Careflite on Megahertz DMR system

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Blaine

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Just curious if any monitors have heard any recent chopper dispatches from Careflite on this system. I used
to hear tone outs for scene calls on TG 8803 all the time, as well as radio traffic on TG 8806 Air Tac. Lately
though, it seems everything has gone silent. Just to make sure I was still receiving audio off the TX site
(T.I.) I put my BCD436 in ID search mode, and it's receiving other talkgroups loud and clear. Anyone have
any info? Have they moved to another system? TIA
 

hiegtx

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Just curious if any monitors have heard any recent chopper dispatches from Careflite on this system. I used
to hear tone outs for scene calls on TG 8803 all the time, as well as radio traffic on TG 8806 Air Tac. Lately
though, it seems everything has gone silent. Just to make sure I was still receiving audio off the TX site
(T.I.) I put my BCD436 in ID search mode, and it's receiving other talkgroups loud and clear. Anyone have
any info? Have they moved to another system? TIA
I'm still hearing them, with no problem. Which site are you using? Maybe, for whatever reason, the CareFlite TGIDs are not being carried on that site? I'm roughly midway between the Dallas site, on the 'green monster', and Cedar Hill. (Actually, a little closer to downtown, but still getting a strong signal from both sites.
 

Blaine

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I'm still hearing them, with no problem. Which site are you using? Maybe, for whatever reason, the CareFlite TGIDs are not being carried on that site? I'm roughly midway between the Dallas site, on the 'green monster', and Cedar Hill. (Actually, a little closer to downtown, but still getting a strong signal from both sites.

Thanks for the quick reply, Steve. I'm using the Texas Instruments site. That's what I've been using for quite some time and always heard their dispatches no problem (I live very close to Bush and 75). I admit I'm not an expert on DMR, but could an agency move their talkgroups to another site exclusively? So you are getting dispatch and air tac off 901 Main site and Cedar Hill, correct?
 

Blaine

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Hmm. Well, I just heard TG 8802 Dispatch on the T.I. site, but haven't heard helo dispatch it
seems in ages. Maybe scene response has just been down, which I guess is a GOOD thing.
I also hear PHI 152.9525 & 158.175 loud and clear from my place. Maybe other medivacs are
picking up some of Careflite territory calls?
 

hiegtx

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Hmm. Well, I just heard TG 8802 Dispatch on the T.I. site, but haven't heard helo dispatch it
seems in ages. Maybe scene response has just been down, which I guess is a GOOD thing.
I also hear PHI 152.9525 & 158.175 loud and clear from my place. Maybe other medivacs are
picking up some of Careflite territory calls?
I'm still hearing dispatches for the usual cast of characters, CF-1 through CF-6, including CareFlite 4 out of McKinney. I'm not hearing an increased amount of dispatches on PHI or AirEvac frequencies, although some of those are marginal as far as receiving for me.

A number of PHI transmissions referring to the "Desoto Heliport", either headed there for fuel, or leaving from there. Several months ago, while having lunch at the Ojedas just west of the heliport, saw one of the PHI birds lift off then head northeast. Two other PHI copters parked on the tarmac near the hanger stalls and repair shops. (I'm maybe 4 to 5 miles from the heliport.)
 

walsabrook

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You will here Careflight traffic as well on these VHF frequencies below...

152.9525
159.9900
158.1750 (Greenville)
152.4275 (Sherman)

Airband

131.4500
123.0250
 

hiegtx

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You will here Careflight traffic as well on these VHF frequencies below...

152.9525
159.9900
158.1750 (Greenville)
152.4275 (Sherman)

Airband

131.4500
123.0250
Those first four are not CareFlite.

These two are used by PHI AirMed:
152.9525
159.9900

And these two are AirEvac:
158.1750 (Greenville)
152.4275 (Sherman)

While these are used for air medical (medevac) communications, PHI & AirEvac are two separate air medical providers, not affiliated with CareFlite here in the DFW Metro area.

Frequency 131.450 is used, occasionally, by CareFlite copters to talk to their base, but more often you may hear helicopters from other areas, enroute to one of the large hospitals here, check in with CareFlite dispatch to advise they are inbound, and potentially could conflict with another copter, especially in regards to which landing pads are available at a specific hospital.

Frequency 123.075 is an Unicom frequency, and can be used by helicopters to communicate with each other when in possibly congested airspace. It is not specifically (and exclusively) used by CareFlite or any other air medical provider. Back before 9-11, there were a number of helicopters in use by news media and traffic reporting companies, and the air to air frequencies were used if you had several of them orbiting an incident scene.
 

jason51

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they are still there. Might want to check you channels, several systems and towers have changed in the area recently due to interference issues. Ie: self and MHz systems. Easy to find all of them if you use some true scanner hobby skills!
 

hiegtx

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they are still there. Might want to check you channels, several systems and towers have changed in the area recently due to interference issues. Ie: self and MHz systems. Easy to find all of them if you use some true scanner hobby skills!
Excellent point.

In the October issue of "The Spectrum Monitor", reference is made about interference being created by the increasing number of digital TV systems (DTV). More specifically, it speaks of how DTV stations are interfering with PLMR systems (private land mobile radio). The Dallas & Houston areas are mentioned as areas where interference is more prevalent.

