MSP Aviation Tone-out

[doctordave]

Just a short bit ago, I heard Syscom (on 44.74) key alert tones and then dispatch Trooper 3 for a medevac in Mt. Airy. No further immediate chatter, so I assume this was a tone out for the hanger and not just a redirection of the bird already in the air. Curious. I don't believe I've ever heard this done before. To my knowledge, aviation sections have always been alerted via landline calls or the digital pagers worn by the crew. It certainly makes sense to be able to tone out the hangers, in the event that commercial lines/towers are not functioning.

 

[ocguard]

Were they paging tones (quick call, plectron) or tones for keying remote base stations?

I have also never known MSP helicopters to be dispatched by paging, and I was never quite sure why they chose not to utilize this type of system. I don't remember seeing any sort of tone-out equipment at the helicopter dispatch desk inside SYSCOM.

 

[Dispatcher308]

It sounds as if they are using the trauma tone for alerting(which for us firefighters it is the warble tone we hear before we get a firebox). I have only heard them do it twice so far.

 

[doctordave]

It sounds as if they are using the trauma tone for alerting(which for us firefighters it is the warble tone we hear before we get a firebox). I have only heard them do it twice so far.

Precisely. When I first heard the tones & noted the frequency, I simply thought that I was getting bleed over from 46.46. The nature of the "alert" tones sounded very similar to BCoFD.