Milton Ontario Fire Department

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pokey

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Does anyone monitor Milton Fire? If so, the frequency listed is 154.160 mhz. for dispatch. Is this still accurate? I understand there are only 3 stations. What type of dispatch system do they use? eg: MDC1200, etc... I know that their tac channels are on the Halton EDACS system but am just wondering about dispatching.

Thanks.
 

mciupa

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Yes, 154.160 is still in use for Milton and also used by Halton Hills as well.

Perhaps a "techie" can answer your MDC question.
 

ATCTech

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Paging is 154.160 as noted as MFD is still 90% volunteer staff. (Only Pumper 31 is staffed by full-time members.) Data dispatch I believe is on a teleprinters via landline to the stations. I've heard comments at various times about the "printout not coming through" but I've never seen any frequency information regarding data services being sent over the air. A couple of years ago one of the fire fighters did tell me they were going to be getting mobile workstations in the trucks, but I'm not sure where that project is now. I monitor MFD full-time and there's never been any mention of information being "sent to your screen" or anything to that effect.

A fourth station is to be built in the area around 4th Line south of Derry in the next year or two as well.

Bob
 
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ATCTech

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If you're asking if they page out calls on the trunk, no, unless the trucks happen to already be on a run and get diverted to another call. All paging for Milton and Halton Hills in on 154.160, and they are two distinct departments with their own dispatchers, central offices and talk groups on the Halton trunk.

If you monitor 154.160 weekdays at 5:45 PM you'll hear the massive combinations of pager tests Halton Hills Fire does daily (alternating between District 1 - Acton and District 2 -Georgetown). Milton does their paging tests to individual station firefighter groups and certain combinations between 6:30PM to 6:45 PM, and also tests the paging and radios just for the full-time equipment at 8:10 AM every day.

I have the page-out tones if anybody has a 396/996 etc. and wants them for both departments. Unfortunately there are too many combinations to store them all in the radio, at least in the 396.

Bob
 
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EJB

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If you're asking if they page out calls on the trunk, no, unless the trucks happen to already be on a run and get diverted to another call. All paging for Milton and Halton Hills in on 154.160, and they are two distinct departments with their own dispatchers, central offices and talk groups on the Halton trunk.

If you monitor 154.160 weekdays at 5:45 PM you'll hear the massive combinations of pager tests Halton Hills Fire does daily (alternating between District 1 - Acton and District 2 -Georgetown). Milton does their paging tests to individual station firefighter groups and certain combinations between 6:30PM to 6:45 PM, and also tests the paging and radios just for the full-time equipment at 8:10 AM every day.

I have the page-out tones if anybody has a 396/996 etc. and wants them for both departments. Unfortunately there are too many combinations to store them all in the radio, at least in the 396.

Bob


Bob: On occasion I have heard Milton & H.Hills units doing testing on Halton's EDACS system, in my case on the Burlington tower at each of times you mentioned.
 

ATCTech

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Do you mean testing as in mobile/portable radio checks? I've seen Milton randomly using a patch rather than the regular talk group in recent weeks, not sure why, so that may have put them on the 2 or 3 district towers, but there's no regular paging of calls on the trunk system for either department. Not monitoring 2 or 3 district regularly here I'll take your word that Halton Hills has also landed on those sites. Why is beyond me - their area doesn't border onto Oakville or Burlington at all.I don't have the Halton Hills Fire operations channel turned on very often so I'm not sure what their schedule is for radio tests on the EDACS trunk.

There have been calls in recent week where Milton has responded tankers and manpower to assist both Oakville and Burlington crews at calls, and there's been some joint training from time to time, so perhaps the patches were in place for that and not taken down.

Bob
 
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orpen499

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so would the freqs in the milton area be under halton not burlington or oakville right?
 

ATCTech

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The EDACS system operates as 3 distinct systems with certain (Police & Fire) groups simulcast between 2 zones.

Halton Hills is comprised of the towns of Acton & Georgetown. Milton is simply Milton. These 3 towns make up District 1, as defined in the database here and on the EDACS system when you listen to HRPD. PD units called "Alpha x" are Acton cars, "Golf x" are Georgetown cars, and "Mike x", "North x" and "Derry x" are Milton cars. And before my logic is question, yes, you will hear 3 district PD (see below) calls on the 1 district frequencies. To cover north Burlington the 1 district tower just west of Milton on the Niagara Escarpment simulcasts the Burlington PD traffic for radio coverage reasons.

"2 District" is Oakville and "3 District" is Burlington, again by Police districts and EDACS system programming definitions.Oakville & Burlington have their own Fire departments, but share dispatch duties, hence the patches you'll see between 2 & 3 districts.

On the other hand, Milton has it's own Fire department which encompasses Milton proper (2 stations for now) plus Campbellville (1 station). Halton Hills has 1 Fire service but 2 'districts', Acton being what they call District 1 and Georgetown being District 2. Both Milton and Halton Hills page out calls on 154.160, but use different pager tone combinations. They also have their own talk groups on the EDACS system.

Hope that helps!

Bob
 
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ATCTech

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I haven't checked for a very long time, but don't they page on 154.205 or is that a thing from the distant past?
 
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Hi there, this is the closest thread I found to what I was looking for. I am at the Oakville/Burlington border and I have the Uniden TrunkTracker III (BC246T) I am very new to all this and have tried my best to find and set frequencies and I'm starting to feel overwhelmed. Is there anyone out there that I can bring my scanner to and they can set it up properly so I can receive all of Halton Police, Fire and EMS. (maybe even Toronto or OPP for when I travel) The way I have it set up now I occasionally hear transmissions that sound like police responding to dispatch. They always respond with "Echo..xx"

I was going to ask a tow truck driver who does all their set up since they are totally plugged in.

I would be willing to pay you for your time. Please let me know if you can help. my email is canadianracing@gmail.com
 

EJB

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Hi there, this is the closest thread I found to what I was looking for. I am at the Oakville/Burlington border and I have the Uniden TrunkTracker III (BC246T) I am very new to all this and have tried my best to find and set frequencies and I'm starting to feel overwhelmed. Is there anyone out there that I can bring my scanner to and they can set it up properly so I can receive all of Halton Police, Fire and EMS. (maybe even Toronto or OPP for when I travel) The way I have it set up now I occasionally hear transmissions that sound like police responding to dispatch. They always respond with "Echo..xx"

I was going to ask a tow truck driver who does all their set up since they are totally plugged in.

I would be willing to pay you for your time. Please let me know if you can help. my email is canadianracing@gmail.com

I can probably help you.
Do you have software and the cord to plug the scanner to a serial port on a computer?
 
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