Albany County Fire/EMS

mikec10

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2006
Messages
61
Location
Schenectady NY
I have been scanning for many years and last year obtained a SDS200. I love it. One of the Favorite Lists is for Albany Co Fire/EMS. I seldom listen to that list but it is always there. Last week I received a Unication G and have been programming it and was including Albany Co. I noticed that I only receive on "County Fire 1 and 2. on the unication G4. I rechecked the SDS200 and there I only receive on Co 1 and 2. I do not receive on any of the ops channels or County interoptibility channels. I know there has to be on scene communications once on scene. Any thoughts especially from the local listeners. By the way the G4 is super.
 

jgorman21

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Feb 21, 2008
Messages
598
Location
Glenmont N.Y.
Good Morning.

interesting that you say this as I’ve often noticed the same thing with respect to Albany County Fire! It would seem that they handle most transmissions on these “main“ talkgroups. Maybe they still use their old analog channels for “foreground” activities. Some departments seem to be still “patched” from their old channels. There are two talkgroups that are encrypted. One fully and one partially according to the RR database.

I will try to “listen around.”

This differs from Rennselaer County. They seem to use many of their TAC channels.

Maybe someone else could shed more light on this!
 

mikec10

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2006
Messages
61
Location
Schenectady NY
Non-local here, but have you turned on the Fire-Tac & Interop service types on the SDS200? If they're turned off then the scanner will omit talkgroups tagged as such in the RRDB
All is turned on. The unication g4 and SDS200 match reception of transmissions. I listen to calls being dispatched and people responding then the same calling back into service. there are no transmissions while at the scene between responders. Possible new talk groups not yet listed on RR.
 

sallen07

Member
Joined
Dec 22, 2013
Messages
1,238
Location
Rochester, NY
All is turned on. The unication g4 and SDS200 match reception of transmissions. I listen to calls being dispatched and people responding then the same calling back into service. there are no transmissions while at the scene between responders. Possible new talk groups not yet listed on RR.
I am not local to the Albany area but used to visit frequently and listened to the system. I believe the Schenectady site was just being built out the last time I was there.

Which site are you listening to? Since your location is listed as Schenectady, I'm guessing you are monitoring the Schenectady County site, yes? If so, then they must have those two talk groups "nailed up" on the Schenectady site, or there are radios monitoring those TGs affiliated with the site. Any radios on one of the fireground channels are unlikely to be affiliated with that site (they would be on one of the Albany County sites) so you won't hear them.

Of course if I'm wrong and you are actually listening to one of the Albany County sites then nothing I just said applies.
 

mikec10

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2006
Messages
61
Location
Schenectady NY
I am not local to the Albany area but used to visit frequently and listened to the system. I believe the Schenectady site was just being built out the last time I was there.

Which site are you listening to? Since your location is listed as Schenectady, I'm guessing you are monitoring the Schenectady County site, yes? If so, then they must have those two talk groups "nailed up" on the Schenectady site, or there are radios monitoring those TGs affiliated with the site. Any radios on one of the fireground channels are unlikely to be affiliated with that site (they would be on one of the Albany County sites) so you won't hear them.

Of course if I'm wrong and you are actually listening to one of the Albany County sites then nothing I just said applies.
It's the Albany/Schenectady Sites and with the pulldown menu you pick what is needed/wanted. I have other Albany Co towns installed in both the SDS200 and G4 with no issues.
 

jgorman21

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Feb 21, 2008
Messages
598
Location
Glenmont N.Y.
I may be mistaken, but I think Albany County Fire is on the Albany County Cell. Additionally the Schenectady Site talkgroups are type “T” or TDMA capabale. The Albany County talkgroups are “D” or Digital.

Now I used to have things more “mixed” in my programming. But these days it’s more grouped together in various ways. Before doing this I seem to recall Albany County Law on both the Metro and County cell.

Is there some kind of listing available (and I know I could listen and watch) for which talkgroups are dedicated to a specific cell? Or which are “shared” across multiple sites?
 

mikec10

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2006
Messages
61
Location
Schenectady NY
Good Morning.

interesting that you say this as I’ve often noticed the same thing with respect to Albany County Fire! It would seem that they handle most transmissions on these “main“ talkgroups. Maybe they still use their old analog channels for “foreground” activities. Some departments seem to be still “patched” from their old channels. There are two talkgroups that are encrypted. One fully and one partially according to the RR database.

I will try to “listen around.”

This differs from Rennselaer County. They seem to use many of their TAC channels.

Maybe someone else could shed more light on this!
I have tried in the past to Rennselaer Co but there system seems odd to me. I hear very little and I install there P25 systems and analog. I am in Schenectady Co so I mainly listen to Saratoga, Schenectady and Albany Co. I have a fair amount installed on the SDS200 but listen to a small portion of it. I am planning on selling the SDS200 once I have finished installing on the G4.
 

mikec10

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2006
Messages
61
Location
Schenectady NY
I may be mistaken, but I think Albany County Fire is on the Albany County Cell. Additionally the Schenectady Site talkgroups are type “T” or TDMA capabale. The Albany County talkgroups are “D” or Digital.

