McCabe EMS Bayonne/Hoboken

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NJEMT12982

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Just was told McCabe EMS is in the process of upgrading there system. Jumping to MotoTrbo and using XPR 3500 series portables. McCabe currently is the EMS provider for the city of Bayonne and also Hoboken. If the proposed take over of JCMC EMS happens, I wonder what changes will happen...
 

btshep

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McCabe's also has a talk group on the City of Bayonne Project 25 Phase I System listed as EMS Dispatch
 

NJEMT12982

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Yes, you are correct, but as long as I have monitored the city of Bayonne it has never been used, at least to my knowledge.
 

902

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I remember when McCabe was on an 800 conventional community repeater on the WTC, circa 1985. They shared the channel with an oil company in Queens. The oil company would listen in carrier squelch and would usually stand by when they were putting out ambulance traffic.

Going to Mototrbo seems to be going against interoperability. It makes sense for a fleet operator, but is counter to functioning in a unified command environment at an MCI (unfortunately, the region is front-and-center for them from time to time).

I won't get into the politics of CarePoint/McCabe vs. the MC in the Jersey City circus (any deeper than that). I've got extremely strong feelings on the issue.
 

photocar88

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Thought So

I knew they went quiet on Friday, I bet the go 700 Digital Freq, The Take over Vote should be this week.
 

NJEMT12982

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I just got a message from a guy I know who works there, no one is happy with the new system or the radios. I don't know why a lot of agencies are so quick to jump to MotoTrbo, the radios look and feel terrible. There have been complaints with the quality of communications too.
 

902

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Covering Jersey City/Hudson County takes more work than that

I don't know if you guys remember the evolution of EMS communications in Jersey City. Initially, they were on 155.265 at the same time Hatzolah was. There were many conflicts, so around 1984, the MC went to 155.235 and changed the frequency in all of its busses and Minitor pagers (for MC40, the ALS bus, and for the medical/surgical attending physicians for telemetry). This was a very simple T2-2R (2 channel transmitter, 2 receivers in the cabinet) non-unified chassis Micor HEAR base station with a quarter wave antenna on top of the Medical building. One problem was that a ham put his antenna on the same vent pipe as the MC's so it was only about 6 inches away. That was fixed. There was also a wheel chair service in Staten Island who blasted into Jersey City and was stronger than the MC units were, especially portables. It was dangerous because people have called for a "10-2" ("HELP!!!") and the base could not hear them, only others who were close to the scene... which, from time to time, was on Heckman Drive or in one of the other projects.

Money was made available around 1985 to coincide with a planned "friendly MCI" for the Statue of Liberty Centennial in 1986. That was when the original HUDCEN was built and the radio system transitioned from the Micor with a T1600 remote (that sounded like it was in a cave) to a "real" dispatch center with consoles. This also helped with the expansion of ALS services into Bayonne (MC-14) and into North Hudson (MC-16). The system went to three voted receivers on 155.235 and 155.280, a full-time base for 155.340, and a full-time base for 153.785. And, 3 - 8 channel MED base stations on Bayonne Hospital, West New York City Hall, and on the Surgical Building (a rat hole at the time - but one that was renovated and hardened to house a critical site). Also full-time MED 10 stations in Bayonne, West New York, and on the Surgical Building.

In the 90s, the MC leadership transitioned from VHF to a 900 MHz trunked system. McCabe was on it, too, using different talkgroups. It was a commercial system that was leased from Motorola and operated primarily from trunksites on the World Trade Center, and, because the WTC couldn't perform well for the western side of Jersey City, from the Claridge House in Verona. They were on that until 9/11, when the WTC part of the system came down. They went back to VHF, and eventually repeaterized. It's been like that for about 13 years.

My point is that it takes considerably a lot more work than just "we'll put this over here" or "we'll just go to MotoTRBO" to cover the area. Between interference (Jersey City is one of the most RF-dense environments in the world, having proximity to NYC and high power emissions from the WTC then, and soon to be the WTC now), and limited frequency resources, I don't expect optimism from a single-site solution. If this was well-thought-out (and my read of the proposal - yes, I read it - is that it was not), they would have negotiated for talkgroups on the Jersey City UHF trunked system. But radio is always an afterthought. ALWAYS. If the system is having trouble now, with just Bayonne and transport operations on it, imagine what it will be like if it gets loaded with the volume of traffic Jersey City BLS operations would put on it.
 

AC2OY

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Amazing read 902 wow! Maybe these people should consult with you on making a system that will actually work. You did your homework on this one!!!
 

902

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Who says the MotoTRBO system is having problems 902?
DMR use on VHF is a nationwide problem and is exacerbated in an environment where best-practices contours are already exceeded. The DMR system might not be having problems itself more than it's creating problems for other co- and adjacent channel users. The issue is not prevalent on UHF because of the paired environment and because signals are contained within the channelspace. Repeater outputs are not placed in very close proximity to repeater inputs.
 

NotATechGuy

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No because I have no reason to. I know their system rarely encounters problems. I can't speak for other UHF systems in the area. If you want to do a study I'd be interested in findings.
 

902

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Citywide coverage to portables is probably a moot point now, but I will check using the parameters on the license. Should be interesting to see how the coverage looks.

I'll let you know in a few days.
 

bigray246

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Bayonne/ Mccabe EMS

Can anyone with a DMR capable scanner monitor McCabe on 464.150 Mhz. Please advise if you are able to recieve them in the clear? I dont want to lay out $500 to Uniden if it dosent decode them. Ray
 

mondaro

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Ray,

Here in Harrison, the radio is grabbing them but I do not hear them loud and clear.
it maybe where I am located.

Tony
 

NotATechGuy

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McCabe uses Privacy. You will not be able to hear them unless you have the key w/ a TRBO radio or a special version of DSD+ or hacked firmware which breaks the encryption.
 

JRayfield

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With all of the talk a couple of years ago about how this system didn't work well and how they didn't like the system, how about now? Is the system working properly now and do they like it?

John Rayfield, Jr.
 
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