Carver County Fire Paging

[KA0XR]

So is it the case now that Carver County Fire/EMS paging is now 100% ARMER/800 MHz? I haven't heard anything on their 154.100 paging frequency in awhile, aside from the rare Canadian trucker convoy passing through yakking on LADD Channel 1. With no frequencies listed for Carver County in the database, I presume this confirms they've all but abandoned VHF, like Anoka County.

I'm not a fire fighter, but does 800 MHz paging adequately/safely cover a predominantly rural county that features plenty of terrain and forests areas like Carver? How much longer before other counties abandon VHF fire paging? Or are Carver and Anoka unique cases? Intersting how Hennepin seems to have gone the opposite direction with their resurrection of 155.610 MHz.

 

[KE0SKN]

Some departments are using G5 800/700MHz Pagers

 

[disgusdad]

I receive all the Carver/Chan/Waconia/Victoria/Watertown dispatch and fire talk groups on the Scott County ARMER simulcast. Not sure about paging, there's a firefighter that lives down the road, I will have to remember to ask him about that.
As far as county coverage, police and fire have been on that system for quite some time, so assumption is it must suit their needs for range and performance.

 

[CcSkyEye]

Carver County Stopped paging via VHF the beginning of 2023. Coverage on the shared Scott/Carver ARMER system is great.

 

[mmtstc]

The Unication pagers are exceptionally well engineered, comparable to, if not better than the reception on my APX6000 with a stubby antenna.

Anoka County did the math and found that it was cheaper to buy 800 Unication G5's for every firefighter in the county than it was to keep their VHF system alive.

Hennepin County has more fire departments and individual firefighters in addition to the HCSO radio shop that is running a lot more equipment, so perhaps their economics dictated that they build out a system that is forward compatible, so if a department needs to replace pagers, they can switch to Unication, but the Motorola Minitors will work fine until then.

As a fireputterouter myself, i liked having the reception of the Unication but hated the overall size of the device, whereas the Minitor 6 that i currently have (for my county that doesn't have digital paging or robodispatch) has mediocre reception but is a much less annoying device to carry on my belt.

 

[KA0XR]

The Unication pagers are exceptionally well engineered, comparable to, if not better than the reception on my APX6000 with a stubby antenna.

Anoka County did the math and found that it was cheaper to buy 800 Unication G5's for every firefighter in the county than it was to keep their VHF system alive.

Hennepin County has more fire departments and individual firefighters in addition to the HCSO radio shop that is running a lot more equipment, so perhaps their economics dictated that they build out a system that is forward compatible, so if a department needs to replace pagers, they can switch to Unication, but the Motorola Minitors will work fine until then.

As a fireputterouter myself, i liked having the reception of the Unication but hated the overall size of the device, whereas the Minitor 6 that i currently have (for my county that doesn't have digital paging or robodispatch) has mediocre reception but is a much less annoying device to carry on my belt.

Regarding another Metro county, is it safe to assume Dakota County is similar to Hennepin in that they'll continue with VHF paging based on the size and number of fire departments? Are all Dakota County Fire Departments on VHF paging or are some cities 800 MHz-only like with Minneapolis & St. Louis Park in Hennepin County? Both Hennepin and Dakota County's page out frequencies have a huge receive radius that reliably makes it 90-100 miles to the north with even a modest 2 meter base antenna.

Is 800 MHz paging the way of the future in MN or will coverage issues, especially for rural counties, still necessitate VHF?

 

[AAFC]

<snip>

Is 800 MHz paging the way of the future in MN or will coverage issues, especially for rural counties, still necessitate VHF?

I have ZERO inside information on the future of fire paging in Minnesota.... However, when you ask about 800MHz paging coverage issues, I have to wonder if there are any? If a rural area already has 800 MHz (ARMER) coverage for Police and Fire, then using 800 MHz for Unication pagers should not be a problem in that same area. I have a Unication G4 that I use as a scanner here in the Twin Cities and it works perfectly with excellent coverage.

Keep in mind, the Unication G5 is a dual band pager. It should be able to monitor the ARMER 800 MHz system, AND/OR local VHF paging frequencies. However, I do not believe the pager can monitor both frequencies at the same time.

 

[CcSkyEye]

I'm assuming cost to each fire department is a big factor in moving away from VHF paging. Unication G 4/5 Series pagers are not cheap and to buy one for every member is a large purchase.