LFD no longer broadcasting MVC locations

[hotpocket]

I’m sure a lot of people have noticed whenever there is an MVC call in London, dispatch is no longer giving the location over the air. They say to “check your printout for details “. This is no doubt as a result of tow companies like 519 tow arriving to the scene long before LFD does with multiple tow trucks.

I know at least to me this is infuriating. It causes more traffic congestion, can lead to secondary collisions because of rubber necking, and is completely unnecessary. The fact that LFD had to resort to only giving the location on the printout shows how much of a problem it is.

We all know that seconds count in an emergency. Where before the crews would hear the location over their station speakers while they are putting their gear on, now they have to add an additional step before they can actually get to the scene. At least LFD has come up with an innovative solution to the problem rather than just throwing encryption on, but if crap like this keeps happening, I fear we will have even less to listen to in our hobby. Thoughts guys?

 

[VA3ADP]

I’m sure a lot of people have noticed whenever there is an MVC call in London, dispatch is no longer giving the location over the air. They say to “check your printout for details “. This is no doubt as a result of tow companies like 519 tow arriving to the scene long before LFD does with multiple tow trucks. I know at least to me this is infuriating. It causes more traffic congestion, can lead to secondary collisions because of rubber necking, and is completely unnecessary. The fact that LFD had to resort to only giving the location on the printout shows how much of a problem it is. We all know that seconds count in an emergency. Where before the crews would hear the location over their station speakers while they are putting their gear on, now they have to add an additional step before they can actually get to the scene. At least LFD has come up with an innovative solution to the problem rather than just throwing encryption on, but if crap like this keeps happening, I fear we will have even less to listen to in our hobby. Thoughts guys?

I do agree that information is key in an emergency. But I doubt this will keep many of them away since EMS still broadcasts many details over the air. More importantly, I do appreciate LFD's commitment to transparency and not enabling ENC

 

[hotpocket]

Well with the PSRN getting going, they might not have anywhere to get the information from. I’m not even upset about us not being able to hear it. It’s more because I know that response times are going to increase. Any little extra time that they have to take, even if it’s only a second or two, can cause an exponential increase in the response times down the line. And it is so unnecessary.

But I definitely agree with you on the fact that they could probably have made the switch to ENC really easily, but for now anyway, they’ve come up with a solution that will make thing’s a little more complicated for the undesirables. Don’t get me wrong, if they were just driving around and happened upon a crash that’s totally different. But I’ve seen in the cabs of the tow trucks. They almost always have a scanner mounted and it’s usually locked on one talkgroup so they don’t miss anything

 

[Gymbag]

Well with the PSRN getting going, they might not have anywhere to get the information from. I’m not even upset about us not being able to hear it. It’s more because I know that response times are going to increase. Any little extra time that they have to take, even if it’s only a second or two, can cause an exponential increase in the response times down the line. And it is so unnecessary.

But I definitely agree with you on the fact that they could probably have made the switch to ENC really easily, but for now anyway, they’ve come up with a solution that will make thing’s a little more complicated for the undesirables. Don’t get me wrong, if they were just driving around and happened upon a crash that’s totally different. But I’ve seen in the cabs of the tow trucks. They almost always have a scanner mounted and it’s usually locked on one talkgroup so they don’t miss anything

Response times aren’t going increase, give your head a shake 🤦‍♂️. How long do you think it takes to grab a piece of paper from a printer. They aren’t being sent out by carrier pigeons.

 

[Forts]

This has been going on for several months now, and is directly due to the tows. And yes, once EMS encrypts that should definitely help things. From speaking with some friends at LFD they have had tows camping out across from their halls then following them to calls. It's just crazy. Hopefully LFD doesn't decide to encrypt due to all this BS.

 

[hotpocket]

From speaking with some friends at LFD they have had tows camping out across from their halls then following them to calls. It's just crazy. Hopefully LFD doesn't decide to encrypt due to all this BS.

I mean if tows are doing that it wouldn’t really matter if it’s encrypted or not. I think it directly relates to council relaxing the rules and removing the restriction of Ross being contracted to the police calls. The system that they have right now definitely doesn’t work. They should have it on a rotation based system where one month it’s one company, and only that company is allowed to respond to collisions unless the person calls themselves. Then the next month it switches to a different company

 

[bluwest]

Chasing needs to be made illegal. Simple solution to a simple problem.

 

[mmisk]

Well with the PSRN getting going, they might not have anywhere to get the information from. I’m not even upset about us not being able to hear it. It’s more because I know that response times are going to increase. Any little extra time that they have to take, even if it’s only a second or two, can cause an exponential increase in the response times down the line. And it is so unnecessary.

But I definitely agree with you on the fact that they could probably have made the switch to ENC really easily, but for now anyway, they’ve come up with a solution that will make thing’s a little more complicated for the undesirables. Don’t get me wrong, if they were just driving around and happened upon a crash that’s totally different. But I’ve seen in the cabs of the tow trucks. They almost always have a scanner mounted and it’s usually locked on one talkgroup so they don’t miss anything

Here in Ottawa, the fire department is now fully encrypted, along with the police.
When the new and very unreliable LRT had a serious derailment that shut down the system for weeks, they turned on encryption to hide what was going on. It is still ENC. Not much to listen to in Ottawa anymore.

 

[mciupa]

Meanwhile . . . . Back in London, Ontario . . .

 

[gary123]

I have heard that some of the diehard tow operators are playing follow the firetruck. If true, that kind of behavior is only going to end up one way. Encryption.

Anyone with common sense would see 'you may get a tow' today but if you essentially force LFD and other services across the province/country to go the encryption route you will not get any tows and will have lost a 'tool' the towing industry uses. I know this will fall on deaf ears, greed and stupidity often deafens and blinds people to realities.

Fair warning many many radios now in service have encryption built into them. Encrypting a service can be done literally in hours if the desire is there to do it. The same applies to changing existing keys and even algorithms.