Mason County Fire vs Cencom Fire

[bhoglan]

Hey folks,
I think this is mostly a dummy check. Am I seeing right that both Cencom and Macecom are using the same VHF frequency, both without even any kind of squelch in place?

Mason County, Washington (WA) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference for Mason County, Washington (WA)

www.radioreference.com

Kitsap County, Washington (WA) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference for Kitsap County, Washington (WA)

www.radioreference.com

I'm looking at 154.370. I definitely hear both agencies on the same channel. They're definitely two different counties and two separate dispatch centers and systems. One uses a tone out with Locution-type automated voice announcement and the other uses a human tone out and announcement.

I think why I'm so confused is that they're neighboring counties so this makes no sense to me. I absolutely MUST be missing something here. Right?

 

[K1YNE]

Are they only using it for tone outs? There may be an agreement in place for sharing the channel. Whoever had the original license would've needed to sign a letter of concurrence for the second licensee to get the same frequency from the FCC so close geographically.
No CTCSS/CDCSS makes sense in the case that only pagers are listening. Minitor pagers do not do squelch decode; They only care about the paging tones, so no reason to run it. This would allow the two dispatch centers to listen and ensure the other is not using the channel before sending a page as well.
But, I dont know anything about it so Im only guessing.
The Mason County license lists it as a FB, so not a repeater, and with 250 pagers. But it also lists only a 14W ERP, so not a lot of power.
The license listed on the RR Kitsap page, KOL696, is canceled. Theres a few licenses for various Kitsap FDs and Kitsap 911 on this channel. So unsure what one they are operating under. All the ones I did find have significantly more power listed, so its possible that you're just able to hear Mason and it doesnt cause much interference to Kitsap.

 

[KA7JUR]

Cencom in Kitsap County uses 154.37 as a fire tone out channel with a computerized voice. TComm in Thurston County uses this same frequency for some of their fire tone outs. (Maybe TCERN tone out frequencies will change since the new 700 trunking system is online.)

There are many places in Mason County where the base transmitters from both Thurston and Kitsap counties can be heard. Of course, it sounds bad if they are both transmitting and the listener is not located where one of the transmitted signals is strong enough to completely capture the listener's receiver. Thankfully the pagers within each county are usually capturing strong signals from their own county's towers.

Many years ago, North Mason Fire would be alerted by Cencom on 154.37 when needed for a mutual aid response in Kitsap County. Mason County units could answer on that same channel, but that stopped when Cencom dedicated the frequency to tone outs only. Now fire units from Mason County can be heard on other Cencom channels when responding to calls in Kitsap County. It's very unlikely Mason County fire or dispatch agencies transmit on 154.37 anymore.

 

[bhoglan]

Cencom in Kitsap County uses 154.37 as a fire tone out channel with a computerized voice. TComm in Thurston County uses this same frequency for some of their fire tone outs. (Maybe TCERN tone out frequencies will change since the new 700 trunking system is online.)

There are many places in Mason County where the base transmitters from both Thurston and Kitsap counties can be heard. Of course, it sounds bad if they are both transmitting and the listener is not located where one of the transmitted signals is strong enough to completely capture the listener's receiver. Thankfully the pagers within each county are usually capturing strong signals from their own county's towers.

Many years ago, North Mason Fire would be alerted by Cencom on 154.37 when needed for a mutual aid response in Kitsap County. Mason County units could answer on that same channel, but that stopped when Cencom dedicated the frequency to tone outs only. Now fire units from Mason County can be heard on other Cencom channels when responding to calls in Kitsap County. It's very unlikely Mason County fire or dispatch agencies transmit on 154.37 anymore.

Holy moly, sorry I missed this response. Apparently I need to check my notification settings.
So yeah this is good information.

As I was writing this I heard a tone for North Mason Fire. I see it on "County Fire F2" which is 154.2425.
Now things are coming together a bit more. I think the RR DB records for Mason are probably a bit aged and in need of updating. I just don't have the confidence in my findings to make changes like that.

If I'm understanding things correctly the frequency I listed for F2 is a narrowband assignment. I'm basing that on the 4 digits after the decimal indicating a half-step. (obviously this is wholly dependent on the step size of the VFO)

 

[bhoglan]

Are they only using it for tone outs? There may be an agreement in place for sharing the channel. Whoever had the original license would've needed to sign a letter of concurrence for the second licensee to get the same frequency from the FCC so close geographically.
No CTCSS/CDCSS makes sense in the case that only pagers are listening. Minitor pagers do not do squelch decode; They only care about the paging tones, so no reason to run it. This would allow the two dispatch centers to listen and ensure the other is not using the channel before sending a page as well.
But, I dont know anything about it so Im only guessing.
The Mason County license lists it as a FB, so not a repeater, and with 250 pagers. But it also lists only a 14W ERP, so not a lot of power.
The license listed on the RR Kitsap page, KOL696, is canceled. Theres a few licenses for various Kitsap FDs and Kitsap 911 on this channel. So unsure what one they are operating under. All the ones I did find have significantly more power listed, so its possible that you're just able to hear Mason and it doesnt cause much interference to Kitsap.

WQEM301 is the callsign spoken by the computer at the end of the Kitsap (Cencom) fire toneouts.
In another reply I mentioned hearing North Mason toning on 154.2425 but I don't think I've heard a callsign yet.

On a side note though I think I've seen the original frequency on other systems I have on my scanner but I'll need to dig through them and figure out what dups I have and distances involved between the transmitters.

In general is the frequency reuse dependent on a set distance or is it more of a situational thing depending on local geography?

 

[icom1020]

Cencom in Kitsap County uses 154.37 as a fire tone out channel with a computerized voice. TComm in Thurston County uses this same frequency for some of their fire tone outs. (Maybe TCERN tone out frequencies will change since the new 700 trunking system


There are many places in Mason County where the base transmitters from both Thurston and Kitsap counties can be heard. Of course, it sounds bad if they are both transmitting and the listener is not located where one of the transmitted signals is strong enough to completely capture the listener's receiver. Thankfully the pagers within each county are usually capturing strong signals from their own

I've heard 154.190 for certain districts in Mason county. It sounds like two pages are being used back to back as if different towers are used concurrently. Lewis Co has moved some of their .190 traffic to Riverside Fire Authority freq as well as what was known as DEM. 155.175 for paging
only


TCERN is still using Fire 1-3 VHF channels for tone outs as well with those previous assignments and departments. Multicasting with 700 mhz. It's probably a Minitor recieve thing or just a station alerting that didn't change.

 

[nr158]

all fire tone out for thurston are on 154.4300 no longer on fire 1 thur 3