Radio Communications for Ice Rescue on Lake Erie

[stpd438]

This past Saturday while all the ice fishermen were getting rescued off the lake near Crane Creek State Park, I was fast asleep after working a midnight shift from the night before. Hence, I wasn't able to hear what was going on. I did see the region's Radio Communications Interop Vehicle (based at Lucas County S.O.) on scene, from a news clip.

I was just wondering what kind of patches (if any) were set up. I know a lot of agenies were involved in the operation (I think the newspaper said about 21).

"jpryor", chime in anytime. I figure if anyone would have a good idea, you would...


-Kevin

 

[fpo701]

Kevin,

Take a look at the audio archives for Lucas county over at ScanAmerica (Lucas County, Ohio - Scanner Archive). Select the Toledo and Lucas County Fire and EMS feed, then date, and times. It was some great listening.

Frank

 

[hoser147]

You may also check the MARCS feed archives, I believe at some point Jeff stated they patched the Toledo system over to MARCS.

 

[rdale]

No, it was just that his MARCS scanner also had Toledo's 800 in it. Check the thread here from that date for more notes.

 

[jpryor]

Hello Kevin,

Actually not that much patching at all from what I could determine. The only real patch that was put up was on UHF Med Channel 3 to the Lucas County P25 LCMED3 talk group in order to facilitate communications between the ProMedica helicopter and Jerusalem Twp FD digital radios. That patch was initiated by Lucas County EMS dispatch and pretty early into the incident. From what I could hear, the BSSA Communications Truck was mostly just used for the VHF Marine communications with the USCG units (and I'm sure as a mobile command post).

Ottawa County also had a lot of activity as well, the only thing I heard there was regarding maybe having a patch from UHF to the 800 MHz. I did not see any patching between Lucas and Ottawa, or anything to MARCS. I did see a couple of the Lucas County mutual aid radios that were given to Ottawa County fire departments in use on the Lucas County system. Most of the Interop and incident command type traffic was on the Oregon Ops 5-2 talk group.

I'm in the process of compiling some additional selected log files. And between all three of my live scanner feeds, the archive over at Scan America has plenty of the communications.

Jeff KC8NNO

 

[rcool101]

What is the time frame to look for on that link?

 

[stpd438]

Thanks everyone for the info. All my questions got answered. I was only wondering what, if any, patches were implemented, since the BSSA vehicle was there. I know my dispatch (Ottawa County) has the capability to patch their 800-mhz. EDACS system, the UHF fire frequencies, MARCS, etc. together. However, I don't believe they have the capability to patch anything to Lucas County's P25 system. With the BSSA truck there, I didn't know if any Ottawa County channels got patched to Lucas County channels, for command purposes, coordination, etc. But, if Lucas County just simply handed out mutual aid radios to the people who needed them from Ottawa County, then that probably was easier in the long run than implementing a series of patches anyway.

Again, thanks Jeff and everyone else. Keep up the good work!

 

[jpryor]

What is the time frame to look for on that link?

Check between about 11AM and 2PM on all of the NW Ohio feeds (on 02/07/09).

 

[rcool101]

Thanks. I started at 10:30 by guessing. I wasn't too far off.

 

[jpryor]

Audio Logs from Lake Erie Ice Rescue

I have posted a series of Audio Log files from this weekend's ice rescue operations on the western basin of Lake Erie. There is a link to the files in the Selected Activity Library (http://nwohio-liveservices.dyndns.org/audiologs.html) on the Audio Logs page.

The files contain selected audio communications from Jerusalem Twp and the mutual aid provided by Oregon, Toledo, and Washington Twp. Ottawa County, the United States Coast Guard and numerous other agencies also participated significantly in the rescue operations.

The morning of Saturday, February 7th, 2009 saw warm temperates and a strong southwest wind that pushed hundreds of ice fishers out into the lake on an 8 mile long ice flow (or floe). A large 100 yard wide crack developed from Davis Besse and west to Maumee Bay. (The Lake Erie MODIS Ice Coverage Satellite Imagery actually shows a pretty good visual.) Most of the rescue operations were conducted off of the Crane Creek, Metzger Marsh and Magee Marsh areas in Lucas and Ottawa County.

The VHF Marine channel file contains communications between the USCG Rescue Helicopters "65xx" and the C-130 "2005" (based out of Elizabeth City NC), as well as Sector Detroit, Station Toledo, and Lucas County. The Oregon Ops 5-2 talk group from the Lucas County P25 county wide digital radio system was the primary Interop and Incident Command channel for Jerusalem Twp FD, and I have included some additional agency specific communications.

Direct Links:
02/07/2009 - Lake Erie Ice Rescue - VHF Marine Ch 23 (8.2 MB)
02/07/2009 - Lake Erie Ice Rescue - Oregon Ops 5-2 (9.4 MB)
02/07/2009 - Lake Erie Ice Rescue - Toledo FD Ch 7 (2.0 MB)
02/07/2009 - Lake Erie Ice Rescue - Oregon FD Ops (1.9 MB)
02/07/2009 - Lake Erie Ice Rescue - Jerusalem Twp FD Ops (4.5 MB)
02/07/2009 - Lake Erie Ice Rescue - Washington Twp FD Ops (7.0 MB)

The feed archive over at Scan America has plenty of the communications as well (search between 11AM and 2PM on 02/07/09):
http://lucas.oh.scanamerica.us/modules.php?name=FeedArchive

Jeff KC8NNO