No statewide emergency channel?

[jasonpeoria911]

Doesn't NV have a statewide emergency channel monitored by NHP? Reason I ask is because I just monitored about a 1.5 hour long Vegas pursuit and the admin/resident radios went totally out of range around US-93 midway thru Lincoln County. The suspect was aiming a gun out the passenger window and they were about 5 miles before NHP had spikes setup and kaboof all radios out of range. LVMPD dispatch contacted NHP to get updates but NHP didnt know anything until the perp swerved around the spike strips. Then LVMPD dispatch was getting updates over the phone from NHP and then she radioed them over the air for any Officers listening. This should have never happened, major Officer safety risk if the suspect happened to bail before NHP got there. At least here in IL and I know of a few other states have a statewide emergency channel that is monitored by every police department dispatch and if chases pop up on there it is run by the Highway Patrol/State Police dispatchers.

Jason

 

[TOUGHLIFE]

The NHP units in NV have both 800 MHz EDACS radios and the old VHF high band radios in them. The primary reason for the older radios is so NHP units can talk directly with most of the rural SOs' and PDs' in NV. In their programming they do have the State Mutual Aid Channel of 155.655 simplex and the National Channel of 155.4750. The EDACS radios also have the programming for the standard 800 MHz conventional mutual aid channels which they sometimes use. The older radios in the NHP vehicles also have the basic LVMPD channel lineup. Patches have been turned on a number of times to enable communications between NHP on the 800 system and Metro PD on VHF.

There was a time in NV when almost all law enforcement agencies were using VHF high band.

 

[NeFire242]

kaboof all radios out of range.

Even if you have the capability to talk to one another, if you're out of range, it won't do any good either.

 

[Grog]

major Officer safety risk if the suspect happened to bail before NHP got there.

Why? The risk is to the officers already in contact with the suspect, and not being able to tell someone where they are is not the #1 priority, Dealing with the suspect(s) is #1

 

[BirkenVogt]

Being ham radio operators as well as commercial radio technichians, and also off-road motorcycle riders, my good friend and I have travelled all over the state of Nevada. Also for emergencies we have had occasion to use radios to bring in help. Mostly finding someone who can call for a medical helicopter to be dispatched. We bring with us "frequency agile" radios.

What I can tell you is that it seems that 90% of Nevada is not covered by a radio signal of any kind. There are vast, enormous spaces of absolute nothingness, and the topography makes it such that once you get behind one or at the most two ridges, there is no more signal even though refraction would usually it possible in more gentle, more vegetated terrain.

That is one reason they may have gone out of range. If you have never had the opportunity to drive across Nevada you ought to try it sometime. Take US 50 or US 93 across the state and don't forget to get gas whenever you see some.

Birken

 

[SCPD]

I think 90% is overly pessimistic. I would bet that with a "frequency agile" radio I could do much better. I'm retired from the U.S. Forest Service and worked on the Toiyabe National Forest for 7 years and know the radio systems of the BLM and Forest Service fairly well. The number of repeaters these agencies have, combined with the "island in the sky" topography of the state (mountains surrounded by lots of flat land) makes for some pretty good radio coverage on VHF-High. The counties with VHF have repeaters on most of the sites that the feds do, except those that cover roadless backcountry.

I have a Bendix-King I purchased after retirement and carry it for emergencies when I'm in remote country, along with info about the radio systems of the area. It was modified to cover the 2m ham band also. Yes, I find blind spots, but I usually find them to not be all that large. Of course if you have an emergency and can't move out of that blind spot it doesn't matter how big the blind spot is, you are out of luck.

The move to 800 MHz in Nevada seems ill advised and this incident touches on that.

 

[BirkenVogt]

Yeah it's true due to the uniformity of the mountains and valleys that if you climb up on something you can usually find a communications link. But most of the time I find myself in some back valley where there is no link with anything.

Last time we were out on a large-ish motorcycle ride we set up a crossband link on the side of a mountain where it had communications with some 144 MHz ham repeater about 100 miles away, and went in on a 440 link. It worked excellent and we are thinking of refining the concept to just a box with an antenna that can be driven/ridden/carried to the top of a handy mountain, set up, and function until the trip is over. Very similar to the Feds' command repeaters that they use on large fires.

But what I was getting at was due to the large distances, the peculiar terrain features, and the lack of any sort of poulation or suitability for habitation, it is unlikely that much of Nevada will ever be covered other than by satellite which actually works quite well due to the lack of trees or anything to block the signal. Just expensive is all and lack of population means lack of money for things like that.

Birken