Dallas Police and Fire Status

[blantonl]

What's the status of DPD and DFD? Have they fully completed the switch to NTRIN?

For Dallas Fire / Rescue - what are they using for fireground ops? Still the UHF simplex frequencies?

Is there any simulcasting going on?

I'd like to deprecate stuff in the database if possible for Dallas County and get things cleaned up

 

[Russell]

I haven't heard anything on DPD UHF channels and have deprecated them. I do not know the DFD answers.

 

[hiegtx]

What's the status of DPD and DFD? Have they fully completed the switch to NTRIN?

For Dallas Fire / Rescue - what are they using for fireground ops? Still the UHF simplex frequencies?

Is there any simulcasting going on?

I'd like to deprecate stuff in the database if possible for Dallas County and get things cleaned up

They simulcast station dispatch on the old UHF, 460.575as well as on NIIRN.

For a brief time, maybe a month, they used the TGID 32004. “EMS Dispatch 2, as a fireground channel, referring to it as Channel 4. But the minute it sounded like the fire was under control or tapped out, they advised all field units that “channel 4” was being shut down. For structure fires that are reasonably close to me in Oak Cliff, I am still hearing the old UHF simplex channels being used for for
Fireground comms.

My gut feeling is that they do not have enough dispatchers to cover the dispatch channels as well as firegrounds.

Even without a designated dispatcher for fireground, they should be using those to maintain a recorded audio record. Quite a few years back, we lost a firefighter at a multi-alarm apartment fire in Oak Clif. No one heard the call for help when a wall collapsed, trapping him, and no recorded audio to verify the mayday trans.

They are continuing to use what is labeled as Fire Dispatch 2, TGID 3/002, as the dispatch for the ‘Rescues’ (EMS).

 

[blantonl]

Is the Type II Motorola system still in use at all? Is it even on the air?

 

[hiegtx]

Is the Type II Motorola system still in use at all? Is it even on the air?

I checked a couple of months ago, and I think there was one straggler control frequency in use.

However, just checked again, and all frequencies are silent. No control channel, no activity.

I have not gone through each & every frequency from the old system lately, but what I was seeing is that after a given site frequency was removed, it was added to the group used on Dallas Layer 2.

I should add that is very rare that I hear a DFR Rescue unit using one of the designated Biotel talkgroups for a patient report. However, I am still logging hits on "Biotel 1" and "Biotel 2" (TGIDs 32023 & 32024). The actual units using these, however sporadically, are almost always one of the rural area medevac flights (AirEvac, PHI, Christus, & UT East Texas) coming in from areas east of the Dallas metro area. They are not always checking in on every inbound flight, but do use it occasionally. These may be cases where patient condition has changed en-route, or for whatever reason, the destination hospital had not yet been given the full details of what is headed their way.

 

[blantonl]

Steve, excellent updates. Thanks.

Given the usage I've seen on NTRIN - is it correct that all the Dallas County Sheriff, constables, jail, and Dallas County Fire stuff has also transitioned to NTRIN? We should probably set that deprecated as well, correct?

Also, for Dallas Fire Rescue, I'm guessing that everything except the simplex frequencies and 460.575 are no longer used, correct?

 

[hiegtx]

Steve, excellent updates. Thanks.

Given the usage I've seen on NTRIN - is it correct that all the Dallas County Sheriff, constables, jail, and Dallas County Fire stuff has also transitioned to NTRIN? We should probably set that deprecated as well, correct?

Also, for Dallas Fire Rescue, I'm guessing that everything except the simplex frequencies and 460.575 are no longer used, correct?

I've left all of the old DFR UHF channels in my HP-2, So they are still being scanned. The only activity has been continued of the station dispatch channel 460.575, and the simplex UHF fireground frequencies. (I do hear them be used at a working fire within range for me. Nothing at all on the rest of them.

The DPD UHF channels are already noted as Deprecated. No activity logged on any of them in quite a while.

No activity logged for Dallas County Fire either. These are also programmed on one specific scanner just in case they get a new life, or perhaps for a response to a widespread (in the county) incident, such as flooding, much like what the Houston area has seen this year. If there were not enough radios capable of using NTIRN, some personnel might be issued of of the gray-bearded units.

 

[mwjones]

Is the Type II Motorola system still in use at all? Is it even on the air?

I was Downtown again today, and the old City trunked system has a carrier on the control channel, but there's no actual controller running the show, so I'd say it's gone (This was only testing with my SDS100, since the new mobile rig is currently lacking the software to decode Motorola - as well as EDACS and LTR for that matter - which I'll be working on restoring that later this week, now that I've got the primary software and radios working). To validate my methodology, I did check the Baylor Hospital Type II system, and it's still there and was still transmitting a control channel (I thought it and the LTR Passport system would both go away once the NexEdge system was up, but it appears I was wrong).

Likewise, I did take a look at NCTCOG, and other than Collin County, which has been gone for a while, the other sites are still alive, although I don't know if there's actually any traffic left on them.

 

[blantonl]

I guess we should probably deprecate all the dallas public works channels on the NCTCOG system then.

 

[Russell]

Deprecate several subcats. I still have questions on some of those I haven't deprecated, yet.

 

[IAmSixNine]

Can confirm (2 alarm apt fire a few weeks ago) fire near me, dallas fire used the UHF simplex channels 11 and 12. Same ones they used pre-NTIRN switch.