Gowanda flooding

[kb4mdz]

Any activity here from Gowanda, NY? They've had big flooding of the Cattaraugus Creek & tributaries the last couple days.

Note from one friend there:
"Little Valley Fire Dispatch is requesting all departments to stay off of F2 (Main Dispatch) and use the local F3 channel (33.74 MHz)"

as of 12:43 am, yesterday (Sunday)

 

[c0untyb0y]

F2 33.70 is used as the primary tone out channel and for all traffic back to Little Valley KDP395. The problem is no one knows if a department in one corner of the county calls out on F2 and another department in an opposite corner does the same thing at the same time. They'll step over each other at the county's end. 33.74 is more of a "fireground" channel but departments are to call out 2-5 on F2 then move over to F3 for everything then on until they're Code 9 or 2-10. In an emergency of the scale that was this past few days it's awful trying to listen on F2. It only gets worse when skip kicks up.

I wonder as Erie County switches over to UHF, Chautauqua County looks for a new radio system and Allegany County goes digital soon, and since the counties "south of the border" are now VHF Hi, what will become of the last lone holdout of the 33 MHz band in WNY?

As for the flood victims, I'm very deeply sorry for your losses, especially for those of you who have lost a loved one. I worked a few floods in the SE corner of Catt County years ago and it was tragic and horrific then, but no life was lost during those events. It must be really tough on everyone there now. My thoughs and prayers are with you all. Hopefully the better weather will help you all get things back to as near normal as possible.

 

[kb4mdz]

Wow, makes me want to know the structure of their radio system; voted, transmitter-steering, whatever, etc. I've never bothered to figure out via licensing info what is what, and where. Didn't know enough about two-way while I lived in Perrysburg as a kid. Granted, it's a tough county; large, very hilly.

Maybe in my voluminous spare time I'll try to build a map of tower sites based on ULS data. Just for Fire frequencies. Got any insight anyone?

I've been in touch with some of my friends, or friends that still have family there. It's very, very bad. Not like anything I ever remember; grew up, graduated from Gowanda HS in '76 (yeah, I guess I'm O.F. now). I know children of both men that died. Wow.

F2 33.70 is used as the primary tone out channel and for all traffic back to Little Valley KDP395. The problem is no one knows if a department in one corner of the county calls out on F2 and another department in an opposite corner does the same thing at the same time. They'll step over each other at the county's end. 33.74 is more of a "fireground" channel but departments are to call out 2-5 on F2 then move over to F3 for everything then on until they're Code 9 or 2-10. In an emergency of the scale that was this past few days it's awful trying to listen on F2. It only gets worse when skip kicks up.

I wonder as Erie County switches over to UHF, Chautauqua County looks for a new radio system and Allegany County goes digital soon, and since the counties "south of the border" are now VHF Hi, what will become of the last lone holdout of the 33 MHz band in WNY?

As for the flood victims, I'm very deeply sorry for your losses, especially for those of you who have lost a loved one. I worked a few floods in the SE corner of Catt County years ago and it was tragic and horrific then, but no life was lost during those events. It must be really tough on everyone there now. My thoughs and prayers are with you all. Hopefully the better weather will help you all get things back to as near normal as possible.

 

[DaveNF2G]

Maybe in my voluminous spare time I'll try to build a map of tower sites based on ULS data. Just for Fire frequencies. Got any insight anyone?

I did that in Google Earth for Saratoga County licensed sites.

One site has the wrong lat/long in the ULS and shows up in downtown Albany.

A local radio tech who is familiar with the system told me that many of the licensed sites do not even exist. Nothing was ever built there. One town shows several transmitters sited on a water tower, but that is not where they are in reality.

It was an interesting albeit tedious project, but without actual knowledge of real life hardware, mainly useless.

 

[kb4mdz]

Why, I'm shocked. Shocked! that the records on file don't reflect reality!! That's just surpising.

(sarcasm off)

Yeah, I looked at the ULS data; seems to be lots of fire stations listed, but no real antenna sites, that I can see, based on my memory of the county. There's a couple tower sites up on top of Peck Hill, above Perrysburg,, that >should< hold county stuff (IMNSHO), but I also haven't checked other licenses like Sheriff, etc. against my knowledge base.

It was an interesting albeit tedious project, but without actual knowledge of real life hardware, mainly useless.

 

[c0untyb0y]

If you want to see where all of the towers in Catt County are, check the sheriff's office website.

Cattaraugus County N.Y. Sheriff's Office
9-1-1 Operations -> Communications Systems

though the list isn't of them all, those are at least the main 6 sites.

not to diss on Capt Grube (who was a Sgt when he first created the sheriff's website) but if I were a terrorist, golly geez you did just give me intelligence that you'd think most agencies would like to keep hush-hush.

 

[kb4mdz]

Well, I agree & disagree;

I don't see anything on the site that can't be found out via other means; FCC licensing, etc. It's all public record. If you know which records to look for.

While I understand, and partly agree with the need to keep things 'hush-hush', I also think it's a matter of a pointless exercise to take it to the Nth degree. It's not like a 500 ft. tower with antennae all over it can be hidden, for pete's sake.

I've also heard of agencies that don't want anyone else to know their frequencies, or like having 'secret squirrel' frequencies & such. Each licensee, has the right to grant, or not, or rescind permission to use a frequency.

This could get into a long, long discussion of rights & priviledges of RF licensing, and operations, etc. While it could be fun, I'm gonna drop it.

If you want to see where all of the towers in Catt County are, check the sheriff's office website.

not to diss on Capt Grube (who was a Sgt when he first created the sheriff's website) but if I were a terrorist, golly geez you did just give me intelligence that you'd think most agencies would like to keep hush-hush.

 

[DaveNF2G]

Police agencies do not play well with others - not even other police agencies. Secrecy is in their blood, even when it keeps them from doing their jobs well.