MONOC Dispatch North

[RBFD415]

Some may recall that MONOC had a flirtation with this concept back in 1999- 2000. All radios were replaced with NEXTEL portables. It's un- monitorable don't you know! Any way, history repeats itself, once more!

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[asnhnetwork]

Both last night and tonight I have heard activity on the Monoc North channel.

 

[JMR3865]

Sooo I'm trying to wrap my head around this system. It's basically an app on a cell phone that is ruggedized and with a loud speaker that works off the cell towers?

 

[Septa3371CSX1]

Sooo I'm trying to wrap my head around this system. It's basically an app on a cell phone that is ruggedized and with a loud speaker that works off the cell towers?

Yeup, pretty much - just like the old Nextel worked.

 

[Joseph11]

Sooo I'm trying to wrap my head around this system. It's basically an app on a cell phone that is ruggedized and with a loud speaker that works off the cell towers?

If these are running on Sprint, essentially yeah. They have an app that has technology based off the original Nextel push-to-talk concept (with unique per device "Direct Connect IDs" and all), using the CDMA/LTE network instead of iDEN.

 

[JMR3865]

Welp, just another stupid move MONOC makes... shouldn't surprise me.

Sooo what happens when the cell towers go down?

Not that it really matters because available paramedic units and units that actually arrive are hard to come by now.

 

[racescan_fan]

Monday afternoon I heard activity on MONOC north.

 

[asnhnetwork]

I just heard a dispatch to North Arlington as well. Only the Dispatcher but at least it gives you a clue to what is going on.

Please leave it in the database since the frequency is still used.

 

[Joseph11]

MONOC South is paging units right now asking them to reply on their Sonim as a test.


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[665_NJ]

MONOC EMS Dispatch "Ominus Monitor Spoiler Alert"!

MONOC South is paging units right now asking them to reply on their Sonim as a test.


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As to Joseph's post, it indicates the entire MONOC EMS dispatch system State Wide (North / South) is in the process of switching to this
un monitorable Sonim cellular LTE PTT network.

The actual timing of this change is unknown, it seems though for all intensive purposes, there is a very good chance MONOC EMS dispatching will go DARK for us scanner listeners as we head into the new year .
I don't know if they will continue use their current UHF frequencies as back up or for local BLS coordination as is done now with their "old" North dispatch frequencies.

As to their UHF air operations and other tactical frequencies both VHF/UHF perhaps they will use them as local "talk around" options between units. Who knows if any radio traffic will now be heard on them now?

This indeed is a MONOC Ominus Monitor Spoiler Alert! Goodby MONOC....
Further updates from you scanner folks in Monmouth and Ocean Counties on this subject would be greatly appreciated and please post your findings here.

Thanks

 

[ShoreBullets]

As to Joseph's post, it indicates the entire MONOC EMS dispatch system State Wide (North / South) is in the process of switching to this
un monitorable Sonim cellular LTE PTT network.

The actual timing of this change is unknown, it seems though for all intensive purposes, there is a very good chance MONOC EMS dispatching will go DARK for us scanner listeners as we head into the new year .
I don't know if they will continue use their current UHF frequencies as back up or for local BLS coordination as is done now with their "old" North dispatch frequencies.

As to their UHF air operations and other tactical frequencies both VHF/UHF perhaps they will use them as local "talk around" options between units. Who knows if any radio traffic will now be heard on them now?

This indeed is a MONOC Ominus Monitor Spoiler Alert! Goodby MONOC....
Further updates from you scanner folks in Monmouth and Ocean Counties on this subject would be greatly appreciated and please post your findings here.

Thanks

Monoc doesnt use the UHF for local BLS coordination, they use the local channels. Med 9 is just for MONOC and they get super pissy if anyone comes over it to talk to them.

They still have Ocean EMS 1 and Monmouth N/C/S for local stuff

 

[de784]

Monoc

So there dispatch will be by cell. But they will still have radios to communicate to the towns they provide als to correct

 

[Joseph11]

I am still hearing dispatches on MONOC South. It appears the dispatcher is multicasted on UHF and Direct Connect.


