FDNY

[rescue4kicks]

I'm a firefighter from Kansas that listens to New York Fire all the time, especially Brooklyn, through thebravest.com. My question is in regards to the FDNY radio comunication. I know they run off a VHF channel, but I hear the individual portable's on the fire scene are all talk around. I was wondering if that's true. Also, does anyone know how dispatch communicates to the companies in the rig. Anyone out there that has anything that they would like to add is more than welcome to reply. Thanks

 

[jmm346]

The VHF channel from thebravest.com for FDNY Brooklyn is 154.370 Mhz. This is the channel that's used for voice communications between Dispatch and the rigs. (Technically there's another frequency used by the rigs but it all feeds into the 154.37 freq so its not a concern for monitoring only.) MDTs are also used for Dispatch to send runs to rigs and for rigs to send common status messages to dispatch such as 10-84 (on scene), 10-20 (responding units slow down), etc.

On the fireground, FDNY personnel use UHF portables in the 480mhz range that are simplex on most channels. Its very similar to talk-around in that units need to be fairly close to one another to hear messages, but because the frequencies do not have repeaters on them, there's nothing to talk around. On a sidenote, there are a couple of fireground frequencies that have portable repeaters but are rarely used and they wouldn't be used in talk-around mode.

 

[Al42]

Two things for you to bear in mind:

1) Not all responses are dispatched by radio.

2) Boro-wide radio ("Brooklyn", in this case) can turn off the mixer - run the repeater in non-repeat mode, so you might hear Brooklyn but not the unit in the field. (Citywide can do, and does, the same thing.)

 

[NYCFireBuff]

FDNY Communications

A few notes about FDNY communications that may help. When an alarm is received at a Borough Communications Center the dispatcher will notify the company if in quarters by a teleprinter that will give the box number address etc. If the firehouse's teleprompter is out of service the dispatcher will most likely use the voice alarm or the department phone. When a company is out of quarters the alarm will be sent to the rig via MDT. If no acknowledgement is made the dispatcher will call the unit(s) by radio. Every operational FDNY unit is outfitted with a VHF transceiver. The frequencies are

F1 City-Wide, F2 Queens, F3 Brooklyn, F4 Manhattan and F5 Bronx and Staten Island.

The units operate on one VHF frequency while the the Borough Communications Center operate on another VHF frequency. When the dispatcher has the mixer turned on you can hear the unit's transmission through the Borough Frequency. If the mixer is turned off the dispatcher can receive will receive the communications but others in the field will not. If you were to be in proximity to the unit transmitting and had the apparatus frequency set up on a scanner you can easily monitor the transmission. The mixer off request is often used when info is transmitted that an officer would not want to "world" to know about it such as an injured firefighter. The mixer is requred because FDNY does not use a repeater system, both the mobile and base units operate simplex on distinct frequencies.

In a repeater system you would transmit on one frequency (input) and that signal is re-tranmitted on another frequency (output) usually at a higher power. At the repeater site you have one antenna for receive and a separate one for transmit. Likewise in a repeater system the equipment is more complex. The dispatcher often does not have a mixer to turn on and off. If one needs to contact the dispatcher for confidential reasons he must switch to another frequency that may be encrypted or digital.

FDNY has a mobile and portable repeaters in selected Battalion cars and is used at high rise building operations. They are set up to operate on the fireground's UHF frequencies.

As of February 8, 2003 all fireground communications are on the UHF 48X.XXXX frequencies.

Hope this info is helpful.

Regards,

Joe

 

[mdulrich]

Re: FDNY Communications

At the repeater site you have one antenna for receive and a separate one for transmit.

Repeaters don't have to have separate antennas. It is common to use one antenna for both.

Mike

 

[crashcrew]

http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=RR&ctid=1855