New Juniata County Fire/EMS Dispatch?

[dmg1969]

I just happened to be looking around at various local feeds on Broadcastify and saw a reference to a new frequency for the Juniata County Fire and EMS Dispatch...453.4125. I checked the RR database and it was also listed in there (PL of 250.3). Not sure if it has been in there for a while and I missed it or if it is fairly new. According to the Broadcastify feed detail, they are simulcasting the low band fire dispatch from 46.06 and Med Channel 9 (462.950).

I am going to program it in, but am wondering if I am also going to be picking up Cumberland County fire dispatch. Cumberland County is still patching their old low band fire dispatch (also 46.06) to their OpenSky system. 46.06 just happens to be Perry County's (where I live) Fire channel 2 frequency. I hear Cumberland on that channel because Perry's low band frequencies are CSQ (no tone). Since Juniata County's Fire dispatch (46.06) is also CSQ, I would imagine that I would or am I wrong?

 

[lobo8000]

I'm pretty sure Cumberland County isn't coming through the feed. I've had it plugged in my scanner for a while and haven't heard anything from Cumberland.
About 10 days ago I heard an announcement that one of the ambulance companies were henceforth switching all their paging to the new UHF frequency. I've heard quite a bit of pager testing on the new frequency as well. I imagine they are switching all fire and EMS operations to UHF and abandoning VHF. And I imagine all fire and EMS will be dispatched on that one frequency (453.4125). The county isn't anywhere busy enough to justify two seperate dispatch frequencies, but I could be wrong. I would look for additional UHF firegrounds to be added to the database in the near future.

 

[dmg1969]

I plugged it into my BC355N at home last evening and have only heard 1 transmission in about 2 hours of listening. I will keep it in my scan list over the weekend and see what I hear. I have it in my portable that I use in the car as well. I have about a 25 minute trip from Harrisburg to Newport each day to and from work.

When a transmission came over the Cumberland County Fire 1 (46.06), I hit scan quick to see if it also came over the new Juniata frequency and it did not.

 

[dmg1969]

I have been hearing some hits on this frequency both in my vehicle and at home.

 

[portroyalbirdy]

This is correct! Juniata County is using 453.4125 as its new dispatch frequency. Most Fire and EMS Providers are on this dispatch frequency. There is a few agencies that have not been able to switch over yet (both at the southern end of the county where reception is very poor even on Med 9 and 46.060.) There is a new tower up in the southern end of the county but we are waiting for the power to be ran to it and for the communication company that got the contract to redesign the system to install the transmitters for New Juniata Fire/EMS Dispatch and Low band Fire 1, 2, 3, and 4. And to answer your question above, you will NOT hear Cumberland County on our new dispatch Frequency. The reason for the new frequency is so Cumberland will no longer walk over us in the middle of dispatch. We will use Juniata Fire 1-4 for Fireground and MED 9 for EMS Talk for the time being...but the plan is to have the new Dispatch Frequency and go digital for Fireground...when that may be...is unknown.

 

[dmg1969]

Thanks for the detailed explanation. That clears things up.

 

[portroyalbirdy]

Another update...as of April 1 Juniata County will no longer use 46.060.

 

[dlnorth]

Just wondering...why are you going to use digital fireground channels? Simplex or repeated?

This is correct! Juniata County is using 453.4125 as its new dispatch frequency. Most Fire and EMS Providers are on this dispatch frequency. There is a few agencies that have not been able to switch over yet (both at the southern end of the county where reception is very poor even on Med 9 and 46.060.) There is a new tower up in the southern end of the county but we are waiting for the power to be ran to it and for the communication company that got the contract to redesign the system to install the transmitters for New Juniata Fire/EMS Dispatch and Low band Fire 1, 2, 3, and 4. And to answer your question above, you will NOT hear Cumberland County on our new dispatch Frequency. The reason for the new frequency is so Cumberland will no longer walk over us in the middle of dispatch. We will use Juniata Fire 1-4 for Fireground and MED 9 for EMS Talk for the time being...but the plan is to have the new Dispatch Frequency and go digital for Fireground...when that may be...is unknown.

 

[portroyalbirdy]

Just wondering...why are you going to use digital fireground channels? Simplex or repeated?

