Game Commission in Delaware County???

[Boomeranger]

Are there freqs for the Game (and Fish) commissions for Delaware county, PA?

Please advise.

Thanks,

Andy

 

[HM1529]

PGC is regionally dispatched. The SE Regional Office is located just north of Reading in Berks County and the dispatch frequency is 44.760. Car to Car for PGC is 44.880.
PFBC has no central dispatch. Officers use 45.040 (simplex) or 44.96 (repeater out) for comms. There is no repeater that is really local to the Philly metro area, though. Radio coverage for these agencies is really kind of crummy. 44.840 is a common frequency for the two agencies.

Up here in Montco, I will sometimes hear PFBC units talking on 45.040. I cannot pick up the Reading Dispatch on 44.760 on my handheld unless I'm up in the Berks County area, though.

Generally, the fulltime officers (between 1-3 per county for each agency) will have access to whatever local law enforcement radio system is in operation. WCO's from both agencies use Montco's 800MHz system. I don't recall ever hearing aWCO on any of Delco's 500MHz frequencies. I have heard, though, PFBC units in Delco calling PSP Media for tag checks.

Although there is no uniformity, many PGC and PFBC officers have VHF-Hi mobiles or portables so that they can communicate with PSP and DCNR law enforcement.

I often hear PGC and PFBC units using the DCNR Forestry repeaters up in the northern tier to talk with DCNR officers.

Both PFBC and PGC are perpetually financially limited because of their funding structure. Being commissions, the vast majority of their money is generated from license sales. As a result, they have (or had when I interned with PFBC) some pretty crummy communications equipment. Their equipment situation has probably changed over the past 5-10 years, though...can't say for sure. Both agencies would like to eventually go to OpenSky.

Although a lot of folks disagree, I'm one of those people who thinks it might actually be a good idea to just roll these two agencies in to DCNR (then maybe the three of them could just upgrade and keep using the old VHF Hi system since OpenSky coverage in the remote northern tier still seems pretty sparse.

 

[ctrabs74]

Generally, the fulltime officers (between 1-3 per county for each agency) will have access to whatever local law enforcement radio system is in operation. WCO's from both agencies use Montco's 800MHz system. I don't recall ever hearing aWCO on any of Delco's 500MHz frequencies. I have heard, though, PFBC units in Delco calling PSP Media for tag checks.

Although there is no uniformity, many PGC and PFBC officers have VHF-Hi mobiles or portables so that they can communicate with PSP and DCNR law enforcement.

I can't speak about PGC, but I think I've heard PFBC officers on the Chester County system with "Unit 81 Mary 5x" identifiers. It's one of those agencies, but I'm not sure which one.

On the MontCo system, they use 98-xx identifiers, IIRC...

 

[Boomeranger]

PGC is regionally dispatched.

Hi, Ben!

But... but... there has to be a game comission freq for DelCo. I think, I mean there must be! I've got the DCNR on the scanner with no comms.

 

[HM1529]

Hi, Ben!

But... but... there has to be a game comission freq for DelCo. I think, I mean there must be! I've got the DCNR on the scanner with no comms.

I never had any luck being able to hear the PGC dispatch office on 44.76 when I was living in Delco (except with a base antenna mounted high on my parents' chimney way back in the day), but that would be the freq the WCO's use to talk to their dispatcher. 44.880 is used for car-car comms in the area...I've monitored WCO's working in the Newtown Twp area on this freq in the past.

For DCNR, the only thing you're going to hear is Ridley Creek State Park Rangers on 151.445. I know the park still uses this freq and I can hear the base from up here in Montco. Comms are just not very frequent and are most likely to occur during daylight hours. Keep monitoring often in the Fall during deer season. DCNR's Philly repeater on 151.385, which would be the tower that most reliably covers Delco, has been out of service for several years. Since there is little need for the repeater, it has never been repaired. From portions of Delco, a user can be hit the Welsh's Hill and Flint Hill towers, but again, there is little need for the Forestry repeaters in Delco.

