King County Question

[Ishyid]

Ok, so I was scanning the 150mhz range today and found a new fire dispatch channel. It is 154.0700. I look in the database on this site and it is from sounth king county. I thought all of king county was trunked. Here is the link to the data base if you need it. http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?ctid=2974. It says it is south county simulcast from Valley TRS. What exactly does that mean? What is Valley TRS?

Thanks,
Josh

 

[kellykeeton]

Valley TRS = Trunk radio system, back in the day there were 3 systems in the county EPSCA, VallyCom, Seattle. they are now all one huge system but you will still see a lot of references to vally com. for FD that generally means anything in KC not in seattle. I am not a fire monitor so someone else will pop in about all that.


anywhoo back to the Valley TRS, basically thats the non Seattle fire system its a trunking system (look at the radioreference/wiki for what that is) it allows many users to use less frequency's

simulcast = broadcast on multiple at the same time since FD equipment might not all be trunking capable they replicate it on the older legacy frequency's

thats the overview on a high level, I am only a Police monitor so the more FD savvy folks can chime in for you on the specifics on what you will hear and why.

 

[AtomicTaco]

Valley TRS = Trunk radio system, back in the day there were 3 systems in the county EPSCA, VallyCom, Seattle. they are now all one huge system but you will still see a lot of references to vally com. for FD that generally means anything in KC not in seattle. I am not a fire monitor so someone else will pop in about all that.

Valleycom is still alive and kicking; quite well actually. I'm at my parent's house right now, and I can look out the hill and see VC's tower (they don't simulcast the trunk from there; I'm not sure why not).

But yeah, they basically dispatch all of the FDs/PDs south of Seattle. You can see a complete list of everything on their website, valleycom.org.

One other thing--the 800 trunked system is co-owned by the City of Seattle, EPSCA (Eastside Public Safety Communications Agency), and King County/ValleyCom. Dig around and you can find all sorts of info about it--including information about their board of directors, how voting privlidges are assigned, and so much more.

I can't remember where the thread was--either here or on INW--but VC wants to turn off the VHF simulcast. The only reason it's still on is so they can tone out one of the FDs (Kanaskat/Palmer). Rodentkj could tell you a lot more about that.

There are also a few other VHF frequencies that they are still licensed for. If a certain rig's 800 equipment wasn't working and they had their VHF stuff with them, they can request VC to patch it--then they'd hear anyone talk on the corresponding channel on their VHF radio, and everyone else with a trunked radio would hear them transmit from their VHF rig. I belive the patch is turned off unless it's requested, which is good because they don't want rogue radios on the system.

 

[kellykeeton]

yea like I was saying, I dont know FD just PD -back when the systems first set up they were in cells more then now. now any user can traverse any site (VC,EPSCA,STL) where it wasn't as much like that when the system originally was on the air, so it sounds like FD still uses the term valleycom (I actually listen to no FD com's so I have no knowledge of how they work today)

 

[Ishyid]

Valleycom is still alive and kicking; quite well actually. I'm at my parent's house right now, and I can look out the hill and see VC's tower (they don't simulcast the trunk from there; I'm not sure why not).

But yeah, they basically dispatch all of the FDs/PDs south of Seattle. You can see a complete list of everything on their website, valleycom.org.

One other thing--the 800 trunked system is co-owned by the City of Seattle, EPSCA (Eastside Public Safety Communications Agency), and King County/ValleyCom. Dig around and you can find all sorts of info about it--including information about their board of directors, how voting privlidges are assigned, and so much more.

I can't remember where the thread was--either here or on INW--but VC wants to turn off the VHF simulcast. The only reason it's still on is so they can tone out one of the FDs (Kanaskat/Palmer). Rodentkj could tell you a lot more about that.

There are also a few other VHF frequencies that they are still licensed for. If a certain rig's 800 equipment wasn't working and they had their VHF stuff with them, they can request VC to patch it--then they'd hear anyone talk on the corresponding channel on their VHF radio, and everyone else with a trunked radio would hear them transmit from their VHF rig. I belive the patch is turned off unless it's requested, which is good because they don't want rogue radios on the system.

So the only reason I am hearing units being dispatched on a conventional frequencie is because of that one department that is not trunked yet?

 

[AtomicTaco]

So the only reason I am hearing units being dispatched on a conventional frequencie is because of that one department that is not trunked yet?

They use 800 trunked radios, but the VHF simulcast is still on for their horns. Read all about it here.