CareFlite (DFW)

[KG5HHS]

Hello Everyone,
I will be frequenting the DFW area quite often in the near future. I will be monitoring CareFlite on the megahertz system primarily. I was able to monitor and record this system from the Fort Worth site over night during my first visit with my Uniden BCD436HP. I just have a few questions for anyone who knows the operation.
My first question is about the talk groups. Are the talk groups labeled "Hill County; TG8801, Dallas County; TG8802, and Tarrant County; TG8804" only ground ambulances? I'm also confused on the helo talk groups. TG8803 "CareFlite Helo" sounds more like just a dispatch talk group and TG8806 "CareFlite Helos Air to Air' sounds more like a flight following talk group. I have not been able to pick up traffic on TG8804 "CareFlite Tarrant county" or TG8805 "CareFlite Medical Transportation"
My second question is about the time slots being used on this system. As stated above, I was able to record this system over night and I am using Universal Scanner Audio Player to listen to the audio and view the data. I'm not sure if it matters but I noticed TS1 and TS2 being used on all the talk groups I picked up. I wasn't really able to tell if there is a rhyme or reason to how the time slots are used.
My last question is more about the procedures I suppose you could say. When listening to some of the traffic, I noted that they say what sounds like "scene 3" a lot. for instance, when CF4 was calling dispatch on TG8806, his transition sounded like "Comms, CareFlite 4, scene 3" the dispatcher replied, and he gave take off info. was just curious what "scene 3" meant.
Any information about this operation would be greatly appreciated. I'm sure I will have more questions in the future.

 

[Harold]

The CareFlite dispatchers are monitoring multiple radio channels "Scene 3"is the channel label, and is just a heads up from the pilot or med crew to indicate what channel they are on. I know nothing about the time slots, so can be no help there. Most of the other information is correct. The CareFlite Helos (dispatch) channel is actually labeled "Tones". You will also find some flight following comms. on 131.675am Tarrant Side and 131.45am on the Dallas side, many of the other Air Medical services will check in there for flight coordination into and out of the DFW air space.

 

[hiegtx]

Hello Everyone,
I will be frequenting the DFW area quite often in the near future. I will be monitoring CareFlite on the megahertz system primarily. I was able to monitor and record this system from the Fort Worth site over night during my first visit with my Uniden BCD436HP. I just have a few questions for anyone who knows the operation.
My first question is about the talk groups. Are the talk groups labeled "Hill County; TG8801, Dallas County; TG8802, and Tarrant County; TG8804" only ground ambulances? I'm also confused on the helo talk groups. TG8803 "CareFlite Helo" sounds more like just a dispatch talk group and TG8806 "CareFlite Helos Air to Air' sounds more like a flight following talk group. I have not been able to pick up traffic on TG8804 "CareFlite Tarrant county" or TG8805 "CareFlite Medical Transportation"
My second question is about the time slots being used on this system. As stated above, I was able to record this system over night and I am using Universal Scanner Audio Player to listen to the audio and view the data. I'm not sure if it matters but I noticed TS1 and TS2 being used on all the talk groups I picked up. I wasn't really able to tell if there is a rhyme or reason to how the time slots are used.
My last question is more about the procedures I suppose you could say. When listening to some of the traffic, I noted that they say what sounds like "scene 3" a lot. for instance, when CF4 was calling dispatch on TG8806, his transition sounded like "Comms, CareFlite 4, scene 3" the dispatcher replied, and he gave take off info. was just curious what "scene 3" meant.
Any information about this operation would be greatly appreciated. I'm sure I will have more questions in the future.

The slots are not going to always be the same. The system that CareFlite uses, Megahertz, is a busy trunked system. There's dozens more talkgroups active than just what is in the database listing. For each transmission, the system will assign a specific frequency, as well as a slot, based on what is available. That's unlike some non-trunked DMR users, where a specific talkgroup will always use one particular slot.

Occasionally, you may still hear one of the CareFlite helos or fixed wing aircraft using 464.100, PL 123.0, which they refer to as "Cern". They may pop up there if, for whatever reason, they cannot access the Megahertz system.

 

[KG5HHS]

The CareFlite dispatchers are monitoring multiple radio channels "Scene 3"is the channel label, and is just a heads up from the pilot or med crew to indicate what channel they are on. I know nothing about the time slots, so can be no help there. Most of the other information is correct. The CareFlite Helos (dispatch) channel is actually labeled "Tones". You will also find some flight following comms. on 131.675am Tarrant Side and 131.45am on the Dallas side, many of the other Air Medical services will check in there for flight coordination into and out of the DFW air space.

