Bethany Fire Dept patched to UHF again

[n5usr]

It's been a while since I listened to my Bethany / Warr Acres bank. (Pretty much since BPD disappeared into the Provoice ether...) Am I mistaken, or didn't BFD also shut off their UHF link at one point?

Today I turned the bank back on and there's the fire dept again, on their old frequency! Definitely a patch to the OKC system - can hear the "digital" sound and it has that annoying squelch crash, especially for dispatch. But some of what I heard sounded an awful lot like they were back on UHF, perhaps for portable units? (They were working what sounded like a large crash, multiple ambulances.)

I was in the car driving at the time so not ideal listening conditions, can't say for certain what radios they were on... Perhaps the patch is just so WAFD can hear what's going on. It did stay active long after the accident I heard, though.

I also noticed some brief digital transmissions on BPD's "channel 2" (460.4125) from time to time. Wonder if they're doing something with it, or if it has already been reassigned... (ULS search shows Bethany and Oklahoma County both hold an active license for the frequency. No others in the state.)

 

[boyledad]

The fire department's UHF link has never been turned off. It's the only way we have any clue what's going on in Bethany.

And even though the PD UHF is not linked to 800, supposedly it's being monitored in dispatch for emergencies, but I wouldn't want to be the one betting my life on it.


PS- I don't have a clue about the 460.4125 freq but I'll try to get nosy next weekend when I'm up there working.

 

[n5usr]

Oh okay. Shows how much attention I've paid lately! I may have known at one time that they were still linked - I'm doing good if I can remember what I did the past week at work...

The data thing is quite sporadic. Most of the time I don't hear anything, but every once in a while it'll have a few bursts of packets.

 

[Gilligan]

Keep in mind that BPD 2 (460.4125) is also a shared county frequency and that it is supposed to be used for tactical communications (I know you already know this). What kind of "digital" was it? P25 or DES?

 

[n5usr]

I don't know. It sounded a lot like white noise. I'm not real familiar with all the digital protocols, the closest thing I know to describe it is D-Star, but without the "ping".

Didn't notice it this weekend, when I had the scanner going more. Earlier last week it was there quite a bit but very occasional since then.

Kinda hard to listen much during the week, I've been spending all my work time in the office the past couple of weeks.

 

[Gilligan]

If it sounded like white noice (kind of like squelch), it may have been DES. If it had the machine-gun sound, it was probably P25. Or it could have been something else...