Well dlnorth, I have asked the same question. Apparently our "excellent 911 Directors" think digital is the way to go! I don't know why really...Our neighbors (Mifflin County) recently upgraded to a 4 Channel repeater/3 Channel Simplex System. The term interoperability come to my mind. But Digital comes to theirs...Probably because Franklin County (Our other neighboring County) is on digital. Which means Mifflin and Perry Counties will have to buy digital radios to talk to us,,,Great isn't it!

 

[portroyalbirdy]

Also...We are still using 46.06 for the time being....Don't know why exactly because 46.100 and 46.06 are the same transmitter but some companies are saying they can't receive 46.100 very well. So because of this we still have to deal with Cumberland County! But most companies will ask for Fire 2 (46.100) right away anyhow...I don't get it!

 

[SlipNutz15]

The reason the Juniata County Feed has separate dispatch and fireground scanner feeds is because of Cumberland and Huntingdon Counties, now just Cumberland, since Med 9 PL was changed. My scanner feed still has 46.060 in the scanner and that is still, and probably will forever be, the dispatch channel for Cumberland Co. Until everything is switched over and we move away from having to us 46.060, it will be in the Dispatch Feed side of the scanner feed.

The BlackLog tower is up and operational to an extent. No tones are being transmitted from it but that tower has been tested and verified working from ComPros and the 911 center.

As far as the new channel plan and fireground layout - that is still up in the area. The county feels digital fireground repeaters are the way to go and those outside units coming into Juniata County, at least at this time, will have to buy digital radios in order to interoperate with Juniata County units. Whether county decides to get a conventional UHF channel that can be patched for interops or not is yet to be decided.

 

[dmg1969]

I knew that I heard some Juniata County traffic on 46.06 the other day. I had some discussions with someone from Cumberland County recently and it appears that they will keep using 46.06 patched to their Open Sky system for the foreseeable future. They will, however, be moving EMS dispatch to another frequency (see my thread re: that).

 

[dlnorth]

What's the status of the Juniata UHF build-out? I

 

[dmg1969]

Hopefully, someone from up in Juniata County can reply. I know for sure that Cumberland County WILL maintain its low band fire dispatch patch to the Open Sky system on 46.06. I heard that directly from their Senior Telecom Manager.


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[Septa3371CSX1]

I see the UHF Fire Tac frequencies have been removed from the database and the low band frequencies put back with a note saying digital fire/EMS radios will start being used in early 2014. Did Juniata ever use those UHF frequencies or have they remained on low band the whole time?

 

[HM1529]

I see the UHF Fire Tac frequencies have been removed from the database and the low band frequencies put back with a note saying digital fire/EMS radios will start being used in early 2014. Did Juniata ever use those UHF frequencies or have they remained on low band the whole time?

We got a submission earlier this year with a channel plan in it which I added to the Juniata page.

Last week, we got another submission from a reliable source stating that the posted channel plan was not correct, that the frequencies would be digital, and that the posted UHF stuff was not yet in service (except for the UHF dispatch which has been in use for a while). Lowband is still the main set for fire ops until the new UHF equipment is installed at tower sites (which has not yet been done according to the latest submission).

So, I deleted everything until there is something on the air.

 

[portroyalbirdy]

benrussellpa, you are correct. We are still on low band for now and the UHF Digital is projected to be in service next year at some point. I also apologize! I was the user that submitted the UHF Tac frequencies.

 

[dmg1969]

Follow-up question about the new Juniata digital system. Is it JUST the fire ground channels that are going digital or is it also the fire/EMS dispatch? And what type of system is it?

 

[SlipNutz15]

The information on the database is all correct:
Juniata County, Pennsylvania (PA) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

The Dispatch is analog NFM for paging all Fire/EMS companies county-wide, soon to be simulcast.

Each Fireground is a regional digital repeater except for Fireground5 which is supposedly to be a county-wide frequency but no offical word if/when that will be online.

Firegrounds 6,7,8 will be county-wide simplex, not monitored by dispatch.

EMS will still use Med 9 (250.3) for comms.

The base radios and radios that were installed from the radio grant are Motorla Radios but it's P25 compliant so any brand radio can be used.

 

[dmg1969]

Great, thanks.