Franklin Twp. EMS

[W2SJW]

Guys,

East Millstone FAS got some of their radios today. My friend (unfortunately) had his scanner programmed incorrectly as a Type-1, and the main EMS TGID came over as 600-8 :evil:

 

[mikea7531]

Any word on when they are supposed to transition over? Also, will they talk to County on the EMS/MICU Region 1 talkgroup when responding into Millstone for calls, or will they continue to use JEMS1?

Let us know what other talkgroups you come up with, it looks like I may need to move UniTrunker over to the Franklin system for now.

 

[W2SJW]

My buddy will be getting his personal XTS-5000 back before anyone else, and he's going to pull the radio down into CPS as soon as it's back in his hands. I'll have the hex TGID list by that evening...

 

[mikea7531]

Nice! Good job Scott!

 

[robbinsj2]

Franklin has 49616, 51216, and 51248 in its consoles. Based on the newly identified talkgroup, I'm guessing that 51216 is EMS Fleet and 51248 is EMS Dispatch, and that 49616 may be Fire Fleet.

Some other talkgroups in that area which have had hits (affiliations and/or transmissions) by only subscriber units, no consoles while I've been logging, are: 49648, 49680, 49776, 49808, 49840, 49872 (F-4 for fire inspectors), & 51408. Nearly all of the TGIDs I mentioned here have had some sort of hit within the last 24 hours.

I know this conflicts with what others have shared here before, but word I've received is that all squads (including Kingston & Rocky Hill) will be getting new radios soon, and that the township has committed to buying some radios for the fire companies/districts, albeit maybe not as many as they would like.

Jim

 

[W2SJW]

East Millstone has this TGID to itself as TAC-1. All the other squads will share the second TGID as it will be known as TAC-2.

I'm surprised that the twp. is buying for the FD's. The original word I heard was that the districts would have to pony up for the radios via their budgets (through the taxes that residents pay).

 

[W2SJW]

The database has been updated with the 3 new TGID's for EMS operations.

HT's will be in the hands of the officers/senior members in the next 3 days - mobiles to follow in a week or two...

Jim - what I heard was that they bought 350 radios in the recent purchase - you could give every FF/EMT in the Twp. a radio with that bankroll

 

[robbinsj2]

Does 350 include mobiles and portables? If so, it doesn't sound like a lot to me; if portables only then that would be pretty generous. Figuring 10 fire companies with an average of 5 officers, 4 apparatus, 2 command or utility vehicles, and 3 portables on each truck or engine gets you a total of 70 mobiles (including 10 base installations) and 170 portables, which leaves 110 for the squads and doesn't include any "take-home" radios for firefighters.

I'm quite surprised that 52 gets one tac channel and 53, 71, KP, & K all share another. I wonder if there is a "Tac-1" for each squad (or at least one for 71 and another for the three "shared" squads), and a "Tac-2" common to all. That might account for 51280, 51312, & 51344. Of course I don't have access to the programming like you do and I don't think I've logged any hits on those three TGIDs.

Jim

 

[W2SJW]

Jim,

My friend's CPS wouldn't read the codeplug after he got the radio back (his is too old). We found the TGID's out the 'old fashioned way'.

As for the breakdown of the units - I don't know and he doesn't know how many are portables and how many are mobiles...

Also, the TAC setups are generally based on how the real-world usage of the 155.955 repeater goes. 71 and the others don't get on it as much as 52 does (there are a few others things I won't go into here, as well).

Lastly, there is a special-event TGID and an all-agency mutual-aid TGID, but we couldn't test those just yet (they are monitored at the desk).

 

[mikea7531]

Lastly, there is a special-event TGID and an all-agency mutual-aid TGID, but we couldn't test those just yet (they are monitored at the desk).

Can't just key up and go whoops? lol.... j/k Scott. :lol:

Can't wait until they start operating on there! JEMS 1 is starting to be abandoned now. No idea when we'll be able to move over to the system, town's on a very tight budget squeeze now . I'll have to move trunker over to the Franklin site to start ID'ing all the new radios on the system.

Any idea if 52's radios have capabilities on the County site or are they just strictly on Franklin?

 

[W2SJW]

I believe it's just the Franklin stuff.

Being a SmartZone, they could have TGID's programmed in from the county system, but doing that ties up a repeater on the Franklin zone while they stay affiliated to it - and that's something that FTPD has 'in so many words', frowned upon.

It's one of the reasons that the FD's are going to be a bit slow to migrate - they want full seamless transitioning between using Franklin's system for primary comms, and to jump on the county-based fire zones & fire tac's at will (I think that's how it was explained to me)...

 

[mikea7531]

Well that figures with the FTPD - Nothing ceases to suprise me with them anymore. It just seems silly to me to have East Millstone FAS talk to Franklin on the new radios for in-township calls, and continure to talk to county on JEMS on jobs in Millstone when the two zones are linked. It's the same old again, Franklin doesn't want to talk to the outside world, and no one should talk to the cops directly :roll:.

 

[W2SJW]

Actually, EMS MAIN goes to the desk, the tac's are un-monitored at HQ (I believe)...

 

[W2SJW]

Here's some more updated news:

The squads will be on the system by Wednesday evening of this coming week. The fire districts could conceivably be up on the TRS in 1 to 2 months (the funeral for the 155.955 repeater will be next Friday )

The radios were bought by Franklin Twp - not via a grant. They are being given to the end-users (donation is not the right way to classify it), who then take FULL responsibility for the unit (i.e. - you had it stolen out of your car? don't come crying to us...).

The flip-side to that is - if the squads or the fire districts want to move TGID's around or delete some from the radios, they are completely free to...

The '350' unit number was also probably a gross understatement. The only info I have pertains to District 3 - every apparatus will have a mobile & then HT's at every seat.

If all 4 districts follow suit...

 

[mikea7531]

Wow - that's a quick transition for the squads. We'll see if that all goes according to plan.

 

[mikea7531]

Sounds like Franklin EMS started to make the transition. I heard both East Millstone and Franklin/Somerset First Aid Squads on the air.

According to my inside source - Fire should start transitioning within a month.

 

[W2SJW]

OK, here's another tidbit of info I got from a friend at 44-Fire:

Franklin drew up their requests for freq. allocation based on having the FD's on the system. The FCC was starting to question the need for as many freq's as they have licensed when just the PD and sporadic twp. services were utilizing the system.

Another case of 'use 'em, or loose 'em' :wink:

 

[mikea7531]

I believe it's just the Franklin stuff.

Being a SmartZone, they could have TGID's programmed in from the county system, but doing that ties up a repeater on the Franklin zone while they stay affiliated to it - and that's something that FTPD has 'in so many words', frowned upon.

Looking at the affiliations of the radios - And let me tell you, my affiliations screen is scrolling like you wouldn't believe right now! - I am seeing affiliations to both Franklin EMS and Somerset County Talkgroups. It looks like they have both in the radio.

 

[mikea7531]

OK, here's another tidbit of info I got from a friend at 44-Fire:

Franklin drew up their requests for freq. allocation based on having the FD's on the system. The FCC was starting to question the need for as many freq's as they have licensed when just the PD and sporadic twp. services were utilizing the system.

Another case of 'use 'em, or loose 'em' :wink:

So basically the FCC said "Start using what you have or else!" :twisted: At least now we'll be able to listen to Franklin stuff in clear digital that's worth listening to