CFD Happenings 2011

[werinshades]

Wanted to start a new thread with the new year. HazMat 5-1-2 will be re-locating from Engine 60's Quarters (1150 E. 55th st.) to O'Hare Rescue Station # 1 on Jan. 13th, 2011 0800 Hrs..The new HazMat response boundaries are...5-1-2..Lawrence Ave.west to Central, south to Belmont...west to city limits. 5-1-1 (Eng. 22's house...605 W. Armitage) has the remaining city.

5-1-5 has been in service prior to Christmas. This is the Special Operations Battalion Chief and responds on all Special Operations incidents as a "support Chief". Their is nothing formally out there outlining his/her responsibilities etc.

Special Operations Division has been putting out new apparatus as of late. JHAT Unit 5-1-3...HVAC 5-2-4....to name a few. Any radio signature that starts with a 5-1-x or 5-2-x is probably Special Operations. 2-1-9 is the Assistant Deputy Fire Commisioner in charge of Special Operations. Keep in mind, Internal Affairs Divsion uses 5-8-xx radio signatures. You will here those numbers when their's an accident involving department apparatus where an injury has taken place, and per the General Orders, the driver must submit to a drug screening at IAD headquarters..1338 S. Clinton. After 1600 hrs. and weekends they have "Duty Investigator(s), that are paged via blackberry's and respond on the air. If the department member is injured, the Investigator will respond to the hospital that the member is admitted to. Their are different classifications of accidents. Any class that ends with "A" is involving injuries.

No word on the digital lately. Their was a rumor floating around that the new frequencies will be analog instead of digital, UHF-T frequencies will be used, VHF will be eliminated. Have yet to confirm that. Reason i've heard is since CPD is narrowbanding, interoperability will be easier to achieve if everyone was analog.

 

[RoninJoliet]

Thats wild, analog instead of digital, i may have a better chance of heearing them here in Joliet cause the 460.60 comes in great analog....

 

[werinshades]

Thats wild, analog instead of digital, i may have a better chance of heearing them here in Joliet cause the 460.60 comes in great analog....

That's just a rumor right now. While I admit it makes sense, I don't know if it would be cost-effective considering all the sites are programmed for the digital. The few I asked about that had no idea either. So for now, i'll consider it a rumor. The 460 Mhz. frequncies will be used as "Metro" frequencies....city interoperability channels when CFD completley changes over to UHF-T frequencies.

 

[FireBuffChgo23]

Moving 5-1-2 to O'Hare makes no sense - very small response area & 5-1-1 goes back to REALLY long response times. What is JHAT 5-1-3 & what happened to 5-2-0 which I think was spec. ops chief ? What happens to 5-1-1A ,they were with 5-1-2 ? During a still & box for el train derailment ENG. 10 & 6-3-5 (stairway unit) were part of the response,how new is this and is it citywide ?

 

[werinshades]

Moving 5-1-2 to O'Hare makes no sense - very small response area & 5-1-1 goes back to REALLY long response times. What is JHAT 5-1-3 & what happened to 5-2-0 which I think was spec. ops chief ? What happens to 5-1-1A ,they were with 5-1-2 ? During a still & box for el train derailment ENG. 10 & 6-3-5 (stairway unit) were part of the response,how new is this and is it citywide ?

We all thought the same thing about 5-1-2. Since it's now assigned to O'Hare, the FAA now picks up the tab so saves the city money. 5-1-3 is the Joint Hazardous Assessment Team. 5-1-9 & 5-2-0 are Administrative Assistants (You know, political jobs). No word on 5-1-1A as of yet. Stair Response changed a while back. 6-3-4 and Engine 127 (Midway) and Engine 10 and 6-3-5 (O'Hare) respond on elevated train respnses as well as if an Incident Commander requests them. Add 5-1-11 (Mobile Labratory) 5-2-4 (HVAC Unit) 8-8-11 (Oxygen Treatment Bus)...we have so many new toys.

