CLEMARS 800 repeater

[Anderegg]

Apparently, we have a CLEMARS 800Mhz repeater in town. A pursuit from Anaheim came down the I-5 Friday morning, and stopped on the 805 bridge over the I-8. The Anaheim units only had CLEMARS, and CHP patched the Orange into that. SDPD then patched SWAT on Tac 3 to CLEMARS. Didn't work too tremendously well, as some transmissions took up to 3 seconds to key through the multiple patches, but it surprised me we have a repeater on that frequency. First time I have ever dialed it in on my radio. I know FD talks simplex on FIREMARS D, D is for Direct, so I assume there might be a FIREMARS repeater as well.

868.5125 156.7 if anyone is interested, I know there are lots of different CLEMARS 800 frequencies. What ia the UHF CLEMARS that CHP CAD always refers to?

Paul

 

[JoeyC]

That freq has been in my scanners for quite a while and I've heard a few operations on it always involving an Orange or LA county agency interacting with a SD county agency (usually SDPD and ABLE).

I have 460.025 in there as UHF CLEMARS but it has never broken squelch for me in SD county. I'm guessing its probably used in LA county where there are many agencies still on UHF, if its active at all.

 

[Anderegg]

I've never had CLEMARS in my scanners, I only was able to dial it in because it happened to be in the CNV zone of my Motorola already.

Maybe CHP was just listing UHF not UHF CLEMARS on the CAD. I see Border Division has 450.375 and 460.450 listed, analog and P25.

Paul

 

[JoeyC]

Thanks for pointing out those Border UHF freqs that I had somehow missed. They are now programmed in my Mutual Aid scanner. btw, its 460.375 not 450.375.

 

[scottyhetzel]

If you look at Cal-ifog you will see what depts monitor clemars 9 . You hear good stuff on I-Call too. The. CHP dispatch centers usually monitor the clemars 800/460/VHF hi... Thanks for sharing Anderegg.

 

[K6CDO]

There is no CALAW4 [old name UHF CLEMARS] (460.025) infrastructure in San Diego County. When the SDSD was on UHF (pre-RCS), 460.025 was Orange County's RED Channel, and the channel was protected for a 75 mile radius. With OC's move to 800, the protection was lifted, but SDSD had moved to the RCS, so there was no local need for UHF infrastructure to patch.

 

[Mike_G_D]

I have 800 CLEMARS in my normal scan loads and caught this incident in progress - too late to understand what was going on, unfortunately. I do get Orange County stuff on 800 CLEMARS pretty regularly (well - used to where I used to live) and caught some references to the "RED" and other OC unit numbers and such so I first thought it originated in OC with ASTREA assisting (heard a reference to ASTREA) then heard the SD stuff and was very confused. Listened for quite a while until they got the driver at gun point (I think - was weak and noisy where I am now).

Interesting listening and now makes more sense after the OP's info.

-Mike

 

[Anderegg]

For anyone not familiar with Orange County, the whole darn LE system is ENCRYPTED, except for one single talk-group they call "RED". It is sort of a LE N/s Command/Tac 1/Blue 1 for them up there.

Paul

 

[K6CDO]

Following up, there is ONE 800 MHz CLEMARS channel in Southern CA - 868.5125 (156.7 Hz). There are a number repeaters in San Diego County on the channel, normally left knocked down and controlled by the dispatch centers.

The channel name will change to CALAW8 at rebanding.

 

[Anderegg]

Don, is there a "default" CLEMARS receiver site for units talking into the repeaters? I heard someone testing all the mountains (and rooftops!) the other morning, there are quite a few. CHP had to patch CLEMARS to work a mutual aid foot pursuit/robbery across freeway lanes, to talk with Carlsbad PD, but the units told CHP dispatch that they could not hear them, and could not hit the repeater. Funny thing was, on the WB I-8 at Waring, I was hearing the patch on CLEMARS loud and clear. Normally, when I hear CLEMARS, it is very weak, as if it is left patch in north county somewhere for Pala or OC pursuits coming into town.

My stations old VHF simplex system used a voting system...the damn control box was the size of a refrigerator, with a bunch of lights on it, and lived where our restrooms are now. I remember it would remember the last received mountain and the next base transmission would continue on that mountain until someone keyed (voted) into a different mountain. I think it made a lot of clicking noises too...maybe it was a refrigerator, it said GE on it.

Paul

 

[K6CDO]

Paul,

CLEMARS 9, FIREMARS, ICALL, and SDMARS are all voted. The dispatcher using the resource has to select the right transmit site for the area coverage is desired in. I suspect in this case, the transmitter select remained for a north county site, instead of San Miguel, Cowles, or another suitable south county site.

 

[Scanguysd]

So if a field user talks into it and dispatch talks out is it broadcasted on all towers or just one? Is it designed more for mobile or portable radios?

 

[K6CDO]

It is not simulcast. The design is aimed at mobiles, although the portable coverage is decent.