That's good information to know! I'll have to add those frequencies in. Do the air crews use any other talk groups or just those?

The slots are not going to always be the same. The system that CareFlite uses, Megahertz, is a busy trunked system. There's dozens more talkgroups active than just what is in the database listing. For each transmission, the system will assign a specific frequency, as well as a slot, based on what is available. That's unlike some non-trunked DMR users, where a specific talkgroup will always use one particular slot.

Occasionally, you may still hear one of the CareFlite helos or fixed wing aircraft using 464.100, PL 123.0, which they refer to as "Cern". They may pop up there if, for whatever reason, they cannot access the Megahertz system.

Thanks for explaining the timeslots. I'm not really familiar with trunked DMR. I'll have to put that frequency in. Thank you

 

[hiegtx]

That's good information to know! I'll have to add those frequencies in. Do the air crews use any other talk groups or just those?

The CareFlite talkgroups listed on the Megahertz system are the only ones I've ever heard CareFlite to use. When I first got the DMR upgrade, I ran the system in ID Search mode for quite a while, looking for other possible CareFlite TGIDs, but did not run across any. As I already noted, there are a far more talkgroups in use, in addition to those on the database page. But these are various businesses of all kinds, and of no interest to me.

These are the normal CareFlite units. and where they are based.
CF 1 N428CF Harris Fort Worth
CF 2 N429CF Methodist Dallas
CF 3 N419CF Granbury
CF 4 N417CF McKinney
CF 5 N412CF Gainesville
CF 6 N416CF Whitney

The aircraft tail numbers are not always the same. CareFlite has additional helicopters, so when the 'regular' bird is out of service for repair or routine maintenance, there may be a different one responding as, say, CareFlite 1, or whatever. You can see those on apps such as Flightradar24, among others.

There are a couple of other EMS users on the system: TGID 9501 is Medic One EMS, which is a ground ambulance service. TGID 1088 is used by Children's Medical. They have several ground ambulances that are used to transfer pediatric patients from other hospitals to Children's.

Be sure & include the Dallas-Fort Worth entries from the Texas Medevacs page. That encompasses PHI AirMed & AirEvac, which also have a number of copters that come into the area.

 

[Harold]

If transporting a patient to a Fort Worth Hospital, usually Harris, JPS or Cook Children. You can usually hear the patient report on one of the hospital talkgroups. Reason you don't hear much on the Tarrant County channel is probably because CareFlite ambulances in Tarrant are for private patient transfers and the like. MedStar is the Emergency Ambulance Provider for most cities in Tarrant County, except for those that provide it though the FD, and Arlington which uses AMR.

 

[TexTAC]

I listen to CareFlight, Tx Medevacs, and PhiAirMed quite often in the DFW area. Tracking the helicopters is also interesting using this free website ….

Live Flight Tracker - Real-Time Flight Tracker Map | Flightradar24

The world’s most popular flight tracker. Track planes in real-time on our flight tracker map and get up-to-date flight status & airport information.

www.flightradar24.com

Zoom into your location and if you a see a helicopter, click on it. A window will pop up providing real time info on the helicopter including tracking. Dallas Police Air One shows up often and the pilots transmit on the conventional Dallas PD frequencies. Also very interesting to listen to.

 

[hiegtx]

I listen to CareFlight, Tx Medevacs, and PhiAirMed quite often in the DFW area. Tracking the helicopters is also interesting using this free website ….

Live Flight Tracker - Real-Time Flight Tracker Map | Flightradar24

The world’s most popular flight tracker. Track planes in real-time on our flight tracker map and get up-to-date flight status & airport information.

www.flightradar24.com

Zoom into your location and if you a see a helicopter, click on it. A window will pop up providing real time info on the helicopter including tracking. Dallas Police Air One shows up often and the pilots transmit on the conventional Dallas PD frequencies. Also very interesting to listen to.

Flightradar24 is also available as an app for a smart phone; I use it on my iPhone.

