Helicopter Dispatch

[signguy10]

Bear with me, as I'm not confident on all the aspects of the ARMER system. I am trying to listen to LifeLink dispatch. I am able to pick up Hibbings and Blaines dispatch, as well as inflight, but I cant hear any of the other bases. Since their dispatch center is in Minneapolis, shouldn't all the dispatch channels be affiliated with that system? Maybe the wrong TGIDs are listed? Any insight is appreciated. Thank you.

 

[sonm10]

Bear with me, as I'm not confident on all the aspects of the ARMER system. I am trying to listen to LifeLink dispatch. I am able to pick up Hibbings and Blaines dispatch, as well as inflight, but I cant hear any of the other bases. Since their dispatch center is in Minneapolis, shouldn't all the dispatch channels be affiliated with that system? Maybe the wrong TGIDs are listed? Any insight is appreciated. Thank you.

I maybe wrong but it may be site dependent
Where I live a get lifelink iii out of Alex but no one else

 

[signguy10]

I maybe wrong but it may be site dependent
Where I live a get lifelink iii out of Alex but no one else

Yeah. Like I said, I don't know the in's and out's but I figured since they dispatched out of Minneapolis, everything would be afilliated there, plus the base location. I think its strange that I can hear Hibbing's dispatch too.

 

[ofd8001]

I doubt they would "force" helicopter traffic on each site, if the helicopter was not close enough to affiliate in the typical fashion. That would continuously use a voice frequency.

Back when the 35W bridge collapsed, a lot of out-state folks were listening to the incident communications on the mutual aid talkgroups, tying up local radio resources. One of the things identified in the after action report was to avoid that kind of thing.

 

[blue5011]

I can hear Mayo EMS dispatch centers that are w/ in 30-45 miles of me (Fairmont, Mankato, Albert Lea, and Owatonna) and a few times a month a Lifelink aircraft will be in the area.

A couple of years back I questioned this forum about the EMS helicopters and was told at the time that the ARMER radio in the aircraft are only one watt. Reason was that since a chopper was at a higher altitude it would key-up every tower w/ 150 miles.

There are Lifelink aircraft that fly in my county, and I only know this because I have looked up the radio ID number. Sometimes Twin Cities incidents are heard on the local tower near me, but I don't recall hearing any Lifelink direct dispatches.

Obviously there is some "master dispatcher" that decides what helicopter goes where. All I know is when a call for a helicopter evac goes through my local 911 County Dispatch, an aircraft soon appears.

 

[sfd119]

I'm guessing their dispatch is not using physical RF radios but rather IP resources that don't affiliate locally to them.

 

[Imago]

Most LL stuff has been encrypted for a while now, i wanna say end of 2019

 

[signguy10]

Most LL stuff has been encrypted for a while now, i wanna say end of 2019

North is all encrypted, LifeLink has not transitioned yet.

 

[Imago]

You're right. I was looking at this stuff:
"2020:03:19:12:50:49","","APCO-25","Encrypted Patch Call","169008","EMSNM FLIGHT Air Care Inflight Flight Following (P:2032)","0-429","853.387500","","PHASE 1 CHANNEL GRANT PRI0 ENCRYPTED CIRCUIT"

I forgot I had "muted" the LL stuff on my end... it didn't "go dark".

Thanks!

 

[signguy10]

Thanks for your feedback!

 

[Imago]

nice edit lol....agreed