Let me help clear some things up.
When the program first started the aircraft was based at North Shore hospital on a brand new ground pad they constructed, would go to KFRG for hangar needs/weather. It moved around and would sometimes be based out of Bridgeport hospital but eventually the base was moved to its current location at KISP. The crew and aircraft operate from KISP. We are dispatched by Northwell's CEMS out of Syosset NY.
Radio communication is done in two ways. From the start of the program until last year we only had the One voice system as our communication to Northwell CEMS who handles our dispatching and flight following, its the same system Northwell uses for the rest of their ground fleet and we have our own talkgroup on it as stated previously above. We have a XPR 6550 tied into the aircrafts intercom system in order to utilize the system and goes to an external UHF aviation antenna. Radio coverage is excellent along the entire One voice network both in the air and on the ground, some dead spots do exist over Long Island sound once you get out east.
Recently we added a VHF radio channel, 155.205 PL 67.0 KCH682. Its an old AMR setup in East Haven CT that we have utilized as another option for talking to Northwell dispatch. Aircraft can talk on either frequency, dispatch is simulcasting on both at all times. There is a patch in place so that if the aircraft transmits on VHF or the one voice network, when that gets back to dispatch it is sent back out on the other freq so you can always hear both side of the conversation. Aircraft transmits 90% of the time using the One voice system, only using the VHF as needed.
We can and have done scene work but it is rare, Long Island scene work is handled by Nassau and Suffolk County PD aircraft. CT is where we have done them but its rare as Lifestar has 2 aircraft in CT and 1 in western MA so that combined with our response time to get up there doesn't lend itself to much scene work.
Regarding YNNH dispatch, all dispatching and communication for launching the aircraft are out of Northwell CEMS, Yale however has their Y Access transfer phone system that will field requests in CT for transfers in and out of Yale. Those get pushed to Northwell who then generate everything on their end to start a flight.
When we do work up in CT we talk to Lifestar on 155.385 and give a heads up to where we are and where we are going even though dispatch does that via a phone call to them.
