Just heard an interesting conversation (9:21:22PM). It involved a LL3 helo operating in St Louis County they were using "ST S TAC 1", TG 6.
Seems a waste of resources for something happening in the north part of the state being broadcast to the southern part of the state...
Statewide talkgroups are so that radios from different zones can talk to each other. Since helicopters come from near and far, they assume they are coming from a different radio region and don't have the region talkgroup so they always, by standard, use statewide.
The statewide talkgroups don't broadcast on every single site all the time. They only broadcast on sites where there is a radio selected to that talkgroup and since no one dispatches on statewide, you don't typically hear an incident in thief river falls in the metro. Just having statewides in your scan list does not make a talkgroup get broadcast on your site.
That being said, word travels fast, so you may have bored police officers or Paramedics listening to a helicopter or high speed chase at 3 in the morning (firefighters are typical safely tucked in bed at that time).
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