Baltimore city tone outs?

[ka3jjz]

I could have easily missed it, but it seems the database doesn't have the FTOs for Baltimore city.

If that's true, there's a worthwhile project for a wiki article. Keep in mind you don't need one of the Unidens to actually measure the fire tone out freqs. Any receiver ought to work (and you'll notice I said 'receiver' - that means an AOR, Yaesu or Icom will do the job just as well as any old scanner...). There are a few programs that can do this, and are listed below (if you know of others, please add links to them)

http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Fire_Tone_Out

See there is a use for that old throw-away on your shelf or in your closet.

73 Mike

 

[Llwellyn]

I never looked into doing it back when I was working on AACO because they tone out only over a trunked TG. At that time, there was no radio capable of doing FTO on a trunked TG, only conventional... has that changed?

Also, I thought they were using MOSCAD for station alerting at that time, which isn't really the same thing as paging tones and also had no radio that could FTO based on it.

I haven't been "into" scanning lately though, so if Baltimore changed or some new radio came out, it might be worth looking into now.

 

[ka3jjz]

Hmm, if they only tone out over a talkgroup, then you would need a digital scanner - but it's still doable. It would have to be 'locked' on a talkgroup - seems a waste, but it also seems the only way to do it. An old 296 or 796 might work.....still, interesting information 73 Mike

 

[troymail]

I could be wrong but.... I don't think B City actually transmits tones to dispatch - you do here a verbal but I think the alerting is all internal to the systems in the city. MOSCAD sends data directly into the stations to either alert and/or get dispatch info to a printer (I believe)...

Perhaps someone "inside" the city can fill us in...

 

[ResQguy]

Baltimore City Fire Communications does not use audible tones. They send MOSCAD data to Remote Terminal Units which are connected to the station alerting system. When a station is selected for dispatch, the PA opens up the speakers throughout the firehouse and sounds the gong. The watchman can hit the acknowledge button on the way to the apparatus which shows up in the fire station alerting monitoring console at communications and also closes the speakers. Short answer, FTO will not help you. You would need to be running trunker and figure out what station has what individual ID and log it.

 

[ka3jjz]

Ah well - that answers that question, then. Thanks 73 Mike