Does VA still use VHF/DTMF Paging for Fire Stations?

[LateNightGaming]

In Fairfax County, we have a P25 System Set up. One of the talkgroups is DTMF Alerting. I hear little to no audio here ever. Dispite me holding the talk group. Anyone think they know whats up?

 

[BoxAlarm187]

Very few places still use DTMF paging. Two-tone squential paging remains popular for smaller agencies, while larger agencies (Fairfax for example) use VOIP for station alerting.

 

[LateNightGaming]

Very few places still use DTMF paging. Two-tone squential paging remains popular for smaller agencies, while larger agencies (Fairfax for example) use VOIP for station alerting.

Wonder why its still listed on the talkgroup list. Strange. I HAVE heard it one singular time though. Very quick DTMF pulses.

 

[K6CDO]

Wonder why its still listed on the talkgroup list. Strange. I HAVE heard it one singular time though. Very quick DTMF pulses.

ISO (Insurance Services Office) requirements for fire insurance ratings of fire departments and dispatch operations require redundant alerting paths for first responders. The DTMF talkgroup may be the backup for the VOIP network.

 

[LateNightGaming]

ISO (Insurance Services Office) requirements for fire insurance ratings of fire departments and dispatch operations require redundant alerting paths for first responders. The DTMF talkgroup may be the backup for the VOIP network.

so do Fire Personnel get paged? Or do they not have pagers? Do they Make LTE Pagers now? Sorry for the million questions.

 

[fredva]

I can't speak specifically about Fairfax County, but Active911 is one system for alerting fire and EMS personnel.

 

[BoxAlarm187]

so do Fire Personnel get paged? Or do they not have pagers? Do they Make LTE Pagers now? Sorry for the million questions.

All of the firehouses in Fairfax County are staffed on a 24/7 basis, so they don't use pagers for station/personnel alerting, they rely on the VOIP for station alerting. Motorola, with their Minitor series, are still the primary pagers many agencies use for VHF and UHF paging. The most advanced "pager" out there is the Unication G5 which will allow alerting from trunked/800MHz system.

 

[LateNightGaming]

All of the firehouses in Fairfax County are staffed on a 24/7 basis, so they don't use pagers for station/personnel alerting, they rely on the VOIP for station alerting. Motorola, with their Minitor series, are still the primary pagers many agencies use for VHF and UHF paging. The most advanced "pager" out there is the Unication G5 which will allow alerting from trunked/800MHz system.

I seen that pager. My friend has one and I was like "yo you got a damn smartphone in yo pocket"

Okay, thanks for helping me understand better.

 

[clbsquared]

In rural areas where 24/7 staffing of fire / rescue is not available, pagers are the most effective means of alerting. Coupled with smart phone apps such as Active911 and others, you can alert a large percentage of volunteers in mere seconds. Getting them to show up on the other hand, is sometimes challenging.

 

[LateNightGaming]

In rural areas where 24/7 staffing of fire / rescue is not available, pagers are the most effective means of alerting. Coupled with smart phone apps such as Active911 and others, you can alert a large percentage of volunteers in mere seconds. Getting them to show up on the other hand, is sometimes challenging.

Makes sense, I’ll keep monitoring tg 10 to see if I hear anything, and I’ll report back. Thanks again guys

 

[K6CDO]

so do Fire Personnel get paged? Or do they not have pagers? Do they Make LTE Pagers now? Sorry for the million questions.

In many cases, the station base radios are equipped with a DTMF decoder for VOIP backup alerting.