I'm still trying to get some information for you all since I worked at C-MED New Haven. I know on MEDs 1 to 8 they were using a control station back up set up in conjunction to the phone lines to each site. Also only certain towers have repeaters for certain MED channels (i.e. Med 8 tower in West Haven is repeated by but the MED 8 tower in Milford is not). This is done for obvious reasons. The last I know they were not using the narrow bands at all after I left full time (the second time) so it could be bleed over or over powering the front end of receivers, however I am uncertain if they started using them but I don't think they did. I haven't been gone for too long but at the same time I haven't been listening.
For those who don't know the tower set up, it is laid out like this: (R= repeater)
NEW HAVEN - West Rock - MED 10 (R), MED 4 (R), MED 7 (7)
NEW HAVEN - East Rock - MED 6 (R)
VALLEY - MED 10, MED 1 (R), MED 6
SHORE - MED 10, MED 2 (R), MED 5
MERIDEN - MED 10, MED 3(R), MED 14 (not active but was the dispatch for quite awhile before MED 10 was once again used at the "north’s" primary)
COOK HILL - MED 5
WEST HAVEN - MED 8 (R)
ELLS HILL - MED 8
All the repeaters can be left on or "dropped" from the consoles, just like FDNY does.
New Haven did not use MED 9, MED 11, MED 12 & MED 13 for medical traffic but were later re-assigned for special use with the interops. MED 9 wasn't used because of Valley Shore and South West and MED 14 was originally used because North West would stop all over the Meriden and Wallingford unit and those coming in from Cheshire, Southington, ect.
As for patching to the hospital, we have a matrix system, which is still in use and utilizes phone lines. You would "program" the computer to hook up the MED channel radio to the hospital circuit and then hook in the patch intercom from C-MED to the Hospital. When C-MED tones out to the hospital, you do not hear it transmit over the radio, it goes direct tot he hospital, kind of like station paging. However sometimes we used to forget (and still sometimes do) to switch over the radio selector from the MED radio tower and when we drop the tone you will then it over the radio obviously. We can "drop" the repeaters in case the information is sensitive and should not be re-transmitted over the air. Obviously if you had the other side.................well you know what I mean then. With this matrix we have the ability to hook up any hospital to any MED channel. Example would be for some one in Madison who wanted to go to Griffin in Derby; well we would hook up Griffin's hospital radio to the MED 2 tower on the Shoreline, hook the patch line in and wahlah! Instant communication between the two sites that are 30 miles apart, crystal clear to the rig on scene.
I will try again to ask my former co-workers / friends if they are using the new channels.
