EMSA says: We can afford a new encrypted radio system, but we are going broke!! LINK.

[BigMacFire]

K5MAR -

You are correct. While it is not a given, that EMSA - or any EMS provider would use a 'public safety' frequency - where else in the radio spetrum would they be assigned??

I don't know about you - but when I think of 'Emergency Medical Service' ---- public safety isn't too far behind in my mind.


As you pointed out with your link to EMSA's website - a wealth of the information may be found there.

EMSA is a public trust. The ambulances and all hard, physical tangible equipment belong to the Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA) while the people, and all consumable items belong to the current contractor - In this case Paramedics Plus LLC. This allows OKC and Tulsa to change provider - and not have a changeover of equipment. The last three 'providers' for EMSA were AMCare, AMR, and now Paramedics Plus.

EMSA is very much a public safety, emergency response agency. It is owned by the cities it serves. It's budget is approved by the cities it serves.

Before everyone goes and tries to turn EMSA into the villian - they might try and check to make sure their facts are straight.

 

[KD5WLX]

All well and good, but there's another point being missed. Tulsa has been on 800 MHz for a number of years. All city and county agencies, that is. Suburban agencies (Sand Springs, Sapulpa, others) elected to "join" the system some time ago, and others moved in more recently (Catoosa, Oak Grove, for example). Still others elected NOT to join the Tulsa system, yet went to 800 on independent systems (Owasso, Broken Arrow). While all of this was happening, EMSA was still using 460 MHz "Med" freqs.

In other words, EMSA didn't elect to join the existing 800 MHz system when it came on line. Instead they did like the latecomer suburbs, and joined the existing system after it was well established. There has been "inter-agency" communications problems between EMSA and all the local FD and PD for some time (while they were on 460 and suburbs were split between VHF and 800) and those problems continued as suburban agencies moved from VHF to 800. And they STILL continue, since while all the agencies (with a couple of exceptions) have now gone to 800 and can talk to each other, EMSA went encrypted, and so STILL none of their fellow emergency responders can talk to them. They have ONE unencrypted talk group in Tulsa to talk to TFD, and then they rarely monitor it!

 

[greenthumb]

EMSA went encrypted, and so STILL none of their fellow emergency responders can talk to them. They have ONE unencrypted talk group in Tulsa to talk to TFD, and then they rarely monitor it!

My observations are that this is not true at all.

I was passing through Tulsa last week and it seemed like every medical call that Tulsa Fire responded with EMSA on, they got together on the unencrypted EMSA talk group to talk about it if it was needed (e.g. fire telling EMSA directions, telling them to bring the gurnee, etc.). It seems like at least EMSA's side is listening to it all of the time and that their fellow emergency responders can get in touch with EMSA paramedics just fine. "Interoperability" does not mean that everyone has access to everyone elses' primary dispatch talk group - that is not necessary in all cases, and can actually be inviting trouble should something actually happen.

Why do I feel like there is so much heartburn about EMSA in this forum simply because they are encrypted? Would everyone be complaining if they were analog un-encrypted?

Food for thought....

 

[CommShrek]

All well and good, but there's another point being missed. Tulsa has been on 800 MHz for a number of years. All city and county agencies, that is. Suburban agencies (Sand Springs, Sapulpa, others) elected to "join" the system some time ago, and others moved in more recently (Catoosa, Oak Grove, for example). Still others elected NOT to join the Tulsa system, yet went to 800 on independent systems (Owasso, Broken Arrow). While all of this was happening, EMSA was still using 460 MHz "Med" freqs.

In other words, EMSA didn't elect to join the existing 800 MHz system when it came on line. Instead they did like the latecomer suburbs, and joined the existing system after it was well established. There has been "inter-agency" communications problems between EMSA and all the local FD and PD for some time (while they were on 460 and suburbs were split between VHF and 800) and those problems continued as suburban agencies moved from VHF to 800. And they STILL continue, since while all the agencies (with a couple of exceptions) have now gone to 800 and can talk to each other, EMSA went encrypted, and so STILL none of their fellow emergency responders can talk to them. They have ONE unencrypted talk group in Tulsa to talk to TFD, and then they rarely monitor it!

Thank you Jay. This is one of the things I was trying to get across.

I elected not to respond to some of the other comments. Some really didn't have anything to do with what I said. I was trying to talk about EMSA's ENCRYPTED new radio system only and some of the issues that the move to ENCRYPTED have caused and continue to cause.

 

[KD5WLX]

NOT listening to EMSA

My observations are that this is not true at all.

I was passing through Tulsa last week and it seemed like every medical call that Tulsa Fire responded with EMSA on, they got together on the unencrypted EMSA talk group to talk about it if it was needed (e.g. fire telling EMSA directions, telling them to bring the gurnee, etc.). It seems like at least EMSA's side is listening to it all of the time and that their fellow emergency responders can get in touch with EMSA paramedics just fine. "Interoperability" does not mean that everyone has access to everyone elses' primary dispatch talk group - that is not necessary in all cases, and can actually be inviting trouble should something actually happen.

Why do I feel like there is so much heartburn about EMSA in this forum simply because they are encrypted? Would everyone be complaining if they were analog un-encrypted?

Food for thought....

That may be true (on both points) but not observed by me. During major incidents (lots of casualties, multiple ambulances) EMSAs dispatch gets so bogged down that the ambulances turn down the fire side talk group (5E). Sure, you hear them talking all the time when it's one pumper, one ambulance running to a "difficulty breathing", but when it really becomes important (like during a recent light plane crash with multiple patients) that was when they weren't there.

On your other point, about people complaining about not being able to monitor them, that may be the case with some, but not me - I never did listen to them, and don't miss them. I don't have a digital scanner for exactly that reason - no talk groups that I care about are digital yet, let alone encrypted, so why spend the money. I suspect that's not the case with some others, though.

I still think EMSA wasted a lot of taxpayers money on a system they didn't really need, though.

 

[GlacierClipper]

EMSA Can't Afford! But they managed to get the Radio System anyway. They must have had a good credit card to get the Radio System or somebody co-signed on a loan.