Myrtle Beach Questions

[upstatesc]

I'll be headed down to Myrtle Beach next week and have been working in Sentinel to build a favorites list for the trip. We're staying near the Apache Pier area, so going through the database I believe I have most of the high points covered but have a few questions for those in the area.

Palmetto 800:
I've included the Talkgroups for SCHP in Horry county as well as the medical helicopters

Horry County TRS

Myrtle Beach PD: I've got the main dispatch, waterfront and beach patrol channels open as well as the special ops/events. The rest are set to avoid. Are there any major ones I'm missing that might be worth hearing?

Myrtle Beach FD: I've got Fire Dispatch as well as Fire Station 5 Alert as it will be the closest one to where I am staying. Is that redundant? How often are the Fire TAC channels utilized? I have them enabled right now.

Horry County PD:
I've got all the "South" channels enabled with the rest on Avoid since that will be the area we're in.

Horry County Fire/Rescue:
This is the one I really need help with. I see all the TAC channels, and the EMS channels but there is no dispatch TG listed. Am I missing something?

Lack's Beach Service:
We'll be on the northern end "N Chairs" so I enabled that channel as well as the Admin channel. This will be the first real opportunity to try out the DMR with my SDS200.

Anyone have any other recommendations for good traffic? Also, are any of the conventional frequencies worth programming?

I tried just using the full database last year but there was way too much traffic for that. I'd rather fine tune it down this way as opposed to hearing everything since there is so much traffic in the area.

 

[brian]

I think you're on the right track with most of what you posted. It sounds similar to my approach to monitoring Horry Co.

Regarding Horry Co Fire Rescue - their dispatches are sent via alpha-numeric pagers rather than by voice on a talkgroup. There's no way to monitor/decode that paging channel with a traditional scanner. The good news is that they typically voice announce calls on the tac channel corresponding to the county region (North, Central, South). You'll want the South tac channel. For incidents that require a larger or lengthier operation that "normal", they'll assign traffic to another tac channel (4-11) so you may want to have those included.

Keep in mind that a couple of EMS units (Medic 60-something) operated by Horry County F/R are assigned to cover City of Myrtle Beach and will typically be dispatched with MB FD units for calls in the city limits.

For Palmetto 800, you might hear some SCEMD and DHEC talkgroups once during the week for roll calls if you're interested in that, but that's not especially notable or interesting. If you're planning to go anywhere south of Springmaid Beach, like to Surfside or Murrells Inlet, that's almost in Georgetown County. There's a Georgetown County simulcast site at Burgess (Surfside Beach area) which covers up into south MB area if you're interested in monitoring that area at all. Murrells Inlet Garden City FD covers ports of very southern Horry County and very northern Georgetown County on the Waccamaw neck region. Midway FD covers Pawleys Island and Litchfield Beach all the way to the Georgetown City limits.

If you're interested in any of the municipalities, like Surfside or Conway or North Myrtle Beach, consider those talkgroup groups. Surfside FD and MCGC FD still tone out on VHF channels.

There's lots of DMR usage for Hospitality and Resorts and a lot of it is listed in the database in the business section. The Myrtle Beach Wireless Connect+ DMR system is also very active with multiple sites and mostly business users (dump trucks, golf courses, transportation, etc). Ocean Lakes has a DMR system if you're in the Surfside area at all. If you have NXDN add-on on your scanner, you could also try monitoring the SC Fleettalk site at Myrtle Beach. Again, that's typical business users.

If you're into utility listening, the SC PSA system has active sites in the Myrtle Beach area.

Enjoy your stay. There is plenty to listen to in the MB area but don't let that keep you from getting out and enjoying the beach and other fun activities.

 

[upstatesc]

Thanks brian. So far everything has worked pretty well. Lots of activity over the past weekend with the CCMF going on. The only odd issue I've noticed so far is I haven't heard any medical helicopter traffic during the time I've been here. That was a frequent occurrence last year. I left those TG's active. Maybe someone local can chime in.

Also I see in the FCC listings lots of listings for Apache Campground but nothing in the database. Anyone know if they are conventional or DMR by any chance? I may try to program a group tonight and check it out if I brought a Micro USB cable. Wasn't planning on doing any manual programming lol

 

[brian]

I don't believe there are any medical helos based in Horry County anymore, but someone please correct me if that's not the case.

I know there's on in Sumter, a couple in Charleston, and maybe on up north in NC. Not sure which service is commonly called to handle scene flights in Horry these days. Maybe there's a service based in Florence?

I wouldn't think you'd hear any activity unless there's a scene flight in progress in the Horry County area. And it might be interesting to know if medical helicopters have access to the Horry County system, or if Horry County units use Palmetto 800 for LZ coordination. Perhaps someone local can chime in with details.

 

[Tobydog]

It is my understanding that Med Flights are going the same way as many local EMS systems and going dark calling medical facilities inbound. At this moment there are no helo units based in Horry. Most come out of Charleston to Grand Strand. Hospitals have Horry County system in ED.

 

[upstatesc]

Thanks guys,

Here are some comments from my original plan:

Palmetto 800:
I've included the Talkgroups for SCHP in Horry county as well as the medical helicopters

SCHP was very active as expected during my time there. I heard no traffic from the medical helicopter groups. I guess it was just a slow weekend or as you say there may not be as many as there were in the past. I remember last year hearing those communications frequently when we were there.

Horry County TRS

Myrtle Beach PD: I've got the main dispatch, waterfront and beach patrol channels open as well as the special ops/events. The rest are set to avoid. Are there any major ones I'm missing that might be worth hearing?

The Dispatch and Waterfront TGs were very active, along with the Special Ops/Events TG during the CCMF. I heard zero activity on the Beach Patrol TG the entire time I was there. Maybe it has been depreciated?

Myrtle Beach FD: I've got Fire Dispatch as well as Fire Station 5 Alert as it will be the closest one to where I am staying. Is that redundant? How often are the Fire TAC channels utilized? I have them enabled right now.

The Fire Dispatch was active, don't ever recall seeing the Station Alert TGs in use but I may have missed it.

Horry County PD:
I've got all the "South" channels enabled with the rest on Avoid since that will be the area we're in.

Very active on all the South Channels I was monitoring and they stayed busy

Horry County Fire/Rescue:
This is the one I really need help with. I see all the TAC channels, and the EMS channels but there is no dispatch TG listed. Am I missing something?

Brian's advice was perfect on this one. Boy these guys stay busy. I can't imagine having had the entire group enabled.

Lack's Beach Service:
We'll be on the northern end "N Chairs" so I enabled that channel as well as the Admin channel. This will be the first real opportunity to try out the DMR with my SDS200.

I heard some activity during the day on this system. I really wish we had some idea of what their "Signals" and "Codes" meant.

I never got a chance to check out the Apache Frequencies because I couldn't find a USB cable but they were clearly using radios. Not sure if they are conventional or Digital, but anyone who stays in the area might want to check that out? I will put it on the list for next year for certain.