 

[werinshades]

5-1-5 has been in service prior to Christmas. This is the Special Operations Battalion Chief and responds on all Special Operations incidents as a "support Chief". Their is nothing formally out there outlining his/her responsibilities etc.

A little additional information on this position. This was an "agreed to" pilot program between the city and the union. The pilot program is scheduled to end April 1st 2011, unless otherwise agreed to.

 

[Mitur]

UHF-T was mentioned in this thread and I couldn't help but wonder if the "T" designator means trunked or if it has another meaning.

 

[uwunitwn]

Uhf-t

UHF-T ---- the "T" means T-Band 470-512 MHz. And this is the new City's Fire Digital System. But the system is conventional. Hope this helps !

 

[werinshades]

UHF-T ---- the "T" means T-Band 470-512 MHz. And this is the new City's Fire Digital System. But the system is conventional. Hope this helps !

The system is still set up and was tested as digital. My previous post mentioned an "analog rumor".

 

[ilgrant]

UHF - T means that the frequencies start in the UHF television band, Channel 14. Lots of suburban Chicago agencies are in this range.

North American broadcast television frequencies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Mitur]

UHF - T means that the frequencies start in the UHF television band, Channel 14. Lots of suburban Chicago agencies are in this range.

North American broadcast television frequencies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I would take it that these freqs are obsolete for TV use since the digital TV switchover, and so it would make sense that suburban agencies are using them for things like public works, public safety, municipal administration, etc.

 

[ilgrant]

Someone who knows this stuff better than I do with regards to the UHF-T band and the Chicago area I'm sure will chime in.


I do know that the UHF-T band has been in use since the late 1970's. So the digital TV transition has nothing to do with the current use of the UHF-T band for public safety and business.

 

[N9JIG]

The TV Sharing system reallocated TV Channels 14 thru 20 to land-mobile use in certain Metro areas. In the Chicago area channels 14 (470-476 MHz.) and 15 (476-482 MHz.) were assigned. There were restrictions with Channel 15 so use of these freqs was delayed and power restricted.

There are still TV stations operating on these channels in various areas of the country and land-mobile users still need to coordinate with them. The TV digital transition really didn't change much as far as this is concerned although some TV channels were changed to or from these channels.

 

[werinshades]

"Escalated" Responses

Since last week, if it appears their has been alot more Still and Boxes, 2-11's etc., you are correct. Incident Commanders are under strict orders to automatically "pull a box" on any working fire upon their arrival. Any box will be escalated to a 2-11 if their's a water supply issue. If you hear a Still that wasn't upped to a Box, good chance the Chief will have a phone call when he/she get's back to quarters or District headquarters.

 

[werinshades]

Fire-Main Digital Testing

Heard a few key ups yesterday, radio ID'd i542145...not a fire company radio signature , would be the Fire Communications Assistant Director 4-2-1 if it follows my previous patterns.

477.7875 (Fire-Main-Digital)

 

[werinshades]

CFD-UHF Analog/Digital Update

Was able to obtain a sneak peak at the future radio line up. It will be a mix of digital and analog channels simplex and repeaters , and as of right now, the 5 previously mentioned digital repeater channels, will remain digital. These are going to be the "day-to-day" operations. The OEM Channel (477.9875), will not be used by the CFD for any daily activities, but will still be in one of the Zones.

Every member will be assigned a portable radio. Each radio will have Operation-specific Zones programmed into them. EMS, Fire, Special North, Special South, Inter-Op...were some of the Zones I made notice of. Fire will have Fire-Main, Fire Englewood as the first 2 channels...whereas EMS will have EMS-North, EMS-South. Admin channel (3) will be the current EMS-Command. EMS-Command and Fire-Command will be simplex UHF channels in the future. Good news for us...we'll be able to quickly communicate with each other without switching Zones. I'll try and get a copy and foward it to RR database, and Rich or Ted.