Now I used to have things more “mixed” in my programming. But these days it’s more grouped together in various ways. Before doing this I seem to recall Albany County Law on both the Metro and County cell.

Is there some kind of listing available (and I know I could listen and watch) for which talkgroups are dedicated to a specific cell? Or which are “shared” across multiple sites?
The only listing I am guessing is thru RR. That is my Bible so to speak
 

sallen07

Member
Joined
Dec 22, 2013
Messages
1,238
Location
Rochester, NY
It's the Albany/Schenectady Sites and with the pulldown menu you pick what is needed/wanted. I have other Albany Co towns installed in both the SDS200 and G4 with no issues.
OK but that didn't really answer my question. :)

Let's stick with the SDS200 since I'm personally familiar with it.

That system has four different sites. Are you trying to monitor all four of them? How did you program you scanner, using Sentinal or another package? If you are in Schenectady, my bet is that won't be able to monitor all four sites unless you have an outside antenna (and quite likely not even if you have one).
 
Last edited:

mikec10

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2006
Messages
61
Location
Schenectady NY
OK but that didn't really answer my question. :)

Let's stick with the SDS200 since I'm personally familiar with it.

That system has four different sites. Are you trying to monitor all four of them? How did you program you scanner, using Sentinal or another package? If you are in Schenectady, my bet is that won't be able to monitor all four sites unless you have an outside antenna (and quite likely not even if you have one).
For Albany Co I used albany metro Albany Co and Cohoes. So on my Fav List I can pick up Cohoes Fire/EMS Albany Co PD and Fire/EMS Albany City Fire/EMS and Police. There are probably other area to monitor but this is what I have installed. The Schenectady site is just for there new County P25 system.
 

jgorman21

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Feb 21, 2008
Messages
598
Location
Glenmont N.Y.
It depends upon what you want to hear I guess. “Mixing” all the sites could slow things down.

Think City, then County. Start there. Not all talkgroups are on all sites.
 

mikec10

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2006
Messages
61
Location
Schenectady NY
It depends upon what you want to hear I guess. “Mixing” all the sites could slow things down.

Think City, then County. Start there. Not all talkgroups are on all sites.
Oh I agree and I wish that the unit would scan faster but it seems that since the digital talk groups arrived you have to pick and choose more carefully which direction you want to program your unit. I bought my sds200 8 months ago and I love it. But with all the stuff I installed I only listen to a small portion as I said before and I think the Unication G4 will work out better for me. Prior to the SDS200 I had the SDS100 which I loved also. I am just about finished programming the G4 and it can be used as my base and is also portable to take with me. It has great reception. I have a dicone antenna in the attic with 100 feet of 400 coax. The reception on both is virtually equal. Sorry for rambling. Anyway Both of the units work very well.
 

jgorman21

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Feb 21, 2008
Messages
598
Location
Glenmont N.Y.
Oh I agree and I wish that the unit would scan faster but it seems that since the digital talk groups arrived you have to pick and choose more carefully which direction you want to program your unit. I bought my sds200 8 months ago and I love it. But with all the stuff I installed I only listen to a small portion as I said before and I think the Unication G4 will work out better for me. Prior to the SDS200 I had the SDS100 which I loved also. I am just about finished programming the G4 and it can be used as my base and is also portable to take with me. It has great reception. I have a dicone antenna in the attic with 100 feet of 400 coax. The reception on both is virtually equal. Sorry for rambling. Anyway Both of the units work very well.
Understood. I have a G5 and it is a far superior receiver to the SDS 100 which I also have! Great choice.

Perhaps Separating things within the favorites lists and using filters you’d be able to pull in more stuff. But as I said in my first post, I have not heard much foreground traffic on Albany County fire TG’s if any at all!

Rensselaer County booms in here but they are much closer to me. I’m going to guess that the G4 pulls them all in loud and clear!
 

mikec10

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2006
Messages
61
Location
Schenectady NY
I haven't installed Rensselaer Co on the G4 yet. Albany Co is loud and clear with the County 1 and 2. But since the SDS200 receive anything but the County 1 and 2 there must be another answer to that issue. I just installed Guilderland Police EMS and Fire on the G4. They are Albany Co. I put the Alb Metro and Alb Co sites in and the Guilderland talk groups. All works fine with strong signal. I was listening to a call on Rt146 with a tree down with wires across the road. PD Fire EMS all came in loud and clear. Albany County seems to be a head scratcher....Also Colonie is fine also. At first I received nothing then I had to eliminate the County site and just used the Metro site. Ray from Ray's Pagers suggested that. And it worked.
 

