Dalton School Buses

[N4LX]

The database lists a total of three frequencies and talkgroups for Dalton School Buses:

• 152.30750 (NFM)
  This is a Dalton Communicatioms repeater that has been used by Dalton school buses in the past. I haven't logged a hit on this frequency since 2019, not even a CW ID, so I feel safe in assuming that it was abandoned in favor of...
• TG 226 (Dalton Communications NEXEDGE)
  This talkgroup carries the same type of traffic once heard on the convenriomal VHF channel. Each school also has a talkgroup on this system in what appears to be a contiguous block of TGIDs, 206-226.
• TG 30750 (Georgia FleetTalk NEXEDGE)
  The traffic on this talkgroup is transportation-related but of a different nature. I have not heard any schools mentioned, but the talkgroup tends to be active at the same times on weekday mornings and afternoons and on the same sites (Dalton Communications operates FleetTalk sites on most of the same towers as those of their own system, sometimes using frequencies from one license on both systems). Neither have I noticed the same bus using both systems.

So, what is FleetTalk TG 30750? Even though the same entity operates both trunked syatems, it doesn't seem logical for one user to have talkgroups on two separate systems. Regardless of what entity uses the talkgroup, what is the purpose of its traffic? Any insight or idle speculation would be interesting to hear!

 

[sonm10]

Businesses who lease air-time come and go. One of those talkgroups has probably been repurposed.

 

[N4LX]

Businesses who lease air-time come and go. One of those talkgroups has probably been repurposed.

Yes they do, but both talkgroups are currently in use.

 

[N4LX]

UPDATE

After reviewing logged recordings of traffic from the talkgroups on both systems again, I now believe the FleetTalk 30750 is Whitfield County Transit. From the sound of it, Whitfield Transit may be assisting Dalton Public Schools with student transportation, presumably in response to driver shortages and/or COVID restrictions.

Shuttle drivera were being dispatched to pick up students at school bus stops and it sounded as if some of the shuttle drivers were driving Dalton school buses. One transmission on Dalton Communications 226 gave the impression that students were perhaps being shuttled to a common location to transfer to a school bus.

Whitfield County Transit had been using 156.22500 DMR conventional as recently as ladt month, mostly, if not entirely, for LRRP tracking reports. 30750 first appears in my logs on January 4, so they may have transitioned permanently to FleetTalk.