I hate to sound like a broken record, but they don't have a time-frame to switch us over. I was told EMS portables and those rigs that have XTL 5000's mobiles (4 ambulances currently), will be sent in for reprogramming. Once that is completed, a complete EMS switchover will occur within 30 days. They're blowing the dust off the portables designated for fire companies, and are programming a few for testing purposes now ( I asked about the key-ups.."oh, you heard that huh"?).

Alot of simplex UHF channels will be used for fireground operations, and "interoperability" will be possible. Encryption Zone will be in the Chiefs radios...both Fire and EMS. I'm sure they're will be a memo with specifics when the time comes as to channel usage.

 

[Chicago2210]

Was able to obtain a sneak peak at the future radio line up. It will be a mix of digital and analog channels simplex and repeaters , and as of right now, the 5 previously mentioned digital repeater channels, will remain digital. These are going to be the "day-to-day" operations. The OEM Channel (477.9875), will not be used by the CFD for any daily activities, but will still be in one of the Zones.

Every member will be assigned a portable radio. Each radio will have Operation-specific Zones programmed into them. EMS, Fire, Special North, Special South, Inter-Op...were some of the Zones I made notice of. Fire will have Fire-Main, Fire Englewood as the first 2 channels...whereas EMS will have EMS-North, EMS-South. Admin channel (3) will be the current EMS-Command. EMS-Command and Fire-Command will be simplex UHF channels in the future. Good news for us...we'll be able to quickly communicate with each other without switching Zones. I'll try and get a copy and foward it to RR database, and Rich or Ted.

I hate to sound like a broken record, but they don't have a time-frame to switch us over. I was told EMS portables and those rigs that have XTL 5000's mobiles (4 ambulances currently), will be sent in for reprogramming. Once that is completed, a complete EMS switchover will occur within 30 days. They're blowing the dust off the portables designated for fire companies, and are programming a few for testing purposes now ( I asked about the key-ups.."oh, you heard that huh"?).

Alot of simplex UHF channels will be used for fireground operations, and "interoperability" will be possible. Encryption Zone will be in the Chiefs radios...both Fire and EMS. I'm sure they're will be a memo with specifics when the time comes as to channel usage.

Wow and I thought last year they would switch for sure after the 30 day evalution period. Will they ever switch over? Or is this just a dog and poney show? Any way when the current switch over dose occure I will invest in a digital scanner.

 

[werinshades]

Wow and I thought last year they would switch for sure after the 30 day evalution period. Will they ever switch over? Or is this just a dog and poney show? Any way when the current switch over dose occure I will invest in a digital scanner.

It sure sounds like a dog and pony show, but they have to switch because the "interoperability" catchphrase is being used. I'd look for CPD radios to have alot of the CFD analog channels in them when they reprogram when their narrowbanding is complete. Did see CPD Zones 14, 15, 16 also in the mix, so it appears new CPD Zones are planned. Just a programming reminder since it's been so long, the CFD Digital frequencies must be programmed as single channel trunked.

 

[werinshades]

CFD Digital Testing Today

Motorola Techs testing on Fire-Citywide and O,E.M.C. talkgroups....two new ones popped up...490 & 555...so far. OEMC Consoles and Radio ID: i5142486 (ID'd as XTS 5000 version 2).

 

[werinshades]

Motorola Techs testing on Fire-Citywide and O,E.M.C. talkgroups....two new ones popped up...490 & 555...so far. OEMC Consoles and Radio ID: i5142486 (ID'd as XTS 5000 version 2).

It wasn't new Talkgroups...but new Radio ID's...i490 & i555...those are Motorola Technicians.I wasn't sitting by the scanner when they popped up, and could look closely. Doing OEMC Console audio testing today, which was one of the major complaints we had. They're testing with both headsets and "goose neck" microphones. Mentioned testing from "Room 246", which I beleive is the OEMC JOC Room...used for large scale event coordination. They tested on the OEMC, Fire-City-wide, EMS-North, EMS-South channels today...so far. Sounds like they're getting ready again...