Waterloo Regional P25 System

[CDTbolt10033]

Hi all. Sorry to question the credibility of the hard working submissions for this system, but was updating my programming and just had to ask... Are there really this many training channels?!

Three cities and four townships all use the training channels. When not in use for training, they are sometimes used as spare channels for traffic control operations or water operations at fire scenes, in order to reduce traffic on the main working fire operations channel (mostly by Township fire departments). During the derecho storm of 2022, all training channels were nearly fully utilized due to numerous storm-related and non storm-related incidents involving both City Fire Depts. and Township Fire Depts.

 

[Enjoi19]

Three cities and four townships all use the training channels. When not in use for training, they are sometimes used as spare channels for traffic control operations or water operations at fire scenes, in order to reduce traffic on the main working fire operations channel (mostly by Township fire departments). During the derecho storm of 2022, all training channels were nearly fully utilized due to numerous storm-related and non storm-related incidents involving both City Fire Depts. and Township Fire Depts.

Thank you, that clears it up a bunch for me. I'll probably program them then on another knob position. Appreciate it!

 

[CDTbolt10033]

8/15/24
One of the fire dispatcher RIDs 1000001 was playing with the alert tones on Tac 5 (a usual talkgroup for radio testing) and I caught the played alert tones via trunking recorder, I downloaded the individual calls and combined the audio files into one for convenient listening.
Alert Tone 1 - our regular alert tone for all calls for city fire
Alert Tone 2 - steady tone to get the attention of users on a talkgroup. (Can sometimes be heard on Twp Fire Disp when many are talking and the fire dispatcher wants them to move to a Tac/Ops channel for continuing the conversation on a particular incident)
Alert Tone 3 - this is our Region's fire evac tones (I heard this when the Old Marina Restaraunt fire in Puslinch and they needed crews to get out of the building due to the structure being unstable)

The rest of the alert tones after the 3rd alert tone are never heard except for this instance.

The funny thing is I think I heard a Quick Call I tone be played as an alert tone!

combined_audio.mp3

drive.google.com

 

[CDTbolt10033]

TGID 1902 is for Stratford Fire! I am hearing Kitchener Fire doing testing on that TG!

 

[VA3ADP]

TGID 1902 is for Stratford Fire! I am hearing Kitchener Fire doing testing on that TG!

Could it be a patch or are they switching to that system?

 

[CDTbolt10033]

Here is the audio from TG 1902:
Kitchener Fire doing testing

2024-08-22_161845_1902-Stratford Fire Dispatch_1000001-Fire Dispatcher 1_Site 1 Simulcast_Waterloo Region P25.mp3

drive.google.com

I think this is why they were messing around with the alert tones the other week.

Could it be a patch or are they switching to that system?

I am unsure, but I heard a Bearcom tech answer on the other side, and it sounded like it was on P25. (At least according to the Broadcastify recording after reviewing the recordings made on Aug 21) I am wondering if Stratford got P25 radios for the Fire Dept.?
They can be heard here:

Stratford Fire Station Alerting/Regional Services Patch Group Calls Live

1902 Group Calls Live

www.broadcastify.com

 

[mikewazowski]

Could it have been a patch to OFM 154.070MHz?

 

[CDTbolt10033]

Could it have been a patch to OFM 154.070MHz?

🤷‍♂ It didn't seem like OFM. Since Kitchener Fire is taking over Stratford Fire dispatching, they seem to have made a TG on the Waterloo Region P25 system for Stratford Fire.

 

[gary123]

Stratford's equipment is conventional TRBO compatible VHF radios. I believe they still have one piece of apparatus using a Kenwood.

Your audio sample matches what I heard over the VHF Stratford freq. I do not know if they are using call alert To trigger the patch or if it will trigger on any activity on the TG. Also its not known if Stratford voice activity will be repeated over the 1902 TG. I assume it will be. I am also surprised that they have not set it up for separate dispatching of the two stations Stratford has. One is downtown the other in the north end.

 

[CDTbolt10033]

Ok I am struggling to understand how Stratford Fire is using Fire Tac 5 on the WR P25 radio system for calls and weirdly the radio Identifier does NOT show on SDR-Trunk but on broadcastify shows either a -1 or a 0.

They can be heard here:

Stratford Fire Link/Regional Fire Group Calls Live

1005 Group Calls Live

www.broadcastify.com

I also hear their responses too from the test pages earlier.
So does this mean that all fire depts including Stratford can use the tac or ops channels?

DSDPlus shows EXTERNAL for the RID for the Stratford side of things when the radio/something registers to a talkgroup like Fire Tac 5.

 

[Enjoi19]

weirdly the radio Identifier does NOT show on SDR-Trunk but on broadcastify shows either a -1 or a 0.

I would presume it's a patch and the info doesn't carry over.

 

[CDTbolt10033]

I would presume it's a patch and the info doesn't carry over.

Puslinch uses a patched radio with the RID number 1231801. I've labelled the RID with the alias "Puslinch Fire Patch Radio." This radio connects the Wellington County DMR system to Waterloo Region's P25 system. However, Stratford's patch/radio does not display an RID on SDR-Trunk; on SDR-Trunk, it appears as blank and shows "EXTERNAL" in DSDPlus, so I'm unable to assign it an alias.

 

[CDTbolt10033]

Update:
Kitchener Fire at 10 AM for Stratford Fire

Stratford Fire

Anybody know when Waterloo Fire is supposed to take over dispatching Stratford Fire? I haven’t been hearing Stratford Fire the last few days. I'm not in Stratford/Perth County.

forums.radioreference.com

 

[CDTbolt10033]

I think TG 1005 which is normally WR Fire Tac 5 is both WR Fire Tac 5 / SFD 1. I did see one of the KFD's portables register to that TG and it's also used for Stratford Fire's SFD 1 channel. At the moment it seems that TG 1902 gets patched with 1005 when they do a dispatch or just gets repeated on Stratford's side on SFD 1.

 

[gary123]

My observations are that the 1902 dispatch is not patched to 1005. What we are hearing is the dispatch audio being repeated from the VHF patch of 154.905.

 

[CDTbolt10033]

I heard Stratford Fire doing their radio checks on Talkgroup 1904, but I am unsure if that is their Ch. 2 or something else. This is what Stratford has on our P25 system so far:
1902 - Stratford Fire Stn Alerting
1005 - Stratford Fire Tac 1 (Formerly WR Fire Tac 5)
1904 - Possible Stratford Fire Ch. 2?

 

[gary123]

I have not heard any Stratford units or Perth units mutual aid since the change over. If 1904 is a Stratford TG it may be to link the Perth County Tac 158.430 if and when Stratford uses it.

 

[CDTbolt10033]

I have not heard any Stratford units or Perth units mutual aid since the change over. If 1904 is a Stratford TG it may be to link the Perth County Tac 158.430 if and when Stratford uses it.

I heard XJL473 and station 1 and 2 portables and mobile radio checks on that TG this morning.

 

[gary123]

Nice catch. I should have thought about waiting for radio checks BUT I decided to take the extra hour of sleep instead. I'll try and ID the actual Stratford 'channel'. They are using for the 1904 link.

 

[mciupa]

I wonder if the new Alias decoding from DSDPlus 2.506 can help as BEE00.973 Waterloo Region ON is on that list.