Monroe, Reasnor Newton, Kellogg, Sully, and Lynnville. The PL tones are to access the different tower sites. The UHF frequency is a link between dispatch and the different tower sites. I’m not sure exactly how the UHF link works so if anyone has info to share I would appreciate it.

Newton has tones for their paid fire department, volunteers, ambulance, and code 2. Code 2 is for recall of all available personnel in the event of a large fire. Newton only pages off of the 154.355 frequency but has been operating off of PS1 which was designed to be a public safety repeater for the county and for more than just there operations. Newton was supposed to be getting a repeater of their own but it’s been almost a year and nothing has happened. All the fire and ambulance vehicles in the county are currently programmed for a Newton repeater that isn’t there (151.355 transmit 154.355 receive).

The county use to page out Grinnell for fires in our county but I don’t think they do that anymore. Grinnell covers over to about Oakland Acres.

All of the PL tones you have are correct with my list.

154.415 Tower Sites/PL Tones:
Prairie City water tower…………………186.2
Monroe water tower……………………..173.8
Jasper County Sheriff’s Office…………131.8
Kellogg water tower……………………….162.2
Sully water tower……………………………203.5

Repeater Tower Sites:
Baxter water tower (154.190 repeater)……….141.3
Colfax water tower (156.1575 repeater)………151.4

 

[SCPD]

This is great, thanks so much for the reply I was hoping there would be a few more Jasper County fans out there or at least someone else who knows the area and the frequencies and systems used over here.

I heard radio tech's doing audio testing all day on 154.695 the Public Safety Repeater in Newton and to date I have yet to hear anyone but them use it.

159.2175 is connected to 453.3125 that is connected to 12 transmitter sites and one control point 45 radios total using the system, or something like that!
Frequency.........Station Class.....Units........Output Power.....Maximum ERP
159.2175...........MO..................45.............2.500.................2.500
159.2175...........MO3................45.............5.000.................5.000
453.3125...........FB2.................1..............40.000................32.500
458.3125...........FX1..................12............25.000................80.400

 

[timkilbride]

The UHF frequency is simply a back haul(Point to Point) frequency from dispatcher to remote transmitter and remote receiver to dispatcher. The mobile units do NOT use the UHF frequency. A lot of counties in Iowa use this technology or something similar. Ie. Iowa, Poweshiek, Benton, Tama to name a few. Some UHF links are semi-duplex(uses same frequency for TX & RX) and full-duplex(one frequency for dispatcher to transmitter and another frequency for remote receiver to dispatcher).

I have the UHF frequencies in my scanner and will usually only listen in during a working call. This lets you hear all the handheld to handheld traffic that you couldn't normally hear from a distance.

Tim

 

[IowaGuy1603]

Oakland Acres is on our side of the fence

That doesn't mean much..................For example the Martelle Fire Department covers parts of Jones County (where Martelle is located) parts of Linn County and a small portion of Cedar County

They are dispatched by Jones County even though a large percentage of their coverage area is in Linn couunty

 

[timkilbride]

That doesn't mean much..................For example the Martelle Fire Department covers parts of Jones County (where Martelle is located) parts of Linn County and a small portion of Cedar County

They are dispatched by Jones County even though a large percentage of their coverage area is in Linn couunty

Things can get tricky near the edges of the counties. I have never heard of two different counties being able to dispatch a single fire department. Only one of two(or three) did the dispatching. Response times get delayed because the counties can't decide which FD to page out, or page out the wrong one.

Tim

 

[SCPD]

I have not heard Grinnell get toned out yet so I don't think they are being dispatched by Jasper. They are working on the radios however heard more of the radio techs "Testing 1234" on 155.520 and the public safety repeater in Newton has been used by the Newton fire dept, to report clear in quarters 159.3225.

When conditions are right other near by counties come in loud and clear and what's is really neat is when a really long distant user pops up on the EDACS RACOM system too.

 

[timkilbride]

I have not heard Grinnell get toned out yet so I don't think they are being dispatched by Jasper. They are working on the radios however heard more of the radio techs "Testing 1234" on 155.520 and the public safety repeater in Newton has been used by the Newton fire dept, to report clear in quarters 159.3225.

When conditions are right other near by counties come in loud and clear and what's is really neat is when a really long distant user pops up on the EDACS RACOM system too.

Grinnell Fire is dispatched on their own frequency, its listed in DB.

The RACOM network covers several states and has roaming capabilities. It is common to hear "distant" counties. It basically means one of there cars(usually a jail transport van/car) has affiliated to the site you are listening too. Run unitrunker on a CC sometime and just see how much stuff you can't hear!

Tim

 

[SCPD]

159.2175 Jasper County Sheriff

159.2175 is some kind of link or a low power Mobile/Vehicular Repeater and it is licensed to the Jasper County Sheriff I assumed because it was under the same license and with 453.3125 it was part of the county fire dept. Turns out I hear the sheriff on it tonight, first it was full scale in the mobile this afternoon and this evening I still hear it pretty good hear at home on the scanner.

It sounds just like 169.175 when it was active here in Prairie City same clicking noise while it's transmitting, no PL-Tone. Soon after I posted that find on here it was shut down within a few days I have not heard 169.175 ever since maybe this was where they moved the mobile extender traffic too?