Thanks for the quick reply, Steve. I'm using the Texas Instruments site. That's what I've been using for quite some time and always heard their dispatches no problem (I live very close to Bush and 75). I admit I'm not an expert on DMR, but could an agency move their talkgroups to another site exclusively? So you are getting dispatch and air tac off 901 Main site and Cedar Hill, correct?
Yes, I get everything on the 901 Main and Cedar Hill sites.

Take a look at the "TI" site for Megahertz, It lists 5 frequencies. But if you look at the related license, for that location, only two of the five are listed. (The 454mhz frequency does not appear on that specific license, but it's a "market" frequency that is handled differently. (That may not be the exact correct term, but bottom line is that it will not show up on a normal search.) The other three have ben replaced with different frequencies. Not sure if I can get a good copy on the TI site, but I'm going to add the new frequencies then try to run the LCN finder to see how they shake out.

If three of those frequencies have changed, that may be why you are not hearing everything on the TI site. I believe you've posted before that you had a 436HP. If you have that (or an SDS series scanner), try correcting the frequencies then run the LCN finder from your location.
 

hiegtx

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OK, on further review...........

The three frequencies for the TI site, that are not on the license linked to the site in the database, are on a different license, WIM329.

There is also another frequency, licensed to the Megahertz owner, on license WIM303. That's 484.7125. That frequency, on that license, is the only entry for the TI site's location.

I've added all these "extra" frequencies to the TO site and will try to run the LCN Finder (if I get a strong enough signal) to see how this sorts out.
 

mwjones

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There seems to be a lot of frequency changes on a number of PLMR systems in the Metroplex The Megahertz Allen/McKinney site (the one closest to me) seems to have disappeared, as I can no longer find the control channel (I've searched from 450-489MHz while setting 1/4 mile from the tower with no luck). What was listed for Parkland was incorrect, and had to be rediscovered (and was promptly updated in RRDB once I had validated the missing information).

So right now, everything in that space may need to be revalidated (Self Radio's Nexedge is another system that's doing this right now as well, Ambassador Cab's old LTR frequency is now part of Self Radio's downtown site).
 

jason51

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The Self system has totally changed on most of their sites, and it appears that the MHz system only changed two sites. Again, very easy to find with LCN finder and a little work. And on another note, I have heard that the old PDV systems will be shut down by the end of the year, not much left on those and it appears that most users have moved over to PTT on LTE
 

RadioBoy69

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correct on the self sites. they have totally gotten rid of the t band channels on most of their sites. Not sure about MHZ system as the main Dallas site has not changed and that is where a majority of the traffic is.
 

riverradio68

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I had heard that the TI site performed so well that they offlined McKinney. I hear 8802 as Primary EMS & 8803 as Air tone out. 8806 is Scene 3 used by Air also. All this off Howe. I was told Denison is offline as was Parkland. In fact I only scan TI and Howe, those two sites alone handle much of their traffic for me.
 

mwjones

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Parkland was still online as of last weekend. It doesn't broadcast a list of neighboring sites, nor does any of the neighboring sites show it as a neighbor. I doubt that they would take it offline, as Parkland owns the frequencies (much like JPS in Fort Worth owns their frequencies), and by having a repeater on site minimizes the risk of dead spots. You have to be within 5 miles of the hospital to hear it.

I can't get Howe reliably here in North Frisco (Preston Road South of 380) as it gets blown out by Medical Center Denton (yeah I know, but with my mobile rig sitting across the street from Medical Center Denton, Howe blows them out) . I can get good signals though from Denton and Downtown Dallas sites. - All on a Mag Mount antenna stuck to a piece of sheet metal on top of my desk in my 3rd floor apartment (the tip of the antenna almost touches the 9ft ceiling).
 

riverradio68

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Well that explains that .... on rare occasion I can get Cedar Hill and only once did I get a hit of Denton from the La'Casa. I saw licenses for MHertz on Caddo Mills (or Quinlan) forgot which but was told that is just paper, no frequencies exist at that site or several others.
 

Blaine

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Finally heard a Careflite helo tone out this afternoon. As suggested by others, I started whittling down the transmit sites to see what was receivable here at my location. The two that showed consistent full signal bar strength on my BCD436HP were the T.I. site (which I had always used) and the Dallas site. When the tone out for helo dispatch went out, I noticed it was on the Dallas transmit site. So that is the one I am going to be using now for all their communications. I'm supposing I was just missing some possible tone outs because they were just not going to the T.I. site.
 

IAmSixNine

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Well for the TI location to pass that talk group a helicopter would need to affiliate with it.
Going of memory Connect plus systems are similar to P25 in that the radio affiliates with the system to validate the radio and then the talk group will pop up on that site. Since your monitoring a helo dispatch channel its safe to say that smaller satellite site wont have a helicopter associating with it.
 

hiegtx

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Finally heard a Careflite helo tone out this afternoon. As suggested by others, I started whittling down the transmit sites to see what was receivable here at my location. The two that showed consistent full signal bar strength on my BCD436HP were the T.I. site (which I had always used) and the Dallas site. When the tone out for helo dispatch went out, I noticed it was on the Dallas transmit site. So that is the one I am going to be using now for all their communications. I'm supposing I was just missing some possible tone outs because they were just not going to the T.I. site.
I suspect that the main reason you were missing them on the TI site is that the TI location may have changed to different frequencies, and/or LCNs than what the database currently shows.

Even though I'm in Dallas, I still hear radio traffic to & from the Hill County bird, CF 6.
 
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