CCE Central Dispatch Authority

[nvanw27]

CCE (Charlevoix-Cheboygan-Emmet) Central Dispatch Authority is a Unified Regional Central Dispatch Center located in Petoskey, Michigan that provides 911 services for Charlevoix (15), Cheboygan (16) and Emmet (17) counties in Northern Michigan. Their radio system consists of numerous repeaters around the area. With more than 30 fire and EMS Departments, 3 county police forces, numerous smaller police departments, the Michigan State Police, and 3 EMS Companies under their dispatch offices, most days at CCE are very busy.

Each county has their Fire, EMS, and Law Enforcement paged and monitored through the CCE offices in Petoskey. Each county provides their own Road Commission and Transportation Services, which are not dispatched under CCE.

Charlevoix County (15) is the smallest of the 3 counties. It has 7 fire departments, 1 EMS-only department (Station 53, Charlevoix EMS), and 1 EMS Company (East Jordan/Jordan Valley EMS). Their Fire and EMS dispatch frequency is 154.340 MHz, with Beaver Island (Station 57) being dispatched on either 154.980 MHz or 154.100 MHz, the used frequency is unknown at this time. Each Fire department has their own set of tone, with Boyne City EMS and East Jordan EMS having a specific tone for EMS runs. Additionally, Boyne City Fire Department has a set of Two-Tone that runs directly after their single-tone page. It is also speculated that each fire chief has a set of two-tone, as unrecognized tone has gone out before with a message for a specific unit to TX central. The Drawbridge in Charlevoix, the Ferry in Ironton, and the Charlevoix County Dive Team also have tones registered to them.
Law Enforcement for Charlevoix County is dispatched on 155.565 MHz. All law enforcement officers in the county, with the exception of MSP, use this frequency. Additionally, fire and EMS call descriptions are broadcast through this frequency, on the chance that there is a LEO in the area.

Cheboygan County (16) is the largest of the 3 counties. It has 9 fire departments, with some of those having sub-stations on the same set of tone. Cheboygan Life Support is the county's EMS provider, with 3 sets of tone registered to them. Fire and EMS Dispatch is on 154.310 MHz.
Law Enforcement's frequency is currently unknown. It could be 155.520 MHz, 155.010 MHz, or 151.475 MHz. Hopefully i'll get an answer to that question soon. It's assumed that the Law Enforcement has Fire and EMS call descriptions broadcast to the officers, similar to Emmet and Charlevoix Counties.

Emmet County (24) is where CCE's offices are located, across from the Holiday Inn on 131 and next to the water tower. Fire dispatching is on 154.400 MHz. The county has 9 fire departments and 1 EMS department, having 3 sub stations. EMS is provided by Emmet County EMS, and is toned on the Fire frequency. The Petoskey Department of Public Safety/Fire Department is known as both Station 45 and Station 34, and it is rumored that Station 34 toning is done on a separate frequency of 154.310 MHz.
Law Enforcement's frequency is 155.685 MHz, and the setup is similar to the other counties, in the sense that Fire and EMS call descriptions are broadcast through this frequency.

Now, for some additional information.
Pager Testing is a bit of a mystery. It's been recorded that pager tests for Charlevoix County occur every Tuesday at 18:00, but, as of recent, that hasn't been happening. In fact, NO pager tests have been going out. The other two counties are a mystery as well.
Something has been wonky with Charlevoix County's repeaters for about a month now. Tones are very loud and the dispatchers are becoming static-ridden. It's not like this in either of the other counties. TELE-RAD (local Motorola dealer) was working on the system one day, but nothing got fixed to my knowledge.
CCE enjoys interoperability, Mutual Aid, and other services like these either through MPSCS or a common frequency. Antrim County can request a Charlevoix County rig through radio, and within 20 seconds, CCE is toning a rig. Mackinaw County (on the other side of the bridge) can ask for a unit from Mackinaw City, and soon it'll be en route.

If you're reading this end, thanks for sticking with this entire thing I've written out. I've been monitoring CCE's counties for about a year now and this is all information I've either gathered from listening or from the ever-so-helpful RadioReference database. If you have information on this system, notice something incorrect, or would like to add something, please, let me know! This is a very interesting system and I enjoy learning about it and how it works.

 

[n8rdz]

When I lived up there from 2007 to 2011, Charlevoix County fire departments would use some non-public safety frequencies for fireground ops. The frequencies are licensed to Robert Roloff, who was the county EMS director for many years. He had/has a lawncare/landscaping business and had/has several repeaters throughout the county. Those channels were/are referred to with their color designation. "Black" & "Blue" were ones that I remember them saying on the radio. I don't know if they're used anymore but might be worth programming into the scanner.

152.3750 "Black" channel. Repeater at 1270AM WMKT transmitter site in Charlevoix
152.8850 Unknown channel name. Repeater at Mt McSauba in Charlevoix
152.9000 Unknown channel name. Repeater at Boyne Mountain in Boyne Falls
151.5650 Unknown channel name. Repeater at Mt McSauba in Charlevoix
152.9750 Unknown channel name. Repeater at Mt McSauba in Charlevoix

 

[hockeyref2]

Aren't they switching to MPSCS this year?

 

[n8rdz]

That's what I'm hearing too.

 

[nvanw27]

There’s been a few talkgroups added to the database, but nothing major yet. I hope they do what nearby Antrim, Kalkaska, Benzie, and Wexford did/do and keep the VHF channels active for fallback, siren paging, eDispatches, and other things. Otherwise there will only be a few things worth listening to anymore.

 

[BryceT]

NVANW27 - CCE did start to cease performing the weekly Fire pager tests for all three counties during the last few months. That decision was made by CCE's Technical Advisory Committee (TAC). They are still running communications operations primarily on their VHF System. The entire VHF infrastructure has had its issues over the last 5-7 years. There are many tower backhauls layered on top of an original zone repeater system that require consistent tuning of the simulcasting network for the paging and voice traffic systems. CCE is in the process of switching its radio communications operations to the MPSCS 800MHz System. As a matter of fact, they are currently testing 800MHz paging and some agencies are already using 800MHz radios on a daily basis. A good majority of their VHF dispatch channels are patched to their similarly defined 800MHz Dispatch Talk-groups. Those patches of 800MHz TG's in combination with an aging VHF simulcast and zone repeater system makes tuning and sequencing of combiners and backhaul timing tough for any radio technician. So they have been keeping things afloat for a few years now with their VHF system while they slowly transition their many agencies to an all 800MHz user base on the MPSCS. Another side note, their MDT system was also until last year was run through a VHF data radio network piggybacked on their VHF infrastructure. They are over 95% complete in moving all of their mobile data connections to cellular modems.

 

[nvanw27]

Very interesting. I noticed a few units weren't coming through as regularly as they used to. Thank you for that information!

 

[nvanw27]

The MPSCS switchover might've just occurred. None of Charlevoix or Cheboygan's pages are showing up in any logs, and the VHF channels for Charlevoix Fire and Law are extremely quiet - No activity in 2 hours on fire. Emmet County's pages are still showing up on eDispatches but the RR feeds are quiet.

Edit: Dumbhead me didn't install my antennas properly. I apologize for the unnecessary post, though their eDispatches logs are still down (I use eDispatches as a redundant system checking measure)

 

[nvanw27]

Would anyone happen to know what frequency Beaver Island Fire/EMS Is on? I've been trying to pick it up for most of the day and can't find it.