Change in Prince William County’s Dispatch procedure?

[z_moonchild]

Over the past week I’ve noticed that Prince William County has change the way they dispatch incidents on 5A.
First, they no longer repeat the incident on the initial dispatch, so if I wasn’t recording it I don’t always catch it.
Second, they’ve switched their primary response channel from 5A to 5B, just like Fairfax (4B), Arlington (1B), Loudoun (6B), and Montgomery (7B) counties.
Is there any official explanation? And, are there any other changes?
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[Samuel]

This should probably be in the Virginia Forum but thats ok I'll bite...

It just a change in SOP. I believe the delay in doin this after the switch to the trunk system was two things. First was staffing levels at PSCC but more important they were waiting for the implemintation of the DEK heads on the radios so they dont have to mark status changes over the air anymore. I dont know why they dont repeat the dispatch on 5A like Fairfax and Arlington do but if you listen to 5B they do say it again once the units mark responding on Baker so you could just listen to Baker and get the same stuff you got on Adam. Hope that wasnt too confusing. I think they are still tweaking things to see whats best. They have changed dispatch procedure before based on feedback from line staff so its possible they may tweak it some more.

 

[z_moonchild]

I kind of figured that, but I just wanted to be sure.
I live in Stafford and can pick up Baker without any problem, however, I work with scanners in Rockville, and the only thing I can get up there is their conventional simulcast of Adam, which means I have to call Prince William County on the phone more often to see if reponse units have arrived on the scene and found anything. The range on their trunked system just won't reach that far.

Thanks,
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[jollyg83]

I know that this is a probably a dead topic but just to throw my two cents into the equation this is why PW has changed:

It used to go that when a call was dispatched during the day time (before 11pm) they would do vocals over the radio, followed by the individual station tones, then another vocal, then another vocal (third one) after the first unit marked up as responding. After 11pm when everyone is asleep they skip the first vocal, go straight to the station tones, then the vocal, and finally the last vocal when units mark up. However recently this has been determined to take too long to get units on the road. So here is the new procedure for no matter what time of the day it is:

Tones, 1 vocal, 2nd vocal after units mark up responding. This seems to be very effective, it just scares the crap out of you when the tones go off in the middle of silence. FYI this is the way Fairfax and some other counties do it. And yes we are using DEK heads so most of the time you won't here us marking up responding, in-service, transporting, etc.

 

[jollyg83]

I know that this is a probably a dead topic but just to throw my two cents into the equation this is why PW has changed:

It used to go that when a call was dispatched during the day time (before 11pm) they would do vocals over the radio, followed by the individual station tones, then another vocal, then another vocal (third one) after the first unit marked up as responding. After 11pm when everyone is asleep they skip the first vocal, go straight to the station tones, then the vocal, and finally the last vocal when units mark up. However recently this has been determined to take too long to get units on the road. So here is the new procedure for no matter what time of the day it is:

Tones, 1 vocal, 2nd vocal after units mark up responding. This seems to be very effective, it just scares the crap out of you when the tones go off in the middle of silence. FYI this is the way Fairfax and some other counties do it. And yes we are using DEK heads so most of the time you won't here us marking up responding, in-service, transporting, etc.

 

[Samuel]

Thanks for the info! Its just a little strange to the ears because Fairfax and Arlington repeat the vocals on Adam before they switch to Baker. There is no real delay its just repeated for clarification.

i.e. E425,M425 ;Channel 4B ; Box 2506 for the ALS Emergency 123 ABC St .......5-10 second pause.....E425, M425; Ch 4B; Box 2506 for an ALS Emergency 123 ABC St; 65 yr old male complain of chest pains...at 2137

 

[jollyg83]

I know what you mean and it would be nice if PW did this too. I mean to go from nothing to tones going then only one vocal you miss a lot of info and you have to make up for it by looking at the CAD, pagers, or MDT.