I wonder why the new FMARS 1 and FMARS 2 under MD Common/shared frequencies ? Does anyone have any ideas??
Stumbled on a later thread....not sure if it clears anything up, but obviously it went down before NIFOG 1.6.1A came out...not sure if either settles any of this:
Looks like that thread was from 2014. Not sure it's relevant.
I think I've renamed just about every label downloaded from the RRDB.Figured as much. I'm so used to RR ignoring reasonable requests and having to work around them that it doesn't even faze me anymore. So I add all of the VFIRE frequencies to my scan list(s) when I program my old school scanner and relabel them manually in the programming software if I feel the need. Already have to re-edit the TG labels when I reprogram a scanner from the RRDB so I can expand Baltimore City and Baltimore County labels to something I can read at a glance with no wasted characters, what's another ten minutes work...? And now, stuck at the home office, I can use SDRTrunk, where the aliases can be as wide as one's little heart desires, so a lot less of an issue...
These have been around for 30+ years. FMARS-1 = 154.2950mhz FMARS-2 = 154.2800mhz and FMARS-3 = 154.2650. These are mainly used in the mid-Atlantic region for Fire Mutual Aid. Montgomery County DFRS used to perform daily radio checks on all 3 at 0730hrs daily. Not sure if they still do. FMARS-2 is the frequency with the most use--last ~20 years, it has only been county to county (base station to base station), however back in the 80's fire unit's used to have radios with these programmed in and use them to communicate response to other county's dispatchers. AA county units used to use them to communicate with a dispatcher on mutual aid responses to Baltimore and Howard Counties. Now that trunked systems are the norm, you no longer hear mobile unit's on these frequencies due to interoperability with the trunking systems. Their "mutual" use between counties is usually based on an agreement on communications. For example, DC to Montgomery County and FFX Co to Montgomery don't use them, but rather use the PSTN. Montgomery uses them for the other surrounding jurisdictions, though.
No idea why an admin changed them in the database without the confirmation of their actual use. I don't see 154.2800 being used as a TAC frequency at all in MD, Eastern PH of WV, South Central PA...it's base to base and used for calling only. AFAIK, and I could be wrong, their use has not changed. Comments/Confirmations?
Further, I disagree with the database submission that was processed. The submitter quoted https://doit.maryland.gov/marylandfirst/Documents/Statewide Communications Interoperability Plan 2015.pdf as the source of information, however it is dated 2015. There seems to be no actual official use of this FMARS plan (someone please correct me if I am wrong). The plan on the PDF is only for DC COG, not the rest of MD that is NOT part of the COG in DC. I don't believe the information to be accurate as of this time.
Please comment.