firefighter89
Member
Is McDowell County Fire still on 155.040/167.9 PL? I've been hearing the Sheriff's Office and EMS but haven't heard anything on the fire channel.
McDowell County
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Not quite your answer...but this might offer some insight:
http://forums.radioreference.com/north-carolina-radio-discussion-forum/217528-mcdowell-county.html
I'll look through my logs later tonight and see if I have any notes.
http://forums.radioreference.com/north-carolina-radio-discussion-forum/217528-mcdowell-county.html
I'll look through my logs later tonight and see if I have any notes.
They are still on 155.040 and unless something has changed in the past few weeks they were still using 167.9.
NC4DX should be able to answer this with certainty. I know the last time I was up there performing some maintenance on my equipment up there I ran into a vendor talking about some TX issues they are having. We traced out lines and noted that their TX antenna for fire is on the NW side of the tower. That being said it should be very directional as the standoff it is on is not does not put the antenna at least 1/2 WL off the tower. That is in addition to the antenna being in an omni-directional arrangement that close to the tower. DB-224 antennas like to be a minimum of 1/2 WL (preferably 1 WL) off the tower to avoid interaction with the tower face. I have found that putting the dipole elements all in line with them facing away from the tower on such a small standoff seems to give the antenna a better pattern. The lobes get all messed up when you put them in omni, on a short standoff, and on a tower with such a wide face as that one at the height it is at. I would bet the tower is about 15' across the face at that height.
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I was up there for the fire school this past March.
The radio saleman told me that when the old EMA Director was in charge there was a deal done to use a different output frequency and PL tone for Rescue.
Well the new EMA Director wanted things to be legal and therefore changed to output frequency and PL tones to match what the county is licensed legally for.
The old frequency was 159.000 Mhz tx and 151.295 Mhz rx PL-88.5
The correct frequency is 159.000 Mhz tx and 154.935 Mhz rx PL 167.9
They have also combined Ems & Rescue Dispatch to one channel. It is less work selecting two frequencies to dispatch on instead of three frequencies.
I have never understood the logic for each agency to have it's own dispatch frequency.
I am glad to see McDowell county is working to correct the problems.
David
The radio saleman told me that when the old EMA Director was in charge there was a deal done to use a different output frequency and PL tone for Rescue.
Well the new EMA Director wanted things to be legal and therefore changed to output frequency and PL tones to match what the county is licensed legally for.
The old frequency was 159.000 Mhz tx and 151.295 Mhz rx PL-88.5
The correct frequency is 159.000 Mhz tx and 154.935 Mhz rx PL 167.9
They have also combined Ems & Rescue Dispatch to one channel. It is less work selecting two frequencies to dispatch on instead of three frequencies.
I have never understood the logic for each agency to have it's own dispatch frequency.
I am glad to see McDowell county is working to correct the problems.
David
Yes Rescue has changed and is reflected correctly in the database now. Fire is still on 155.040 with a 167.9 PL. The repeater may be down on power or using a different antenna pattern but I am too close to be able to tell. The main problem area is in the Northern end of the county so they may have tried to enhance coverage in that direction to the detriment of your location in SC. The 2 meter machine which was on a side mounted DB224 on the same tower could be heard nearly to Columbia but dropped off pretty quick west of Spartanburg
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firefighter89
Member
Moved my antenna up from 20 feet to 50 feet. McDowell County Fire is loud and clear on 155.040/167.9 PL now.
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