Columbus FD

[Tmonty]

Back before the holiday's I was able to hear for a couple of day's all the FD truck's and EMT rigs respond
back to dispatch on calls. Now I only hear just dispatch. It's like someone thru a switch somewhere and
you could hear everything, and now it's back to just dispatch. Anyone know what it is about?
I heard the truck coms for just a few day's and now it's back to just dispatch.

Thank's
Monty

 

[VASCAR2]

You didn't mention what type of scanner your using. I just checked the data in RR for Columbus FD and they simulcast some traffic to fire channel 154.310 and have a lot of talk groups on the 800 Safe-T network. I'd say the base is transmitting on VHF high band and 800 at the same time but the trucks are not patched into VHF, just dispatch. Dispatch may have had the FD 800 talk group patched to the VHF frequency for mutual aid with other fire departments and didn't catch the patch for a couple of days. When they turned off the patch you quit hearing all the traffic but just dispatch. If you have a digital scanner you may have just locked out a talk group and not hearing all the traffic on 800 Safe-T.

 

[W9NES]

Sounds like Columbus Fire is using 154.310 as a paging channel only.Dispatch is using both analog and now Digital on Safe-t. If you want to to hear both dspatch and the units resonding you will have to get a digital scanner .Hendricks county fire is doing the same thing.Dispatching calls out on 154.130 and 800Mhz Safe-t but you will only hear the dispatch side of the call.The reason why Hendricks county is doing this is becuase all of the volunteer firefighters have department issued pagers on 154.130 from Motorola.A lot of fire,law enforcement,and ems across the state are also doing this.

 

[Tmonty]

Ok, thank's, that explains it. They must have had the patch to VHF on for a couple of days and forgot
to disable it on the VHF feed.
I always wonder why, if they have that capability, they just should leave it enabled all the time. If they forgot to disable it for 2 days why not just leave it that way. I would think that it's one less thing that the dispatchers have to remember during a busy call period..

Thanks
Monty

 

[jerk]

Ok, thank's, that explains it. They must have had the patch to VHF on for a couple of days and forgot
to disable it on the VHF feed.
I always wonder why, if they have that capability, they just should leave it enabled all the time. If they forgot to disable it for 2 days why not just leave it that way. I would think that it's one less thing that the dispatchers have to remember during a busy call period..

Thanks
Monty

It uses up resources that Safe-T cannot provide... it dedicates one channel/frequency when there may only be four or five available at a site. It makes it easy to overload the site.
One dispatch center SOP is to post a sign when the patch in enabled.