Dave

 

[IowaGuy1603]

Things can get tricky near the edges of the counties. I have never heard of two different counties being able to dispatch a single fire department. Only one of two(or three) did the dispatching. Response times get delayed because the counties can't decide which FD to page out, or page out the wrong one.

Tim

Marion Fire department can be paged out by Marion PD, Linn County Sheriff or CRPD .


I realize that all three agencies are in the same county but they are three separate PSAP's and do have the ability to page out the same fire agency.

 

[SCPD]

I messed up on the UHF list and I am missing Reasnor Fire PL-Tone, this evening at 6pm or so when she gets around to it I will confirm all the UHF Tones, I have the VHF 100% verified using a better radio than a scanner to decode the tones. After this is done I will move onto these vehicle mobile extenders and sneaky simplex frequencies hits using the Close Call

 

[SCPD]

Here are all the tower locations:

154.415

BAXTER......Coordinates: 41° 49' 32.9".....N, 93° 8' 47.7" W

COLFAX.......Coordinates: 41° 40' 30.0".....N, 93° 14' 47.7" W......and Mingo

NEWTON.....Coordinates: 41° 40' 45.7"....N, 92° 59' 33.8" W.....For Reasnor Fire

KELLOGG....Coordinates: 41° 43' 9.1".....N, 92° 54' 23.1" W

PRAIRIE......Coordinates: 41° 35' 48.2".....N, 93° 14' 16.4" W

MONROE.....Coordinates: 41° 31' 19.2".....N, 93° 6' 4.5" W....For Sully & Lynnville Fire

453.3125

NEWTON.....Coordinates: 41° 40' 45.7"....N, 92° 59' 33.8" W........All stations are dispatched from this tower, that would explain why the signal strength is the same for each dept.

 

[jimlawrence]

You are correct, Dave. Grinnell fire isn't dispatched by Jasper; it's handled by Poweshiek Co., as is Midwest ambulance in the Grinnell area. I listen to both all the time on their Grinnell link frequency, 453.6125. Grinnell fire also handles calls right up to the Jasper Co. line. I heard them get called out to a field fire last week very near the county line. I still haven't figured out when Midwest pops up on RACOM and when they use their VHF dispatch frequency but then again, I'm new to the area so I'll get it figured out.

6:00pm each evening is a good time to monitor 453.3125 but you've got to be quick and paying attention. The dispatcher cycles through all the departments then with test tones for each department; each having its own CTCSS.

Thanks for posting these! Very helpful!

--Jim
Sunny Grinnell, Iowa

 

[SCPD]

I had fun making that list took awhile too, kept me busy. RACOM is pretty cool they have old school VHF & UHF systems patched into the 800 MHz trunked EDACS a very simple easy to monitor system. I monitor the Polk County Sheriff on RACOM all day long and you hear LEA, Polk Link, Mutual Aid frequencies other police depts on UHF and VHF security guards at some casino all kinds of mixed stuff

 

[Plainsman170]

Prairie City Fire & EMS

I have been monitoring the Jasper County Fire Dept. Dispatcher doing her 6pm Tone Out Radio Test and I have made a list of all the PL-Tones for each Fire Dept. but I might be missing a few because she switches towers for the towns on the other side of the County. I am hoping one of you guys might be in an area that receives the other PL Tones and help me complete this list for submission to RR later.

Each town should also have tones for Ambulance Services as well, For instance PC Fire has its own tone and the Ambulance has its own tone as well. I used to serve on the ambulance in the late 80's which I miss alot and now that I live in MN I can only listen in on Radio Reference but the only feed is coming from someone who only has the Colfax tower programmed in.
I am not sure if this has changed since I moved so I am hoping it is still the same way.

These are what I have confirmed so far:

VHF 154.415..............................UHF 453.3125
173.8-Monroe Fire.......................192.8
186.2-Prairie City Fire .................173.8
179.9-Lynnville / Sully Fire...........203.5
162.2-Kellogg Fire.......................186.2
131.8-Reasnor Fire......................192.8

Still Need:
Lambs Grove Fire
Oakland Acres Fire
Valeria Fire

Not sure if these towns have their own frequency like Baxter & Colfax

I know that PC has its own base station set up in the fire station and PC also has their own city channel for the city workers as well.

Also for reference I know that there is also a channel which is called City Freq and was known by Les when he was chief and Mike over in Monroe I am not sure which frequency that was.

 

[SCPD]

The only frequency licensed to the City of Prairie City sits dormant and is not used "453.200" with a PL of 107.2 a repeater that works but they don't use it. The only other repeaters in town are 463.225 PL 151.4 on the grain elevator belonging to Heartland Co Op they use it and the other 461.775 is the PCM schools with a DPL of 546 and they use theirs too but that's about it. I have been searching and scanning for 3 months and so far the only thing I found here in PC was 169.175 used as some kind of mobile relay or car extender but soon after I reported this find it was shut down and I have not heard it since.

It sure has been fun looking to see who use's what out of this list of county of Jasper frequencies and what the units numbers are for police and fire and the radio codes they use I have been documenting all this for reference to make scanning here more enjoyable so I know who is calling the dispatcher and vise versa. As a new comer to the state I enjoy being able to just scan again where I came from even the newest most expensive top of the line police scanners are useless it's all encrypted

Dave