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[asnhnetwork]

The North dispatchers are still using g the North as well. Just can hear the units but the job locations and dispatcher replies are heard. Wonder what will happen if they get a busy signal on the PTT but are connected on the UHF

 

[N2KXY]

Monoc ocean co

Just for gp's monocs 461.800 freq is simulcasted all the down to south jersey . Able to receive it in ocean city

 

[ShoreBullets]

So there dispatch will be by cell. But they will still have radios to communicate to the towns they provide als to correct

Yes, each truck has a UHF and VHF mobile. They use the UHF for talking to control on MED9/10/11 and in ocean county. The VHF is for talKing to mostly monmouth county. Each mobile has the local ems dispatch of every town in both counties

 

[902]

Quick question, if drivers cannot use cell phones, how is EMS allowed to use a phone while driving?

There's a gray area, in that future devices, like Sonim, and "FirstNet" LTE will create data packets that ride on cellular-like networks. The data wouldn't care if it were on a P25, TETRA, DMR, NXDN, or whatever system. Just give it a path to get from point A to point B, or point A to multiple points.

At that point, you're "on" cellular, but you are virtualizing a two-way "radio." Some devices might take the form factor of a traditional two-way radio. The fire service has expressed that sort of tactile control. Other devices might be small, elegant, and concealable. I think the lifespan of something like that was supposed to be around 18 mos. (I've got a couple of HT200s and Handicoms at home that would make cellular life cycle designers' heads explode)

Here's my concept of the future: These things would be unmonitorable based on their encoding into data and being transmitted over the network. Some places might elect to stream certain communications traffic. Things will migrate away from traditional radio to streaming (kind of like we're seeing with shortwave broadcasts).

I've expressed concern over very complex systems before. They do have a lot of utility. Sending data, telematics, etc. is a big advantage to just being able to send voice, especially when you have a mobile area network that could tie in all of the electronics in an ambulance, like EKG, ventilator, etc. But when things go bad on a data transport system so complex, they might go so bad as to be unusable. Personally, I hope they keep radio for those moments, and that they train to be as independently functional as possible. Otherwise the next generation of field people will be remotely controlled and monitored marionettes who have much less discretionary latitude than their current day peers (or even their peers in NJ's "paramedic projects" of the late 70s and early 80s).

 

[Joseph11]

Still hearing the MONOC dispatchers coming over on the South channels. Some units are responding with their UHF radios but others are not.

 

[RBFD415]

In ref to 902's comments, on the money! I see the problem as a transition from the generation of Comm techs of the past to IT people steering these discussions. Talk of Handie Comm and HT'S has been supplanted by mainstream consumer technology with reliability of nat. It's a passable consequence if your wireless device has catastrophic event now and again. Public safety obviously has zero tolerance for failure without potential loss of lives.

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[902]

In ref to 902's comments, on the money! I see the problem as a transition from the generation of Comm techs of the past to IT people steering these discussions. Talk of Handie Comm and HT'S has been supplanted by mainstream consumer technology with reliability of nat. It's a passable consequence if your wireless device has catastrophic event now and again. Public safety obviously has zero tolerance for failure without potential loss of lives.

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Thank you. I'm one of those old-school radiomen who's desperately searching for his relevance over the next 20-something years, or however long I have left. I'm a little younger than most of the guys who are positioned to retire, so I went back to community college to learn this IT stuff, which came up independently of radio, but now seems to be what anything "technical" is thrown under. And, my impression of the IT puppies is that if it's not a software configurable black box module, it's icky and dirty, like a greasy diesel engine.

Anyway, moving forward from that, some things to keep your eyes on:
NFPA 1221 - not the force of law but a best practice standard that requires backups and redundancies, along with feedback. Can that be done in the IT realm? Sure. Is it in any of these products? Maybe. (I don't know).

NFPA 1802 - an emerging standard that may specify certain user interfaces and device characteristics, whether they are with legacy radio technologies or IT-based technologies. That COTS device might be a nifty and elegant thing for day workers and admins (thinking about some folks at a meeting in California punching their department back east on their phone and monitoring talkgroups like their radio worked all the way out there), but on the line, maybe not so much.

I hear feedback from young field personnel (I was a NJ MICP 32 years ago with a three-digit certification number, and a paramedic across the river for even longer...) that traditional radio equipment lacks the utility of a common smartphone. Maybe so. But I reply, "the smartphone should never be better than your training, situational awareness, and field decision-making capabilities," and "the smartphone needs to be hardened up and failure resistant."

The 5G solution for talking through a wall to another subscriber is still network dependent instead of network agnostic. My opinion (both as a geezer and a radioman) is that IT doesn't necessarily seek the simplest solution. Those simple solutions are usually the most failure resistant.