What agencies are on each site?

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local487

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Shakopee, MN
Hi. What agencies are allowed to affiliate with each site? For example, who is authorized to use the Henn E. site? I'm wondering which site is best to listen for Minneapolis FD, DNR Fire, St. Paul FD, etc.

Thanks!
 

ofd8001

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There have been several posts showing affiliation information. You'll need to look back to find them.

With that said, the ARMER system is very complicated. Talkgroups will have assigned "home" sites/tower, be allowed to affiliated on other sites/towers or be denied to affiliate with anything other than that home site/tower. For example a Bloomington fire talkgroup may be assigned to Hennepin East as its home site, allowed to affiliate with Minneapolis City Center and denied affiliation with Minneapolis NS.

It's a methodology devised by system administrators.

Typically what I'll do when visiting Minneapolis, is program all the talkgroups I'm interested in receiving, then program all the sites in the Metro area in hopes that I can "catch" talkgroups of interest on at least one of the sites.

For your specific questions: Minneapolis Fire will be one Minneapolis NS. Owing to whether a Minneapolis fire unit roams into the Hennepin East area and gets a stronger signal there, they may occasionally be heard on Hennepin East.

"State" talkgroups such as DOT, State Patrol, etc., (and medical) in the Metro area will use Minneapolis City Center as their "home" site, but if they roam into other subsystem areas (Hennepin East or West, etc.) they will affiliate on those sites. (Confusing this even more, state patrol talkgroups are "forced" on all sites within their coverage area, so MSP metro west will be on City Center, Hennepin East, Hennepin West, Scott county, etc.)

St. Paul fire will use Ramsey and may be allowed to roam on Washington County, etc.
 

blue5011

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Faribault County, MN
Hi. What agencies are allowed to affiliate with each site? For example, who is authorized to use the Henn E. site? I'm wondering which site is best to listen for Minneapolis FD, DNR Fire, St. Paul FD, etc.

Thanks!

I don't know how the ARMER system admins have it setup.

Last week I got to hear about a car chase in Carver County, which is nowhere near my local tower site... I understand the basic premise, a deputy from Carver should be able to make a call from my county, but to hear a 20 minute car chase in it's entirety? Seems like a waste of resources...

I have been told Med Helo's are only transmitting at a 1 watt level to keep their transmissions from tying up multiple of sites.

The DNR pops up infrequently. I am thinking they are using cellphones for most situations now. As they do not want the public to know what they are doing. Supposedly the DNR bought 20-some acres near me (4 years ago), but I can't find any documentation...
 

ofd8001

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On the 20 minute chase, here is what probably happened, for better or worse.

When a pursuit begins, the local dispatcher will patch the pursuing officer's talkgroup to one of the L_TAC talkgroups. Then any assisting external agencies will switch their radios to L_TAC_"whatever" to assist. All of the L_TAC channels (which are part of the statewide interoperability talkgroups) are carried on all sites/towers. So someone way far away could switch over to L_TAC and listen to the pursuit.

So here's the scenario: Carver county initiates the pursuit and patches their TG to L_TAC_X. Someone in Faribault wanted to listen in, so they switched to L_TAC_X to monitor.

The good part is this allows for interoperability for pursuits that go well beyond the initiating jurisdiction and/or involve other agencies.

The bad part is that this could tie up system resources inappropriately. They saw that happen when the 35W bridge collapsed. A lot of the comms were on those statewide talkgroups and folks from around the state would listen in.

So for example in situations like this you could have East Grand Forks police listening to the police folks in Minneapolis, the East Grand Forks fire listening to the fire folks in Minneapolis and the EMS folks listening to the medical people in Minneapolis. Each of these linkages ties up one communications path. In East Grand Forks, there are four paths, meaning there is just one left for "regular business".

That was one of the few negatives mentioned in the after action report for the bridge collapse. Responders need to be more disciplined when monitoring incidents not involving them. (But responders are just as nosy as anyone else, so that's against human nature for this to improve.)
 

blue5011

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Faribault County, MN
On the 20 minute chase, here is what probably happened, for better or worse.

I am not making a good or bad argument here, I am just stating I think it is a waste of resources. I routinely hear incidents that happen in the Twin Cities. Surely there are TAC talkgroups that can be used that are adjacent to the action.

I know, I should just be happy I can still hear and log the calls...
 
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Location
Otsego, MN
Minneapolis FD used the Minneapolis N-S site
Saint Paul Fire uses ramsey county site
Not sure about DNR
Scott

do you happen to know what site the UOM PD uses, what frequencies (on Armer system P25) there limited to 10 mile radius is all I know and site 9140 but doesn't tell frequencies etc
 

dwgelle

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Jul 28, 2003
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Location
Meeker Co.- MN
UOM PD In general mostly would be on the City Center site which would be the Closest site. But their St Paul campus may be closer to the Ramsey Co Site.

Depends how admin set them up. The Minneapolis N S Simulcast sites are primarily meant for their own use of Minneapolis Department radios. But depending on how admins have set it up may allow others on to their systems.
 
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