digital home project

[topcop1833]

i ride with one of the rescue squads in henrico and ive got a question about how fire/rescue is dispatched, better yet alerted. one of the tac channals on the system is our FRAP activation. you cant get it on a radio, ive only noticed it on the digital scanner. i guess the best way to explain it is that it seems simular to minitor pager activations, yet this is done on a digital system and on different tacs. i dont know what FRAP stands for, but i do know that it sets off buzzers and bells to in specific building that houses the unit that a call is going to be dispatched for. when i listen to the system, i here a digital burst of info on one tac, and then a moment later an alert tone and the dispatch on the "true" dispatch tac. my question is, is it possible to build my own little FRAP devise that will only activate when i want it to? im a member of a local rescue squad and sometimes it would be nice to just here the calls for my rescue squad rather than all the other fire calls that go out

 

[BoxAlarm187]

FRAP questions

FRAP stands for Fire Radio Alerting Procedure. In a nutshell, it uses in-audible signals to alert the FRAP box in each of the stations. One of the advantages of FRAP is that it notifies every station at once. For example, if Henrico Rescue, Fire-Medic 14, and Truck 6 are all dispatched for a call, the FRAP activates at each of those stations at the very location at the same time, cutting down on the dispatch time.

As far as having your own little FRAP, I'm not a radio wiring expert, but I know that the FRAP box that's on the wall in your station uses a "decoder" of sorts to recognize that the call is for your station, and when the correct "code" is recieved, it turns the lights on, sounds the alert, etc. The FRAP can do many, many things, such as turn the stove off, change traffic lights in front of your station, open bay doors automatically, etc. Chesterfield, Richmond, and Henrico have all elected to have thier FRAP do different things, depending on thier needs. For example, Chesterfield uses different altering sounds depending on if the call is for the engine, truck, or medic, whereas Henrico uses just one alert sound for all calls. There are other small differences like this also.

You didn't say in your post, but I assume that you're using one of the digital scanners to monitor the regional system. If so, which talkgroup are you hearing the data burst on?

Hope some of this helps....

 

[topcop1833]

512, its on the henrico data base under fire

 

[qoatzecotl]

So, they have that instead of Pagers? Wouldn't a pager be a good addition to this? Or do they not have any volunteers?

 

[BoxAlarm187]

So, they have that instead of Pagers? Wouldn't a pager be a good addition to this? Or do they not have any volunteers?

Yes, there is no more "audible" paging in Henrico County. The fire department is all career, and the EMS side is supplemented by three volunteer rescue squads. There is no-home based response at all for the volunteer rescue members, so no need for pagers.

Many of the rescue squads issue thier members radios, though. Some of these radios are on the 800MHz system, while others are VHF and work off a VHF-to-800MHz patch that exists ("Countywide EMS").

Hope this helps...

 

[BoxAlarm187]

512, its on the henrico data base under fire

Yes, you're correct. I forgot about this TG, and never programmed it in my scanner since no voice traffic is carried across it. Thanks...

 

[topcop1833]

im on one of the squads, and honestly sometimes when i scan i just want to here stuff for my squad. guess im just greedy.

 

[topcop1833]

i have heard talk of radio pagers for this sytem, is that even possible?

 

[hfd376]

Sorry TopCop, theres no such thing as a minitor type pager for either trunked or digital systems. Your best bet would be to just monitor (not scan) either the countywide ems talkgroup or your squads VHF frequency.

Just curious, how did you hear something on talkgroup 512? I scan this t/g and never hear anything on it.

Doug