BFD questions

[masstech]

Does BFD still use 153.89 "BFD MBTA Tunnel Operations"? All their radios are UHF or UHF/7/8. If they do not use this channel, since some of their main channels work in the tunnels, this should be removed from the DB.

It looks like BFD has a channel 16 and 17 from documents on bfdradio.net. Are these portable/VRS channels?

Are the district repeaters BFD 6 to 10 used, and if so, what are they used for? Are they still mixed mode analog and P25 (secure)? BFD has CTAC1 and CTAC2 for incident command communications.

Why are channels 11 to 15 using the input frequency of channel 6 to 10 repeater pairs?

There are videos online where BFD radios have scanning on XTS radios or vote scan on APX radios. It looks like when a radio is on BFD 3 for example, it can scan to 3 INPUT.

Is this only for the first 4 channels, or does BFD do this for channels 6 to 10 as well? Are they able to scan more than 1 channel? For example, all BFD channels including the INPUT channels?

 

[BFD-S5]

Does BFD still use 153.89 "BFD MBTA Tunnel Operations"? All their radios are UHF or UHF/7/8. If they do not use this channel, since some of their main channels work in the tunnels, this should be removed from the DB.

The VHF license was cancelled years ago

It looks like BFD has a channel 16 and 17 from documents on bfdradio.net. Are these portable/VRS channels?

Yes

Are the district repeaters BFD 6 to 10 used,

Yes

and if so, what are they used for?

Backups and secure comms


Are they still mixed mode analog and P25 (secure)?

Yes

BFD has CTAC1 and CTAC2 for incident command communications.

These are wide area talkgroups compared to the single site district repeaters

Why are channels 11 to 15 using the input frequency of channel 6 to 10 repeater pairs?

Because we can


There are videos online where BFD radios have scanning on XTS radios or vote scan on APX radios. It looks like when a radio is on BFD 3 for example, it can scan to 3 INPUT.

Is this only for the first 4 channels, or does BFD do this for channels 6 to 10 as well? Are they able to scan more than 1 channel? For example, all BFD channels including the INPUT channels?

Vote scan is only used on 1-4 and Red. They only scan the input

 

[jmorrissey23]

Does BFD still use 153.89 "BFD MBTA Tunnel Operations"? All their radios are UHF or UHF/7/8. If they do not use this channel, since some of their main channels work in the tunnels, this should be removed from the DB.

The VHF license was cancelled years ago

It looks like BFD has a channel 16 and 17 from documents on bfdradio.net. Are these portable/VRS channels?

Yes

Are the district repeaters BFD 6 to 10 used,

Yes

and if so, what are they used for?

Backups and secure comms


Are they still mixed mode analog and P25 (secure)?

Yes

BFD has CTAC1 and CTAC2 for incident command communications.

These are wide area talkgroups compared to the single site district repeaters

Why are channels 11 to 15 using the input frequency of channel 6 to 10 repeater pairs?

Because we can


There are videos online where BFD radios have scanning on XTS radios or vote scan on APX radios. It looks like when a radio is on BFD 3 for example, it can scan to 3 INPUT.

Is this only for the first 4 channels, or does BFD do this for channels 6 to 10 as well? Are they able to scan more than 1 channel? For example, all BFD channels including the INPUT channels?

Vote scan is only used on 1-4 and Red. They only scan the input

Has BFD added more encrypted trunked talkgroups recently? I've seen a lot of hits on TGs in the 3107-3191 lately with radio ids that make me think BFD.

 

[masstech]

Very cool to speak with you, if Elliot Belin's callsign list is still correct for your callsign.

We see your APX 6000 XE and american APX 7000 in a BFD Mayday Procedure video! https://vimeo.com/162207224

How have the display RSMs been working for you instead of APX XE RSMs? Any plans to get XE500s?

The VHF license was cancelled years ago

DB update request submitted, thank you.

Yes

What do the simplex VRSes get used for, when the portables have all the channels they would need? (cities and towns in Metro and MBHSR/BAPERN)

Or maybe they are for coverage, or patching with talkgroups in CoMIRS, or maybe even patching in other agency radios using an ACU?

Yes

Backups and secure comms

Yes

BFD has CTAC1 and CTAC2 for incident command communications.

These are wide area talkgroups compared to the single site district repeaters

Because we can

Fair enough!

Vote scan is only used on 1-4 and Red. They only scan the input

Very cool. This is the first time we have seen a configuration like this.

So in your codeplug, you would have:
- 5 scan lists, configured as Voting Scan
- 2 members each: "BFD X" and "X INPUT" (or "METRO RED" and "REDINPUT")
- with the regular channels as Fixed Designated Voice Tx Members?

Do radios also get a scan list for scanning all channels? If so, we would assume you would not care about the input channels, and so would not scan those.

If you are interested in scanning the INPUT channels, are you using 5 personalities with Conventional Mixed Vote Scan Enable, so you can put those into a conventional scan list? That would limit you to a maximum of 3 personalities to that scan list, so probably not.

Speaking of Metro: we have always wondered - is it: Metrofire, MetroFire, METROFire, or even UASI MBHSR Metrofire, or something else? The capitalization and formatting of the Metro name keeps changing.

And while we have you here: Is there an up to date callsign list (maybe with radio and MDC IDs too), perhaps one that can go on bfdradio.net? Sometimes the bfdradio twitter account features a picture with that person's callsign, and there are several posts that shows Belin's list is out of date.