Monroe County Fire Districts VHF Licenses

[k2hz]

I am reviewing the Monroe County RRDB listings looking for any that may be deprecated as the migration to the Monroe/Ontario P25 system progresses.

With all Monroe County Fire operations now migrated to the 700/800 P25 system the continued use of VHF by individual Fire Districts is questionable. While the City of Rochester is retaining their VHF frequencies for Fireground use, the County plan has both trunked and conventional 700/800 off-net and VRS channels for Countywide and individual Fire District on-scene use. So, it seems logical that some Fire Districts no longer use VHF and would allow their individual licenses to expire.

I see that 2 major Fire Districts, Ridge Road and Laurelton, have allowed all their VHF conventional licenses to expire. The Laurelton KKD450 155.820 Fire Police license is listed in the RRDB as Ch 9 - Countywide Fire Police and was the only license for the use of that frequency in the County.

Am I correct in assuming the listings in the RRDB associated with these expired licenses are now Deprecated?

What is the status of the VHF Countywide Fire/EMS Battalion Operations channels associated with license WPPF797? This license is valid until 2014 but are these channels intended to remain in use for Fireground operations?

Is 154.175 Ch 4 County Fireground West still in use? Ch 3, 154.385 was removed from service for reuse as RFD Station Alerting.

 

[eastpembroke29]

Is the vhf dispatch frequency still used for tone outs for county fire ?

 

[k2hz]

Is the vhf dispatch frequency still used for tone outs for county fire ?

Yes, 154.310 remains active for Fire tone outs and 155.295 for EMS.

 

[mc48]

Channel-5 154.31 is still used for tone out and dispatch and is patched to Ops-5.
Laurelton was combined with Ridge Culver to form Irondequoit.
There are a couple depts that still use 154.31 with their base units to acknowledge calls, but I can't recall whom.
I never hear any activity on Channel-4 154.175.

 

[eastpembroke29]

So is Monroe county using Motorola pagers? When I lived in Genesee county, we switched over to the g5 pagers

 

[mc48]

I don't know about the pagers, but many are using Bryx, which is good as long as it's working. I have heard several calls where responses were delayed because Bryx was down. FTO with pagers is more reliable IMO.

 

[AlexC]

It's not Bryx that's down it likely is the feed from the county to Bryx that goes down.

 

[k2hz]

I don't know about the pagers, but many are using Bryx, which is good as long as it's working. I have heard several calls where responses were delayed because Bryx was down. FTO with pagers is more reliable IMO.

The RFD use of 154.385 is as a station alert backup to Bryx. It is the MDC1200 signaling that used to precede an alarm on 154.130 when it was RFD Dispatch. With 154.130 changed to Fireground, they moved the MDC1200 to a separate frequency. 154.385 is signaling only, no voice.

 

[k2hz]

Channel-5 154.31 is still used for tone out and dispatch and is patched to Ops-5.
Laurelton was combined with Ridge Culver to form Irondequoit.
There are a couple depts that still use 154.31 with their base units to acknowledge calls, but I can't recall whom.
I never hear any activity on Channel-4 154.175.

Some departments have recently renewed their licenses so I suspect some VHF frequencies will be remaining active for backup or events use. I am just trying to clean up anything in the DB on VHF that is no longer used since the function has been moved to the 700/800 system.

 

[LolMan13]

Some dept have unication pagers and some use motorola bryx is used by most agencies

 

[AFD103]

There are departments on the west side that still use VHF on occasion - primarily for interop when working large incidents with agencies from other counties. I'm thinking primarily about Scottsville and Mumford pulling Caledonia, East Avon, and/or LeRoy.

 

[k2hz]

I just did a major update on the Monroe County RRDB to show that most County Public Safety agencies now operate primarily on the Monroe/Ontario P25 system. Links to the Monroe/Ontario system have been added to the heading for all subcategories that now operate on there. Countywide VHF Fire frequencies, with the exception of 154.310 (Channel 5) dispatch and alerting, have been marked deprecated since these functions have been moved to P25 Talk Groups. It is possible some departments may continue to use VHF for local purposes but the "County" frequencies are no longer assigned for use. Channel 5 is remaining in service for Fire Dispatch and alerting patched to the TRS.

While some Rochester Fire Department Fireground operations will remain on VHF with a patch to the TRS, RFD Dispatch is now only on TG1704.

 

[k2hz]

I see some additional probably obsolete information in the RRDB:
151.3325 is listed as Penfield FD Dispatch and 153.950 is listed as "Perinton FD" Dispatch (believe it is actually Bushnells Basin). I don't believe either department uses their listed frequency for either self dispatch or rebroadcast of County Dispatch. Are these frequencies still in use as the individual department's Fire-TAC?

158.805 is listed as "Greece FD Fire EMS-TAC" and 154.055 is listed as "Fire CH. 50 North Greece" Fire-TAC. Neither channel appears to be active. Are they still in use?

 

[w2csx]

I see some additional probably obsolete information in the RRDB:
151.3325 is listed as Penfield FD Dispatch and 153.950 is listed as "Perinton FD" Dispatch (believe it is actually Bushnells Basin). I don't believe either department uses their listed frequency for either self dispatch or rebroadcast of County Dispatch. Are these frequencies still in use as the individual department's Fire-TAC?

158.805 is listed as "Greece FD Fire EMS-TAC" and 154.055 is listed as "Fire CH. 50 North Greece" Fire-TAC. Neither channel appears to be active. Are they still in use?

The Penfield FD listing at one time rebroadcast Firegrounds 154.385 until recently. Never was dispatch channel.

 

[DaveNF2G]

I think 153.950 was a Town of Perinton common fireground (Fairport, Basin, Egypt). Whether or not it is still in use I don't know.

 

[rgemerson]

Chili is still using 155.955 and Gates is still using 158.88

 

[k2hz]

Chili is still using 155.955 and Gates is still using 158.88

Thanks for the info!
Is Chili actually "Dispatched" on 155.955 or is it TAC/Talk channel?

 

[sallen07]

Chili is still using 155.955 and Gates is still using 158.88

"Using", or still have programmed into their radios?

Not disbelieving you, but I haven't heard anything on either of those frequencies for a very long time, and unless the usage is very low power I should be able to do so from my location.

 

[k2hz]

I think is is definite that 155.955 had not been used for actual Fire Dispatch for many years. At this point, I am keeping frequencies listed as Fire-TAC if they are likely still available for use in department radios. So I am changing that listing to TAC unless proved otherwise.

 

[k2hz]

Upon further review - If an individual department still has VHF radios programmed for their own channels, such use is likely informal and not in accordance with County operations plans. So the defined use for the purposes of the RRDB listing would be "Talk".

Lacking any information on specific designated use of these frequencies, they will be Tagged "Talk" for now, pending any submissions confirming current use. Where there is no evidence of continued use, the frequency will eventually be Tagged "Deprecated" for automatic deletion in 30 days.