(ALS no contact) which also greatly reduced Med radio talk over the years.
Paramedic to Hospital Base frequencies
- Thread starter CraigLittleton
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“Med” channels are dead?
These frequencies were VERY active, but that’s going back at least 25 years. Here, in Los Angeles, “Med 1” (463.000 B/468.000 M), was the frequency used by Northridge Hospital, which was the Paramedic Base Station hospital for the West part of the San Fernando Valley. Hardly ever heard the Paramedics, unless you were within a mile or two of them, as the “Biocomm” radio was very low-power.
But I don’t remember the last time I actually heard anything on those channels. I don’t remember who was President when I least heard something.
Likely they’re using cell phones to talk to the hospitals. Those “Med” channels have been dead for a very long time.
These frequencies were VERY active, but that’s going back at least 25 years. Here, in Los Angeles, “Med 1” (463.000 B/468.000 M), was the frequency used by Northridge Hospital, which was the Paramedic Base Station hospital for the West part of the San Fernando Valley. Hardly ever heard the Paramedics, unless you were within a mile or two of them, as the “Biocomm” radio was very low-power.
But I don’t remember the last time I actually heard anything on those channels. I don’t remember who was President when I least heard something.
Likely they’re using cell phones to talk to the hospitals. Those “Med” channels have been dead for a very long time.
LA County Fire Department does not have their own ambulances, as the LA City Fire Department does. County contracts with private ambulance companies, and some of those ARE Paramedics. And they will be talking with the hospitals the same way that LA City PMs do.
Mercy Air is based in Rialto, though they used to have a unit based in LA, Orange and San Diego counties, though those have all been shut down. Mercy used to dispatch on 136.625 MHz AM, pretty sure that was it.
Mercy Air - Locations
Unless something changed in the last week, they are still very active in San Diego County (Carlsbad and Gillespie Field), along with Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties. In San Diego, they dispatch on the RCS.
scottyhetzel
Member
Mercy air is active as of a few days ago..heard them on their vhf com channel, not the am channel . They fly out of thermal.
155.22000 WPXL494 BM 127.3 PL MercyLifecom Mercy Air "Lifecom" (Southern California) FM EMS Dispatch
155.22000 WPXL494 BM 127.3 PL MercyLifecom Mercy Air "Lifecom" (Southern California) FM EMS Dispatch
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Likely you are correct. I’ve been listening to scanners for 30+ years. These frequencies USED TO BE very active, though you would only hear the mobiles (Ambulance to Hospital) if you were really, really close as those UHF radios were very low power.
However, since the proliferation of cell phones combined with people being more and more paranoid about “privacy”, most of these communications are done by cell phone or by MDT.
On rare occasions, I’ll hear some minimal activity on the HEAR channel, 155.340. But not at all like it used to be.
Thanks for that. They haven’t been heard at all here in the Los Angeles area for quite some time. We used to have “Life Flight” here, as well, but they, too went bye-bye a long time ago.
155.22? Really? I’ll have to try that. But that’s a common private ambulance channel, so you’ll likely hear a lot of IFT type calls as well. Real boring stuff. “You have a pickup at Memorial, Room 210. 54 y/o female, to County”. Yeah, exciting.
Seriously, I’ll try it. You never know.
Aero125
Member
Also in LA County some cities paramedics are trained to a higher level to use 'Standing Field Treatment Protocols' SFTP which allow them to provide drugs and treatments without having to check with the hospital first. The 463/468 medcom system is still there and used as a backup to cell phones, which is primary paramedic to hospital base contact. Also ePCR, electronic patient care reporting is starting to be implemented to meet future digital requirements You'll see paramedics carry Ipads..
All the cool new technology but the old school analog stuff is still there to back it up. HEAR is basically there to back up Reddinet which has and will fail during a disaster. And if all that fails, Amateur Radio is the listed protocol for the hospitals to communicate with the County MAC to update status and take resource requests.
All the cool new technology but the old school analog stuff is still there to back it up. HEAR is basically there to back up Reddinet which has and will fail during a disaster. And if all that fails, Amateur Radio is the listed protocol for the hospitals to communicate with the County MAC to update status and take resource requests.
Mikerh91
Member
The med channels are NOT repeated here in LA County. Some transmitter and receiver sites may located a high locations, but it is more like a remote base station. The system works similar to how CHP was operating several years ago. It's more of a simplex type system using two frequencies.
scottyhetzel
Member
I listen to this above freq. with this p.l. I have monitored it for years and never heard anyone else on this frequency. It's one of my favorite channels... In my area we get a lot of hurt people fly out Glamis and Occotillo recreation areas to Desert regional hospitol( Palm Springs).Not one single boring call.....sometime they talk about their fuel or how many on board...