jgorman21

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Feb 21, 2008
Messages
598
Location
Glenmont N.Y.
I haven't installed Rensselaer Co on the G4 yet. Albany Co is loud and clear with the County 1 and 2. But since the SDS200 receive anything but the County 1 and 2 there must be another answer to that issue. I just installed Guilderland Police EMS and Fire on the G4. They are Albany Co. I put the Alb Metro and Alb Co sites in and the Guilderland talk groups. All works fine with strong signal. I was listening to a call on Rt146 with a tree down with wires across the road. PD Fire EMS all came in loud and clear. Albany County seems to be a head scratcher....Also Colonie is fine also. At first I received nothing then I had to eliminate the County site and just used the Metro site. Ray from Ray's Pagers suggested that. And it worked.
Yes. On the G5 I have several different knob positions for different scenarios. I have a knob for Metro. A knob for County and a knob for Cohoes. Cohoes signal is weak where I am. But I know why that is and what it’s supposed to do.

A very long time ago I used a couple of other radios with wildcards to determine what TG was on what cell. As I recall, I think there were only three or four TG’s that are on both county and Metro. I look at Schenectady as a whole separate entity.

Later I made knob positions for Albany PD and FD. Guilderland PD and FD. Albany Public Works. Colonie. Etc etc. to me it made it more like a scanner. There are a lot of TG that frankly I’m not very interested in. So I made a “Misc” knob for those.

I also made a few analog and P25 conventional scanlists. Yes it used a lot of knob positions but it was fun to do and it works well. It’s a commercial grade pager after all!

Again, I have heard commas after arrival on the County FD, but rarely. I would suspect that those entities are using portables on their Old VHF or UHF frequencies which may be repeated or not!

I have no doubt that if you create a knob for Rennselaer County the G4 will receive it flawlessly!

I do understand your issues with the SDS. After about a year of frustration and with the help of many nice folks on here, my SDS 100 works much better! It has its limitations like most everything. But it’s not horrible. With your antenna and some “adjustments” you could probably get it “chirping away!” Out of the box? Probably not!

I like you love my Unication!
 

mikec10

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2006
Messages
61
Location
Schenectady NY
Later on Wednesday I did install Rennselaer Co. That comes in loud and clear here in Schenectady. Prior to receiving the G4 I had in mind what and how to install what I wanted. As I am installing and learning I am rethinking how to set this up. There seems to be so many possibilities based on how you want to group the sites and tg's. I do Uber and took the unit with me and it was nice to be able to listen to the local traffic in any area I happened to be in. I was in Gloversville with a ride and was able to pick up Saratoga Co. Next week I will most likely list the SDS200 and just stick with the G4
 

jgorman21

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Feb 21, 2008
Messages
598
Location
Glenmont N.Y.
Excellent! They are amazing receivers in the 700/800 range. Especially for simulcast.

While I’m still not 100% sure, I did a little test of sorts on that Albany County Fire “thing.” I locked it on the Alb Co Fire Dispatch and heard a call for Cohoes. Brought up their analog frequencies which were shared (last I knew) with Watervliet and Green Island. While it did hear the call and responding units over both the 800 TG and 460.100, the responding units were told to switch to “”Ops 2.” So, I put that TG on and didn’t hear a thing! Is that only over the Cohoes Cell? If so, that is a lower power and covers a smaller specific area. Sometimes I get it here sometimes not! Or, was it my other guess which was low power analog fireground frequencies. They could be low band (unlikely), VHF or UHF…or…

So still searching on that! Enjoy the radio!
 

mikec10

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2006
Messages
61
Location
Schenectady NY
I have not heard Cohoes go out for a while so I can't remember if they assign a ops Number for calls. I do know that for Albany Co as of late that when a call is dispatched for the County they announce the typical info, Dept name, location etc. but they have not assigned a ops Talk Group which I thought was odd. If they are going to the analog frequencies for fire ground chatter that does not make since to me. If you have a p25 system you should use it to the full extent. Just speculation. I won't be able to do much checking on Alb Co until Monday. I will be busy Sat and Sun. Maybe someone else reading this thread might have better idea.
 

62Truck

Ordinary Subscriber
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Aug 13, 2005
Messages
1,991
Location
Uranus
If they are going to the analog frequencies for fire ground chatter that does not make since to me. If you have a p25 system you should use it to the full extent. Just speculation.
On scene fireground communications should be taking place on a non-repeated conventional frequency.

It makes perfect sense to not use the p25 system for on scene fireground communications, and here are a few reasons why..

Most systems are optimized for 95-98% portable coverage from the street (not inbuilding), and that is with holding the radio in your hand. Most firemen wear their radio in a radio strap on the side of their body or in the radio pocket of their coat, this will affect how the radio will work on the system. I'm not sure where you are from but in my area we actually go inside to put the fire out, not just throw some water through the window.

Last thing you want to hear when your inside calling for help is getting the FU tone because you're not making it into the trunked system.
 
Top