CMED-What's it for???

[mlevin]

Can someone please educate me and tell me what the CMED channels are, more specifically the south/central CMED channel? TIA.

 

[K2KOH]

Yo, Mo...welcome to the Northeast! The C-MED channels are simple MED channels. I think it just means Connecticut MED. I'll have to ask a medic I know, but I used to monitor MED4 when I lived in Dutchess, and it was referred to as C-MED4.

 

[mlevin]

Thanks for the welcome! I hope to spend many weekends in the Big Apple enjoying the prime scanning enviroment.

The traffic sounds like medics checking in with a dispatcher and other routine EMS traffic. I have yet to hear a medical consult. It sounds like all EMS companies, private and municipal use this channel to announce enroutew to hospitals etc.

 

[KB1JHU]

The Med channels are typically used for ambulance-hospital patches.

South-Central CT CMED is in New Haven. They are basically a regional coordinator for EMS calls in New Haven County and the Valley. They also handle the dispatching for the VEMS Medics (Paramedic flycars out of Griffin Hospital in Derby) as well as many of the Valley fire departments and EMS services. They also handle ambulance-hospital patches.

This is what I have observed to be the setup for SC CT CMED.

Output    Name   Use
462.950   MED-9   
462.975   MED-10  Dispatch
463.000   MED-1   Patch (Griffin Hospital, Derby)
463.025   MED-2   
463.050   MED-3   
463.075   MED-4   Patch (Hospital of Saint Raphael, New Haven)
463.100   MED-5   
463.125   MED-6   Patch (MidState Medical Center, Meriden)
463.150   MED-7   Patch (Yale New Haven Hospital)
463.175   MED-8   Patch (Milford Hospital)

PL 167.9 on all. Repeater input - standard +5 MHz

As far as I know, this is accurate. If anyone can fill in the blanks or make a correction, go ahead. No sense in giving out false info.

South Central unit designators:

Alpha		New Haven Fire 
Bravo		Ansonia 
Charlie		New Haven AMR 
Delta		Hamden 
Echo		West Haven 
Fox		Woodbridge 
Gulf		Milford 
Hotel		Branford 
India		North Branford 
Juliet		Oxford 
Kilo		Derby 
Lima		Bethany 
Mike		North Haven 
November	  
Oscar		Meriden Fire 
Papa		Hunters Ambulance 
Quebec	        East Haven 
Romeo		New Haven SHARPE Team 
Sierra		
Tango		Seymour 
Union		
Victor		Shelton (Echo Hose, Hook & Ladder)
Whiskey	        Wallingford 
X-ray		Madison 
Yankee	        Guilford 
Zulu		VEMS Units (Paramedic Intercepts out of Griffin)

1	1st Responder unit (Non-Transport) 
2	BLS (basic life support) Ambulance
3	Heavy Rescues (rare) 
4	Intermediate (I.V.) unit (rare) 
5	Paramedic unit
10	SHARPE Doctors

Examples
1 Alpha 12	New Haven FD Engine 12
2 Charlie 8	AMR New Haven, car 8 (bls)
5 Gulf 1	Milford Fire Rescue 1

Codes/Signals:

12		DOA
16		Drunk/ETOH
17		Psych
22		2nd alarm
23		3rd alarm
24		4th alarm
25		5th alarm
26		Ambulance
29		Police
73		Working Fire
99		message received

Priority 1	Lights & Siren
Priority 2	With the flow of traffic

The 4-or so other CMED regions in CT use the same frequencies, but with different usages. They all have different PL's as well. Occassionally someone from North-Central will come up on SC looking for a patch to Hartford Hospital and the dispatchers will tell them to check their PL. If you are near the egde of the region you may also get some interference from the adjacent region (I get Southwest a lot in Milford).

Hope that helps!

 

[cg]

according to the CMED Northcentral site -
CMED = Coordinated Medical Emergency Direction

In the Northcentral area, the pt reports are almost never repeated. So in order to hear them you need to monitor the input side of the pair (468.xxxx). Since it is lower power and from a mobile, you have to be close or high up.

chris

 

[KB1JHU]

I forgot that some of the regions have websites.

North Central
http://www.northcentralctems.org/
http://www.northcentralctems.org/nccmed.htm

Southwest
http://www.swemsc.org/
http://www.swemsc.org/cmed/index.cfm

Northwest
http://www.ctemsvolunteers.com/

Contact Info and links for all the regions
http://www.dph.state.ct.us/OHCPHHO/EMS_Office/pages/regional_councils.htm

 

[mlevin]

Thanks so much, this really helps out.

 

[PJH]

Depending on the location, some CMED's actually dispatch EMS agencies, while others just provide support for unit-to-hospital comms, and others in the mix.

Common in CT (or use to be) for unit numbers are the town codes. Each town/city has a number assigned to them. In addition some alpha characaters are used to futher identify the type of unit. Commerical units were given blocks of numbers higher than the town codes.

As an example.. A Suffield Basic Life Support (BLS) unit (1st one on the air or actual unit number) would be 139-Bravo-1 on the CMED radio, although in town they would be known as Medic 21.

If memory serves...

Alpha - ALS
Bravo-BLS
Mike-Intermediate

There are a couple of others but are really not used from what I remember.

 

[KB1JHU]

Depending on the location, some CMED's actually dispatch EMS agencies, while others just provide support for unit-to-hospital comms, and others in the mix.

Common in CT (or use to be) for unit numbers are the town codes. Each town/city has a number assigned to them. In addition some alpha characaters are used to futher identify the type of unit. Commerical units were given blocks of numbers higher than the town codes.

As an example.. A Suffield Basic Life Support (BLS) unit (1st one on the air or actual unit number) would be 139-Bravo-1 on the CMED radio, although in town they would be known as Medic 21.

If memory serves...

Alpha - ALS
Bravo-BLS
Mike-Intermediate

There are a couple of others but are really not used from what I remember.

I think that is how North Central works, using the town codes. I don't usually listen to them. The only time i usually even heard them was driving to or from school in Maine as I went through the Hartford area, back when I only had a BC80XLT (no PL).

All the stuff I posted before is strictly for South Central, since that's what I usually listen to.