A good friend of mine was a Paramedic with LAFD and recently retired as a Captain after 35 years with the department. I asked him about this, as I haven’t heard anything on the 463 Mhz “Med” channels in at least ten years. He said most of these calls are done on cell phones due to privacy issues. But, from whenever I was able to listen in, I never heard any “private” information being sent out over the air. So, I don’t know why they went to cell phones.
I don’t know about “Med-9” or “Med-10”. Never ever heard a thing on them. Ever. But all the “Med” channels were simplex. If you were close enough, you’d hear them. Almost always the hospital, hardly ever the medics. The only time I ever heard the medics was when I was literally across the street from them, or no more than a couple of blocks.
Mikerh91
Member
As you quoted what I already said, it is simplex however it uses two radio frequencies.
MED 10
Portable Radio
Rx: 462.9500
Tx: 467.9500
Hospital
Rx: 467.9500
Tx: 462.9500
All the hospitals/remote sites have the pairs reverse which is why it works.
In the old days it was semi-duplex which means the medics transmitted on 468 and it was not repeated.
The medics had the option to go full duplex and I saw that used a number of times in the field. Vox operation as well.
Med 9/10 were not used in LA County as far as I remember but one of them at least was used all the time in Orange. All ambulances were required to have operating Med 10 radios in their cabs turned on at all times when 10-8.
The LA stuff had A-F channel selectors per each Med Channel and a list of what went with what. So Med 3 F would be for one hospital and Med 3 C would be for another. They also had DTMF dialing to alert hospitals to incoming transmissions.
Most of the time medics in LA county did their thing then called in to get "Authorization" to push meds. What got to be interesting was when a medic did ABC and then called in only to be told to do DEF instead.
You'd hear them say "We'd really like to do ABC" and that usually gave the hospital the idea that what they'd told the medic had to be adjusted quick.
But when you'd get some new doc in an ER or one who just wanted to be a PITA you'd have trouble with that way of running.
Orange county didn't fart without base station operation. Very different working down there. Took some getting used to. Not even O2 sometimes without hospital preauthorization.
The medics had the option to go full duplex and I saw that used a number of times in the field. Vox operation as well.
Med 9/10 were not used in LA County as far as I remember but one of them at least was used all the time in Orange. All ambulances were required to have operating Med 10 radios in their cabs turned on at all times when 10-8.
The LA stuff had A-F channel selectors per each Med Channel and a list of what went with what. So Med 3 F would be for one hospital and Med 3 C would be for another. They also had DTMF dialing to alert hospitals to incoming transmissions.
Most of the time medics in LA county did their thing then called in to get "Authorization" to push meds. What got to be interesting was when a medic did ABC and then called in only to be told to do DEF instead.
You'd hear them say "We'd really like to do ABC" and that usually gave the hospital the idea that what they'd told the medic had to be adjusted quick.
But when you'd get some new doc in an ER or one who just wanted to be a PITA you'd have trouble with that way of running.
Orange county didn't fart without base station operation. Very different working down there. Took some getting used to. Not even O2 sometimes without hospital preauthorization.
Mikerh91
Member
The medics no longer have the option to do full duplex based on the radios they have currently. MED 10 is the current hailing channel in LA CO. The medics still use the A-F channel selector which is just selecting a PL Tone. They still use DTMF to access the hospitals.
Thanks, its been a very long time since I worked with LACOFD medics.
In the LA Basin, Orange Co, and San Bernardino Valley, Mercy Air used to use 131.675 while they used the 155.220 in the San Bern. County deserts.
Getting off topic, but I just heard Mercy Air 22 on San Bernardino Co System 1 today on the "1-CommCtr" talk group, so it looks like they have trunked radios these days.
Correct. Back on topic...the UHF EMS freqs are not used on SBCo. All approved EMS providers in San Bern Co MUST use the county's 800mhz trunking system. Additionally, normal "ambulance service" programming including air ambulances do not have the "fire" talkgroups and must talk to the County Communications center via the "x-Comctr" talkgroups in each system. Every call, Mercy Air must talk to their own dispatch in Omaha (I think it's Omaha) via the company freqs 131.675 or 155.220 and they must also update Comm Center via the nearest x-Comctr talkgroup. Then, when over the scene, usually coordinate with the ground on CALCORD.
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