LZJSR
Member
I have heard KCFD Battalion 5 ask several units on scene of calls, over the past few weeks, to turn on their extenders. Does anyone know what frequency/channel is used for the extenders, and any other details about the extenders?
Yes we can talk to ECC or the Battalion Chief on the channel in Batt 5 would be Kern 3 or Kern 2 deppending.Eng74 - can you talk to the dispatcher when that extender is turned on? Or can you just talk to other nearby units who are working at the same incident?
I agree, thank you f40ph!!! For CHP it's a lot more straightforward because the portables are on a separate radio system (VHF or 700 MHz) from the mobiles (lowband). But with agencies like Kern County FD that have the same channels in the portables and the mobiles, people have to remember that the vehicle can't just "listen on the input frequency and retransmit", because the transmission from the extender would occur on that same input frequency and cover the portable's traffic unless there was some sort of significant built in delay. This is why you always see extenders on their own discreet frequency.f40ph - that would make lots of sense. 173.225 from portable to extender - and 173.225 from extender to portable. The extender probably has a sensing mechanism that gives priority to messages from the portables versus messages from the extender.
I know this is a Kern County Fire thread and I'm talking about CHP, but since both departments use Pyramid VHF mobile extenders, the operation should be the same for both. Thanks again, I love learning new stuff like this. And as I suspected, for 1982 technology that was pretty clever.It is essential that the repeater be turned on just before the officer exits the vehicle, and turned off when the officer leaves the scene. Repeaters must not be left on when not required. Leaving a repeater on needlessly will cause unnecessary delays for other officers, noise and garbled traffic reception at dispatch, and may cause uncontrolled misdirection of trffic to the wrong officers and dispatchers.