Don't forget, Nextel and cell phone coverage is generally very good in this part of the state and it makes for a quick solution to communications needs when a WCO has the direct connect or phone number for local PD officers, other WCO's, DCNR, DEP, etc. I'm not advocating this method of communications, but if it is all they can afford or may be willing to use, then that is what it is.

 

[JRM5204]

I have heard the PGC officers in Delaware Co. (600 units) using 44.7600 calling Reading Dispatch and 44.8800 Unit to Unit. I also have heard the PFBC using 45.0400 CH1, 44.9600 CH2, 44.8800, 156.8500 VHF Marine CH17 in Ridley/Tinicum Twp. areas of the Delaware River and Darby Creek. They use ID's F-99K, F-99 and their boat ID's as PA400. I have heard heard them on 155.4750 National calling PSP Media and 44.8800 calling PGC officers. Ridley Creek State Park Rangers use 151.4450 and DEP uses 151.3850R Phila RX and 151.1600 Unit to Unit. I have never heard any state units on Delaware Co. Police Radio except PSP on Sector 3 occasionly and they ID as Media units (Media 17 etc.) or sometimes Chester PD/PSP Trooper together ID as Whiskey units.

 

[HM1529]

and DEP uses 151.3850R Phila RX and 151.1600 Unit to Unit.

As stated previously, the Philadelphia Repeater (output on 151.385) has been out of service for several years now. Don't expect any comms on there any time soon.

DEP Emergency Response in the SE area has been using Nextel for several years as their primary means of communication. The VHF radios are considered back up and are not even currently installed in all the vehicles assigned to ERT personnel.

The old "Limerick" microwave link to Harrisburg on 151.160 for radiological drills/emergencies is also not in reliable service. DEP's Bureau of Radiation Protection (BRP) now uses satphones during radiological trainings and would use them during emergencies, too. The 151.160 simplex is still available for use, but it is unlikely you'll hear anybody from this region using it (other areas, maybe).

Last I heard, OpenSky mobiles were supposed to be delivered to DEP SE by the end of August...still waiting as of right now, so it looks like that'll be delayed again. Once those are operational, they'll be used for comms related to responses/drills (although the BRP people will likely use them more than ERT since the ERT folks all use Nextel).

 

[HM1529]

Last I heard, OpenSky mobiles were supposed to be delivered to DEP SE by the end of August...still waiting as of right now, so it looks like that'll be delayed again. Once those are operational, they'll be used for comms related to responses/drills (although the BRP people will likely use them more than ERT since the ERT folks all use Nextel).

The first OpenSky mobiles were installed this week in a few DEP trucks here in the SE. I played with one of the radios, but there was nobody to talk to except the guy sitting next to me. Interestingly, the radios came with no manuals ox explanation and these badboys ain't the kind of thing you just grab and go with...lots of options and scrolling through menus to get anything other than the default setting on powerup. The voice was crystal clear most of the time with a little bit of garble once attributed to the fact that we were talking fromwithin the basement of a huge steel and concrete building.

By the look of things, there was a DEP profile and two global profiles in the radio. The DEP profile had talkgroups for each region and for statewide comms and the two global profiles were for ICS type coordination comms (police command, fire command, ems command, etc). GPS was not enabled on the radio I looked at.

I don't have regular access to the radios (won't be getting one to replace my old VHF), so this is all I have to share right now.

Bob Reynolds (and anyone else), please don't take this and redistribute it to every radio list on the web. I'll share my thoughts where I want. Thanks for understanding.

 

[ctrabs74]

The voice was crystal clear most of the time with a little bit of garble once attributed to the fact that we were talking fromwithin the basement of a huge steel and concrete building.

At least that's an idea as to what Lancaster County can expect when/if they make the mistake (at least from a scanning perspective) of switching over to OpenSky.