Also look at this online tracker:

ADS-B Exchange - track aircraft live

ADS-B Exchange - track aircraft live - aircraft flight history

globe.adsbexchange.com

 

[jason51]

Here are the correct TG names for CF
8801- 911 west.
8802- CF Ground
8803- Tones
8804 Scene 1
8805- Scene 2
8806 Scene 3

Tarrant Co is only in scene 1 when they have an extra dispatcher. Most Tarrant 200 units are in phone or computer. HEB units usually on radio.

also, there are a bunch of missing frequencies on several sites in data base. Not hard to find if you take a little time.

 

[ce2576]

Just a few updates to Jason's post, at least based on my monitoring of Careflite on this system.

8801 - Careflite Ground EMS , Hill County
Unit numbers are in the 300's (304, 305,etc.)

They also have a unit, Medic 901, stationed in Cleburne (Johnson County). From my listening, Medic 901 runs mostly IFT calls. I don't hear them very often, though my monitoring of this TG is mostly in the evenings. In a few rare instances they have been requested to run EMS calls for Cleburne and AMR.

8802 - Careflite Ground NEMT, Dallas County.
Unit numbers in the 500's if I recall correctly. Have also heard W1 & W2.

I don't listen to this talk group often (I actually have it locked out) but when I have it's been primarily NEMT's & IFT's in Dallas County and surrounding areas.

8803 - Careflite Helicopter Dispatch (Tones)

8804 - Careflite Ground NEMT, Tarrant County
Unit numbers I believe in the 700's if I recall.

Again another talk group that I have locked out. However when I have listened to it, it seems to be the same type traffic as TG 8802; NEMT's & IFT"s, but in Tarrant County.

8805 - Careflite Ground EMS, Ferris, TX.
I believe they only have one medic here, I could be wrong though. Medic 811 is the only one I've heard. I'm pretty sure that's the correct unit number.

8806 - Scene 3 (helo's)

I should note that it's been awhile since I have listened to 8802 & 8804. Especially since I have them locked out in my scanner. And have had them locked out for quite some time. So unless they've made some changes to those two talkgroups, I believe what I have listed for 8802 & 8804 should still be correct.

 

[KG5HHS]

I listen to CareFlight, Tx Medevacs, and PhiAirMed quite often in the DFW area. Tracking the helicopters is also interesting using this free website ….

Live Flight Tracker - Real-Time Flight Tracker Map | Flightradar24

The world’s most popular flight tracker. Track planes in real-time on our flight tracker map and get up-to-date flight status & airport information.

www.flightradar24.com

Zoom into your location and if you a see a helicopter, click on it. A window will pop up providing real time info on the helicopter including tracking. Dallas Police Air One shows up often and the pilots transmit on the conventional Dallas PD frequencies. Also very interesting to listen to.

Flightradar24 is also available as an app for a smart phone; I use it on my iPhone.

Also look at this online tracker:

ADS-B Exchange - track aircraft live

ADS-B Exchange - track aircraft live - aircraft flight history

globe.adsbexchange.com

I'll definitely be using these as well. I have a flightfeeder for flightaware that I will be putting up once I find a suitable area.

Here are the correct TG names for CF
8801- 911 west.
8802- CF Ground
8803- Tones
8804 Scene 1
8805- Scene 2
8806 Scene 3

Tarrant Co is only in scene 1 when they have an extra dispatcher. Most Tarrant 200 units are in phone or computer. HEB units usually on radio.

also, there are a bunch of missing frequencies on several sites in data base. Not hard to find if you take a little time.

Thanks for the TG Name Info. I'll be sure to update those. Just for clarification, what is "HEB"? Could finding the rest of the frequencies for these sites be as simple as just looking up all of the licenses associated with the FRN and picking out the frequencies for each location? I wouldn't mind taking the time out to do that and plugging it into my BCD436HP. If I do do that, would they need to be in any particular order? DMR trunking is new to me so I'm not sure if its like a p25 control channel that will give the scanner all the info once it locks on.

Just a few updates to Jason's post, at least based on my monitoring of Careflite on this system.

8801 - Careflite Ground EMS , Hill County
Unit numbers are in the 300's (304, 305,etc.)

They also have a unit, Medic 901, stationed in Cleburne (Johnson County). From my listening, Medic 901 runs mostly IFT calls. I don't hear them very often, though my monitoring of this TG is mostly in the evenings. In a few rare instances they have been requested to run EMS calls for Cleburne and AMR.

8802 - Careflite Ground NEMT, Dallas County.
Unit numbers in the 500's if I recall correctly. Have also heard W1 & W2.

