MOH Patch Question

[tilt404]

I programmed in Bell FleetNet - Ontario Provincial Government Zone 1 tonight for Chatham EMS and OPP since its only about 70kms as the crow flies from Windsor. I'm picking it up well on my PSR800 and Comet discone outside about 100' up.

What was odd is how I just put in a south west common TGID for the MOH and the TGID for the hospital in Chatham. When a patch came in from EMS it actually said "patch" on my display for the first time as if it knew it was a 'patch'. It also showed another TGID 34976 which is MOH Southwest Common. After the patch it went back to the hospital TGID.

The audio for the patch was nice and loud too, unlike the local patches here in Windsor all the time. I have to max my volume out just to hear them. So, the reason why I'm posting is because I wonder how I can get louder audio. I see I already had that 34976 TGID in the local system here but it was called something else when I imported it from RR, "MOHZN 1", not "MOH SW COMMON", yet it has the same TGID. It never comes up here though even though I have it in. From how it acted seemed like the right way it should be received with the patch flashing, but never does that here so I keep thinking I don't have things programmed right but I have all the MOH TGID's in for the area I'm in.

Its been odd here since on a rare occasion I will actually see the hospital TGID come up during the patch. 98% of the time its just the TAC TGID. But the audio is always so low I can hardly hear it. I keep thinking I must be doing something wrong since the patch audio is so quiet, but seems like even the hospitals have trouble hearing them too. I just wish they were louder like the one I heard today from north of here.

 

[Forts]

Just because you have a talkgroup programmed into your radio doesn't mean they will start using it

Plus.... that had nothing at all to do with the patch you heard, which involved Wallaceburg Tac 3 and the hospital's talkgroup. If the PSR-800 handles patches anything like my Pro-106/Pro-197 then it depends which talkgroup you are sitting on whether or not the radio will display patch. With my radios, if it is scanning and stops on the activity, patch will not be shown. If I'm holding on, say.. the Strathroy Hospital group and it get's patched to a Tac talkgroup, then it will show that a patch is active. If I'm sitting on TAC 4, and it gets patched to the hospital, it won't show patch. It all has to do with which of the two groups you are sitting on, and whether the console operator patched group A to group B or group B to group A. Hopefully that made sense haha.

As I mentioned earlier, having the REG1COM talkgroup programmed in never hurts (it's usually used by out of town ambulances doing transfers etc) but it has nothing to do with the operation of any other talkgroup. If the audio is low on the Windsor patches, then it's likely a console issue on their end.

 

[tilt404]

Ok Forts, It makes sense to me. I just wish it went like it did with the patch since I don't remember seeing that ever on the display here until now. I don't know if locking out Tac 1, 2 and 3 will help it lock on the hospital TGID instead and give me better audio.

Thanks for the tip too. I already had that one in but never hear anything on it, but have only been back into scanning for a month or so.

 

[SCPD]

If you lock out any of those TAC TALKGROUPS and the Ambulance Dispatch decides to make one of those TAC TALKGROUPS the supergroup (main talkgroup being used in the patch, being patched into your hospital talkgroup) then you will miss out on the talking from the ambulance to the hospital and won't hear anything at all. So you should leave all those TAC TALKGROUPS in your scanner. So locking out those TAC TALKGROUPS won't help with hearing your hospital talkgroup.

Like FORTS said. It all depends how dispatch decides to set up the patch. Dispatch can patch your hospital talkgroup into the tac talkgroup and make the hospital talkgroup the supergroup (main talkgroup being used in the patch and the talkgroup that would show up on your scanner when that patch is set up. Or if dispatch decides to patch the tac talkgroup into your hospital talkgroup and make the tac talkgroup the supergroup (the main talkgroup and the this talkgroup would be the one that shows up on your scanner when the patch is set up).

And as for the audio. Usually some or most analogue stuff on Fleetnet is a little lower in volume than the digital stuff. It's just depeneds how the volume is set up for the Analogue COMMS on Fleetnet.

Hope this helps

Coolguy

 

[VA3QRM]

Tac lock out?

Ok Forts, It makes sense to me. I just wish it went like it did with the patch since I don't remember seeing that ever on the display here until now. I don't know if locking out Tac 1, 2 and 3 will help it lock on the hospital TGID instead and give me better audio.

Thanks for the tip too. I already had that one in but never hear anything on it, but have only been back into scanning for a month or so.

Not a GRE user here but have noticed the audio difficulties you have "tilt"....but regarding Tac lock out.....remember multi-unit calls are sent to these Tac channels to co-ordinate response. Something you may not want to miss?

 

[tilt404]

Thank you coolguy and va3qrm,

I will keep them enabled. Just got back into scanning recently and like most things, I dive in deep and fast so I make mistakes but learn as I go. Nice to see GRE released an update today for the PSR 800 to enable P25 Phase 2 on it. Just finished installing the CPU/DSP/Software update and went fine. I'm not sure what P25 Phase 2 systems there are around here yet though. But many seem to be moving in that direction.

I forgot uniden seems to have a volume offset setting also. I will be ordering a uniden mobile for home in a month or so, then maybe i can set the tac channels a bit higher in volume to help out.

 

[VE3JSO]

i don't think there is any phase 2 systems out in the area yet but who knows

 

[Forts]

No there is nothing currently around here, but it's nice to know we have an option now if needed!

 

[papillon]

There's a tremendous difference in volume level between the Wallaceburg/Chatham patches and the Windsor/Essex ones. The latter are rather weak and in fact, one of the repeaters is barely readable whereas the W/ Chatham patches are excellent. I agree with Forts, it's probably the way the console is setup and I don't think there's much we can do about it. I've heard some hospitals ask paramedics to repeat the patch. I've never heard that from the Wallaceburg /Chatham/ Sarnia hospitals.