dolack
Member
ilivein chestercounty inpa. andwouldliketoknow ifany natural resources channels are active in chestercy. or lancaster cy. andifanyareheardon800mhz .
fishandboatcommisions
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ChrisRupert
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To the best of my knoweledge, DCNR, Game Commission, and Fish and Boat are still on the legacy system. DCNR would be the VHF 151 MHz frequencies and Game and Fish/Boat are on the 44-45MHz low band assignments.
Up here near Erie, PA, at least, DCNR and Fish and Boat Commission still use the VHF freqs. However, they are in the process of being phased out statewide in favor of the PA Starnet system. I don't know exactly when this will happen, but I don't think it is occurring at the same time for everyone across the entire state. (Our local PSP troop just moved to the open sky system not even a year ago much later than other sites.)
In Chester County, DCNR park rangers for Marsh Creek and French Creek state parks typically use 151.445 for unit to unit comms. All the rangers have county portables to work on the county police talkgroups.
PA Game Commission units have lowband radios and report to their dispatch center that is up in Reading. PA Fish Commission units have lowband radios, but they do not have a centralized dispatch, but the can use the lowband to talk to each other and to the Game units.
The full time PGC and PFBC units and some of their deputies carry county police radios and communicate with the county dispatch. In fact, PGC and FBC units do this in most counties. This is especially important for the PFBC units since they don't even have their own dispatch center to call on their lowband equipment. The PGC dispatcher hours fluctuate depending on the time of the year so there are times when they also rely heavily on county dispatch for assistance.
PFBC and PGC in many areas of the state also have VHF mobiles to communicate with DCNR Rangers on the DCNR frequencies.
DCNR's migration to STARNET is underway and is being slowed down by them having to wait for four more tower sites to be finished. DCNR is migrating to a VHF/800 hybrid system. Most of the traffic will go over the 800, but VHF will be used for tactical fireground comms at forest fires and in state parks when personnel are out on foot since the portable coverage will be better on VHF than 800. The new VHF repeaters being put into service are all supposed to be linked to unique talkgroups on the 800 system for each repeater.
Just how much traffic will end up on VHF vs 800 will probably be location and situation specific. We'll have to wait and see how that goes.
PA Game Commission units have lowband radios and report to their dispatch center that is up in Reading. PA Fish Commission units have lowband radios, but they do not have a centralized dispatch, but the can use the lowband to talk to each other and to the Game units.
The full time PGC and PFBC units and some of their deputies carry county police radios and communicate with the county dispatch. In fact, PGC and FBC units do this in most counties. This is especially important for the PFBC units since they don't even have their own dispatch center to call on their lowband equipment. The PGC dispatcher hours fluctuate depending on the time of the year so there are times when they also rely heavily on county dispatch for assistance.
PFBC and PGC in many areas of the state also have VHF mobiles to communicate with DCNR Rangers on the DCNR frequencies.
DCNR's migration to STARNET is underway and is being slowed down by them having to wait for four more tower sites to be finished. DCNR is migrating to a VHF/800 hybrid system. Most of the traffic will go over the 800, but VHF will be used for tactical fireground comms at forest fires and in state parks when personnel are out on foot since the portable coverage will be better on VHF than 800. The new VHF repeaters being put into service are all supposed to be linked to unique talkgroups on the 800 system for each repeater.
Just how much traffic will end up on VHF vs 800 will probably be location and situation specific. We'll have to wait and see how that goes.
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chankel
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My understanding was that at least in the past the Game Commission and Fish & Boat Commission are more self-funded via revenues from licenses and permits and thus may lack the budgetary means to purchase a large number of new radios. I don't know how well those OpenSky radios would work in some of the rural and out-of-the-way locations that they operate in, but to be fair some people have said in the past that in remote areas with difficult terrain coverage can be a problem regardless of the equipment.
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