Asking for delays ?

[jeremytrent]

I was wondering if you guys knew this one. While listening to Travis County Fire and sometimes EMS.... I hear them asking for (2) minutes delays. The number of minutes changes each time but usually 2-6 from what I've heard.

Do any of you know what this is for and what it does for the guys? ie: is it a radio delay and if so what for - they aren't broadcasting, unless they would do it for us...but that seems stupid.

ie: my other thought was for a delay on a call? As if they are running behind, using the restroom..... who knows.

thanks.

 

[vanillajedi]

I was wondering if you guys knew this one. While listening to Travis County Fire and sometimes EMS.... I hear them asking for (2) minutes delays. The number of minutes changes each time but usually 2-6 from what I've heard.

Do any of you know what this is for and what it does for the guys? ie: is it a radio delay and if so what for - they aren't broadcasting, unless they would do it for us...but that seems stupid.

ie: my other thought was for a delay on a call? As if they are running behind, using the restroom..... who knows.

thanks.

Normally, it's for station specific stuff that may make their response time slow. So they make sure dispatch is aware for call assignments. I know for EMS crews you have 60 seconds to verbalize your response or acknowledge of a page for a call.

Also, the EMS crews in Austin/Travis county are on 20 minute timers when they arrive at the hospital. Once it hits 18 or 19 minutes their paged and notified that they will be available unless they need more time. So you'll hear that kind of traffic all the time. They just went to that system in the last 6 months or so.

Before that some crew's would milk being at the hospital for awhile and other units had to pick up the slack.

 

[jeremytrent]

Ok,

So that makes sense. Yeah I'm sure they could take a cofefe break or so once at the hospital. BTW, how are they notified of their timer? Is that over the radio, cause I never hear that.

Also, let me pick your brain on this...... does each paramedic have their radio set to the main 'control or dispatch' group ID and then they go off to med coms north, south etc.... or are they able to be on two or three 'channels' at a time and choose which they transmit on? Do you get what I'm asking? How does all that work. Are you, they, always having to dial in a different channel or are some patched on your hand radio..... That stuff intrigues me. i'd love to actually see a radio up close and watch how it works. I'd love to see the inside of an ambulance and see the process of getting dispatched and stuff....

 

[W5TWX]

I know from personal experience that you can stop in any firestation and ask for a tour. If your wanting to look inside of a truck or ambulance, just ask when they take you out into the bay. Just make sure you pick one that has a ambulance stationed there.

 

[vanillajedi]

Ok,

So that makes sense. Yeah I'm sure they could take a cofefe break or so once at the hospital. BTW, how are they notified of their timer? Is that over the radio, cause I never hear that.

Also, let me pick your brain on this...... does each paramedic have their radio set to the main 'control or dispatch' group ID and then they go off to med coms north, south etc.... or are they able to be on two or three 'channels' at a time and choose which they transmit on? Do you get what I'm asking? How does all that work. Are you, they, always having to dial in a different channel or are some patched on your hand radio..... That stuff intrigues me. i'd love to actually see a radio up close and watch how it works. I'd love to see the inside of an ambulance and see the process of getting dispatched and stuff....

Timer notification is by pager to ATCEMS crews.

Radio-wise it depends. Not on a call, they run on dispatch, running a call on Medcom North,Central,etc. Transporting a patient, they normally have the truck radio set to one thing and the handheld to another.

Yeah, response-wise. Station Tones go off, pager goes off, the station speaker comes on tuned to ems control, you hear the dispatcher give out the call info. You get in the truck and verbalize where your going and then press responding on the computer and away you go!!

You can do ride-outs with Austin if you wish. You just have to schedule with them ahead of time. You can't treat patients obviously but you can help them with various things.

 

[af5rn]

Just as an anecdotal observation, I don't think I have ever seen a large, urban system where the handhelds are used much for scanning. Most of them aren't even set up for the function. Trust me, when you are working (whether it be EMS, police, or fire), you usually want to hear as little radio traffic as you can get by with. It really gets old. Nobody but a rookie cares what is going on on other channels. As much as we love the function in the hobby world, public safety really just has very little use for it, and you won't find it used much by them.

 

[jeremytrent]

Yes, I'm sure - however my question was more directly towards how they communicate with dispatch and how they cross communicate with others. Do they have the handhelds set to the dispatch channel ONLY at all times then switch to med coms only after a call or are they able, somehow, to monitor both channels like say dispatch AND the med com they are called to.

That was my point, not bored guys scanning they spectrum....

 

[Montz816]

The answer to your question is yes the radio is set to a primary disp channel if the event is a large one it will be given a back channel (Med Com 1 , AFD B1) also all channels can be patched to eachother for example Med Com 1 can be patched to AFD B1 or FireNet or even LCRA APD TCSO or any other agency this is called Interoperability which has became a big deal since 9/11.

Durring a drill out at Bastrop we were able to connect Bastrop SO , Hays County SO APD AFD ATCEMS all on out LCRA Talk group from our mobile command post.
If there is any other questions feel free to ask.