I don't listen to this talk group often (I actually have it locked out) but when I have it's been primarily NEMT's & IFT's in Dallas County and surrounding areas.

8803 - Careflite Helicopter Dispatch (Tones)

8804 - Careflite Ground NEMT, Tarrant County
Unit numbers I believe in the 700's if I recall.

Again another talk group that I have locked out. However when I have listened to it, it seems to be the same type traffic as TG 8802; NEMT's & IFT"s, but in Tarrant County.

8805 - Careflite Ground EMS, Ferris, TX.
I believe they only have one medic here, I could be wrong though. Medic 811 is the only one I've heard. I'm pretty sure that's the correct unit number.

8806 - Scene 3 (helo's)

I should note that it's been awhile since I have listened to 8802 & 8804. Especially since I have them locked out in my scanner. And have had them locked out for quite some time. So unless they've made some changes to those two talkgroups, I believe what I have listed for 8802 & 8804 should still be correct.

Thank's for the details about each.

Does anyone know a frequency for their fixed wing or if this is done on the helo talk groups or by phone?

 

[nd5y]

HEB = Hurst-Euless-Bedford

Texas Health HEB | Hospital in Bedford, TX

The Texas Health HEB hospital serves the communities of Hurst, Euless, Bedford, Colleyville, Grapevine, Southlake, North Richland Hills, Watauga, Haltom City & Keller. With advanced medical treatments and an experienced staff, Texas Health HEB and physicians on the medical staff are committed to...

www.texashealth.org

and

HEB ISD Home - Hurst-Euless-Bedford Independent School District

HEB ISD Home - Hurst-Euless-Bedford Independent School District

www.hebisd.edu

 

[KG5HHS]

HEB = Hurst-Euless-Bedford

Texas Health HEB | Hospital in Bedford, TX

The Texas Health HEB hospital serves the communities of Hurst, Euless, Bedford, Colleyville, Grapevine, Southlake, North Richland Hills, Watauga, Haltom City & Keller. With advanced medical treatments and an experienced staff, Texas Health HEB and physicians on the medical staff are committed to...

www.texashealth.org

and

HEB ISD Home - Hurst-Euless-Bedford Independent School District

HEB ISD Home - Hurst-Euless-Bedford Independent School District

www.hebisd.edu

Thank you!

 

[jason51]

HEB is the hospital in Bedford. There is a CF ground station nearby. That is where most of the tarrant co trucks run out of. The other tarrant co units are on the west side, Azle, mineral wells and willow park, those are 200 units
The other trucks are 700 units, those out of HEB for tarrant co.

 

[KG5HHS]

HEB is the hospital in Bedford. There is a CF ground station nearby. That is where most of the tarrant co trucks run out of. The other tarrant co units are on the west side, Azle, mineral wells and willow park, those are 200 units
The other trucks are 700 units, those out of HEB for tarrant co.

Good information to know about the units, Thank you!

 

[KG5HHS]

Does anyone have anymore information on the Fort Worth Site (Site 3). I have been battling the information for this site for a couple day! It is missing some frequencies in the database, as @jason51 mentioned earlier in the post. If I'm not mistaken, I believe the frequencies are missing for LCN's 4,5,6 & LSN 7,8,9,10,11,12.
I've got my BCD436HP & BCD536HP with me and trying to figure this out. I have looked up all the licenses associated with the site and found that to be a nightmare as this system uses multiple frequencies from different licenses and are used at sites not listed on licenses. I've pretty much had to abandon the licenses for help. I found about 70 different possible frequencies but LCN finder won't work with anything over 30. I've also done a proximity search (Which I believe just goes off of license information) and found about 21 possible frequencies.
I've set up multiple sites in my scanners to do some testing. one site with all 21 frequencies, and sites with only the control channels. I have found 454.5125 & 483.2375 to be be giving system id, and site id (3) information out, so I would assume this to mean those are control channels.
When I go to Menu>Analyze>System Status and use the sites with only 454.5125 or 483.2375 I get alot of info. Both saying System ID: 00078h, Site ID: 3, Freq: 6, Color 5, S bar fluctuates between 1/3-1/2, Q bar is all the way up, and A bar fluctuates between 1/3 and full. HOWEVER, when I got to LCN finder, the max I have found was 4/21. That was left for 24+ hours.
As I'm sure all can tell, I have zero knowledge with DMR trunking systems so any information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you again to everyone that has given input so far, It has all been great information.