sanchezthellama
Member
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2010
- Messages
- 4
Hello All,
Long time lurker, first time poster. I work in public safety in Winnebago County (Rockford) and I've seen some misconceptions that I can shed some light on.
Rockford Fire marks on the following frequencies:
Rockford 1 - 151.175
Rockford 3 - 155.850
Rockford 1 is used for dispatching apparatus and marking vehicle statuses (on scene, transporting, etc) within Rockford City. Rockford 3 is used for the surrounding areas that Rockford dispatches (NW Fire, West Suburban Fire, etc). Rockford 2 and 4 exist but are unused except when coordination of resources requires a separate channel (i.e. a large structure fire).
When private ambulances respond with Rockford Fire, often they will status that they are responding on Rockford 3 and only proceed to Rockford 1 when invited by the dispatcher. This is a courtesy to keep from stomping fire traffic. Some dispatchers prefer to separate private resources (private ambulances) and leave them on Rockford 3.
Private Ambulances mark on these frequencies:
ATS Ambulance (Loves Park Station) - 154.54 Mhz PL 131.8
Lifeline Ambulance (All Stations) - 151.865 Mhz PL 123.0
Metro Ambulance (All Stations) - 155.22 Mhz PL 127.3
Within that, Lifeline is dispatched by MedCom which is based at OSF Saint Anthony in Rockford. OSF also dispatches North Park Fire (among others), and Lifeline helicopter.
Metro shares their dispatch frequency with REACT (Rockford Memorial Hospital's Helicopter) and is dispatched by RockCom, which is based inside Rockford Memorial Hospital ER. While monitoring Metro/REACT/RockCom you will also hear tone-outs to alert various staff at the hospital. One of these is the on-site trauma surgeon who carries a radio. RockCom dispatches a specific set of local fire departments as well.
Of the Rockford based private ambulances, ATS Medical of Loves Park is the only ambulance service currently using in-house dispatch. They are dispatched from their main station at Material Avenue and Riverside Blvd in Loves Park. Their tower is on their building and not very high, and are often times difficult to hear outside of the city.
There are two additional private ambulances in Rockford. Superior Ambulance and Mercy Ambulance which do not use radio communications for dispatch. Both of these services use a Nextel based phone for dispatching.
Ambulances in EMS Region 1 use a unique number to identify them. They are a '1' followed by an alpha character, followed by a two digit number. '1' signifies EMS Region 1, the alpha character represents the county the ambulance originates from (C or Charlie for Winnebago county, D David for Boone, etc) and the two digit code tracks the ambulance to a specific provider. The only provider in EMS Region 1 who do not number this way is Superior Ambulance because they are based in Elmhurst and are not affiliated with EMS Region 1.
List of Ambulance Units to Providers (NOT all inclusive):
ATS: 1C71, 1C74, 1C75, 1C76, 1C78, 1C79
Lifeline (OSF): 1C11, 1C54, 1C72
Metro: 1C23, 1C34, 1C53
Rockford Fire: 1C12, 1C40, 1C36, 1C16, 1C20, 1C26, 1C24
Mercy: 1C81
MERCI is used for 99% of ambulance to ER communications. MERCI is located at:
Rockford Memorial Hospital ER: 155.34 Mhz PL 103.5
OSF Saint Anthony ER: 155.34 Mhz PL 156.7
Swedish American Hospital ER: 155.34 Mhz PL 123.0
It should be noted that in its current incarnation, MERCI is limited to one ambulance speaking at a time. i.e. an ambulance cannot talk to Swedes ER while one is talking to RMH ER, even though they are on different PL's, as the trucks drown each other out due to MERCI using the same frequency for all hospitals.
I hope I shed some light on some things for folks. Please don't hesitate to ask if you have any other questions for someone on the inside. I am well versed on the EMS and Fire sides, Police I know some.
Cheers!
Long time lurker, first time poster. I work in public safety in Winnebago County (Rockford) and I've seen some misconceptions that I can shed some light on.
Rockford Fire marks on the following frequencies:
Rockford 1 - 151.175
Rockford 3 - 155.850
Rockford 1 is used for dispatching apparatus and marking vehicle statuses (on scene, transporting, etc) within Rockford City. Rockford 3 is used for the surrounding areas that Rockford dispatches (NW Fire, West Suburban Fire, etc). Rockford 2 and 4 exist but are unused except when coordination of resources requires a separate channel (i.e. a large structure fire).
When private ambulances respond with Rockford Fire, often they will status that they are responding on Rockford 3 and only proceed to Rockford 1 when invited by the dispatcher. This is a courtesy to keep from stomping fire traffic. Some dispatchers prefer to separate private resources (private ambulances) and leave them on Rockford 3.
Private Ambulances mark on these frequencies:
ATS Ambulance (Loves Park Station) - 154.54 Mhz PL 131.8
Lifeline Ambulance (All Stations) - 151.865 Mhz PL 123.0
Metro Ambulance (All Stations) - 155.22 Mhz PL 127.3
Within that, Lifeline is dispatched by MedCom which is based at OSF Saint Anthony in Rockford. OSF also dispatches North Park Fire (among others), and Lifeline helicopter.
Metro shares their dispatch frequency with REACT (Rockford Memorial Hospital's Helicopter) and is dispatched by RockCom, which is based inside Rockford Memorial Hospital ER. While monitoring Metro/REACT/RockCom you will also hear tone-outs to alert various staff at the hospital. One of these is the on-site trauma surgeon who carries a radio. RockCom dispatches a specific set of local fire departments as well.
Of the Rockford based private ambulances, ATS Medical of Loves Park is the only ambulance service currently using in-house dispatch. They are dispatched from their main station at Material Avenue and Riverside Blvd in Loves Park. Their tower is on their building and not very high, and are often times difficult to hear outside of the city.
There are two additional private ambulances in Rockford. Superior Ambulance and Mercy Ambulance which do not use radio communications for dispatch. Both of these services use a Nextel based phone for dispatching.
Ambulances in EMS Region 1 use a unique number to identify them. They are a '1' followed by an alpha character, followed by a two digit number. '1' signifies EMS Region 1, the alpha character represents the county the ambulance originates from (C or Charlie for Winnebago county, D David for Boone, etc) and the two digit code tracks the ambulance to a specific provider. The only provider in EMS Region 1 who do not number this way is Superior Ambulance because they are based in Elmhurst and are not affiliated with EMS Region 1.
List of Ambulance Units to Providers (NOT all inclusive):
ATS: 1C71, 1C74, 1C75, 1C76, 1C78, 1C79
Lifeline (OSF): 1C11, 1C54, 1C72
Metro: 1C23, 1C34, 1C53
Rockford Fire: 1C12, 1C40, 1C36, 1C16, 1C20, 1C26, 1C24
Mercy: 1C81
MERCI is used for 99% of ambulance to ER communications. MERCI is located at:
Rockford Memorial Hospital ER: 155.34 Mhz PL 103.5
OSF Saint Anthony ER: 155.34 Mhz PL 156.7
Swedish American Hospital ER: 155.34 Mhz PL 123.0
It should be noted that in its current incarnation, MERCI is limited to one ambulance speaking at a time. i.e. an ambulance cannot talk to Swedes ER while one is talking to RMH ER, even though they are on different PL's, as the trucks drown each other out due to MERCI using the same frequency for all hospitals.
I hope I shed some light on some things for folks. Please don't hesitate to ask if you have any other questions for someone on the inside. I am well versed on the EMS and Fire sides, Police I know some.
Cheers!
