Montgomery County Updated Changes

[cdavisjr]

Since theyre not the best at daily updated/changes which is understandable but sometimes annoying, is there anyone with personal knowledge about any of the following:

1) Who's left on 33.70 and theyre timeline for getting off (I know about the colored list on the county website that also says last updated 1/08)

2) the future of 154.130, 154.370 and 154.445 - I remember the county paging upgrade proposal talking about 2 frequencies on every tower countywide for better coverage/reception and weve seen the birth of 158.355 and the simulcasting on 158.955. Perhaps that is the future for the other end of the county?

3)The future use of 158.955 - right now I just hear it simulcasting 158.355 with no tone dropping only voice.

4) ems getting off low band and switching to highband and possibly being joint dispatched with fire

5) how come the county didnt automatically put the county 136.5 p/l tone on 158.355 - I remember for like 2 weeks when it first came out it did and then suddenly lists started saying to leave it toneless

Just curious if anyone had any new news to any of these

 

[scanjunkie]

Ok...Here goes...

1) Who's left on 33.70 and theyre timeline for getting off (I know about the colored list on the county website that also says last updated 1/08)

Not 100% sure...but I believe everyone has switched over. There may be a few still on LB. Wish I could be more helpful with this one.

2) the future of 154.130, 154.370 and 154.445 - I remember the county paging upgrade proposal talking about 2 frequencies on every tower countywide for better coverage/reception and weve seen the birth of 158.355 and the simulcasting on 158.955. Perhaps that is the future for the other end of the county?

158.355 will be used for western fire dispatch and 158.955 will be used for Eastern Fire Dispatch. The plan is to eventually use dual dispatch on these freqs with Fire and EMS. Both freqs will be simulcast off of all county towers to enhance paging recepion and reliability.

3)The future use of 158.955 - right now I just hear it simulcasting 158.355 with no tone dropping only voice.

In the testing phase right now...see above for more info.

4) ems getting off low band and switching to highband and possibly being joint dispatched with fire

See above. LB is used for pager/alerting activation on EMS dispatch only. All ops happen on the TRS system. Dispatch is also done on the TRS but a TRS can not be used for alerting.

5) how come the county didnt automatically put the county 136.5 p/l tone on 158.355 - I remember for like 2 weeks when it first came out it did and then suddenly lists started saying to leave it toneless

I think they were waiting for it to be fully operational before setting the PL across the board. Not sure what the actual, technical, reasoning is.

Hope this was helpful. If I can get more info I'll post it later.

 

[cdavisjr]

Thanks Mark, that was a big help.
I get 33.70 thru my highband pager (not sure if it's the county or my fd with the crossbanding) but I can tell from reception and static that it's mainly region 1 and 2 guys left on 33.70. A good example would be 54 crystal clear but 51 not so I don't think 51 is on highband yet.

I assumed as much for 158.355 and 955's future and the future of the other highband's, although I'm curious as to whether for reception reasons Lower Merion would stay on their highband with special permission. If it's 355 and 955 on every tower in the county I'd think that the 158 range would be good enough for them too and they'd also be on the "west highband".

Can you or anyone else reading this confirm if Pottstown is actually on 33.70 or on 158.355, theyre reception seems to come and go, also if Lower Merion is actually on 33.840 still, 151.340 or some kind of mixture?

I'm sure eventually even 46.040 will get retired for EMS. It'll be interesting to hear them dispatched with fire like Chester County does but if were all going to the same call it makes sense. I remember when the county first put out the proposal to paging and wanted feedback I replied and said since every terminal now can do pd/fire/ems if needed (supposedly) they should have a west fire, east fire, countywide ems, countywide fire police (this will make some people mad and a lot of others happy) it's all highband so if needed just simulcast the call. I also had a very interesting talk with a buddy today about repeaters for the 800 system. If the county is that worried about people doing it themselves and screwing with the system just like chester county did for their 800 system, take some of the "going away" frequencies, put them on every tower, link them, make them sound good and have county setup/run 800 repeaters that are also highband and that I'd be more than happy to put in ch 2 of my pager along with dispatch.

Happy Scanning

 

[MEDIC313]

If Lower Merion is actually on 33.840 still, 151.340 or some kind of mixture?

Lower Merion runs dispatch on 151.34 only.

 

[POCSAG1200]

The county dispatches Lower Merion on 33.84, Then lower Merion has it patched over to 154.340.