New Middlesex County EMS Frequency?

[mredding]

I was recently notified from a pseudo-reliable source of a new Middlesex County EMS channel that is supposed to be established for coordination during MCI's, special events, etc. Has anyone else heard anything? Isn't that what JEMS is for, or am I missing something? What gives?

In any event, this frequency will allegedly be programmed into EBRS's new radios as well to avoid having to do it later. I'll let you know what comes up.

 

[mredding]

This is what's programmed in. No guarantees.

RX: 151.340 @ 103.5 Hz
TX: 151.160 @ 103.5 Hz

 

[mredding]

Here's what's come through the grapevine. Shown are my guesses at callsigns and IDs and such. Notice the pending amendment for KKQ927 to change the purpose to "COORD DAILY EMS WORK OPS" from "PROVIDE RADIO COMMUNICATIONS ESSENTIAL TO THE FORESTRY-CONSERVATION ACTIVITIES OF THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX." and such. I couldn't find a license for the Channel 11 repeater pair anywhere.

Notes			Channel	RX Freq		TX/RX PL
Middlesex Cnty JEMS 1	1	155.2200	103.5
Middlesex Cnty JEMS 2	2	155.3400	103.5
Middlesex Cnty JEMS 3	3	155.2800	103.5
JEMS 4			4	153.7850	CSQ
KKQ927 VMARS Repeater	5	151.1600	103.5
NJ Attorney Gen WQAU448	6	155.7525	156.7
NJ Attorney Gen WQAU448	7	151.1375	156.7
NJ Attorney Gen WQAU448	8	154.4525	156.7
NJ Attorney Gen WQAU448	9	158.7375	156.7
NJ Attorney Gen WQAU448	10	159.4725	156.7
Unknown Repeater	11	155.1000	107.3
JEMS 3			12	155.2800	CSQ

EDIT: The only valid license in state that had both 155.100 and 158.865 listed that I found is KNFL662 registered to Essex County. Anyone have any clue about Channel 11?

 

[apu]

Notes            Channel    RX Freq        TX/RX PL
Middlesex Cnty JEMS 1    1    155.2200    103.5
Middlesex Cnty JEMS 2    2    155.3400    103.5
Middlesex Cnty JEMS 3    3    155.2800    103.5
JEMS 4            4    153.7850    CSQ
KKQ927 VMARS Repeater    5    151.1600    103.5
NJ Attorney Gen WQAU448    6    155.7525    156.7
NJ Attorney Gen WQAU448    7    151.1375    156.7
NJ Attorney Gen WQAU448    8    154.4525    156.7
NJ Attorney Gen WQAU448    9    158.7375    156.7
NJ Attorney Gen WQAU448    10    159.4725    156.7
Unknown Repeater    11    155.1000    107.3
JEMS 3            12    155.2800    CSQ

Personal Quibble... JEMS 2, JEMS 3 and JEMS 4 are statewide. JEMS 2 is actually a nationwide hospital-ambulance channel; we use the "JEMS 2" name in NJ to denote its place in our statewide EMS plan but nationwide it is the HEAR ("Hospital Emergency Ambulance Radio") channel/system.

Only JEMS 1 changes on a per county basis. Also, JEMS 2-4 are supposed to be CSQ per the NJ EMS Communications Plan, though 131.8 Hz is commonly used with JEMS 4 (a.k.a. SPEN4). See http://www.state.nj.us/health/ems/jems.pdf for more info.

That's not to say people won't label and/or program the radios differently; just makes it harder to find common channels to use to communicate with each other.

Adding a CTCSS tone to JEMS 3 and calling it Middlesex County JEMS3 (ch. 3 above) as opposed to the statewide JEMS 3 (ch. 12) just makes it easier to interfere with someone else on the channel. You wouldn't hear someone in Union or Somerset county on JEMS 3 without the PL and could think the channel is available for your use so you start transmitting and then neither message gets through.

Or you get called to a disaster in Ohio and your crew doesn't realize they can talk to a hospital there using "Middlesex County" JEMS2 if you know the correct DTMF sequence.

Ch. 6-10 are VCALL and VTAC1-4, in that order, and are nationwide public safety interoperability channels. While the NJ Attorney General's office has licensed base stations on those channels, any eligible public safety agency is permitted mobile and/or portable radios on these channels. Again, better to use a more universal name for these channels as opposed to "NJ Attorney Gen WQAU448" or "channel 8" since when you respond out of area, or someone from out of area comes to help your agency, they won't know what channel you are talking about using.

EDIT: The only valid license in state that had both 155.100 and 158.865 listed that I found is KNFL662 registered to Essex County. Anyone have any clue about Channel 11?

Essex County OEM's repeater -- EMS in Newark has this as channel six last I looked.

 

[Joseph11]

PL tone for REMCS 6 (Channel 11) is 107.2 Hz, not 107.3 Hz.

EDIT: mredding: Is that channel layout you have from Middlesex County or EBRS?

 

[elk2370bruce]

Robert Wood Johnson Hospital is the host of a new medical coordination center for central jersey under Human Services/DHS grant. Sounds like this may be one of the new interoperability moves for this new, regional, initiative. Good place to start is to call Lou Sasso at RWJ med Central. Lou is probably at the heart of the initiative. As to quibbles above, they are just that. Every agency has labels that are used for convenience and EMS people do know their proper and intended use. Hey, we only want outsiders and rookies to think that we're dumb. As far as JEMS/SPEN four, it has deteriorated to a "rag-chew" channel and is becoming widely known as the State Police Entertainment Network and has lost its intended purpose.

 

[apu]

Every agency has labels that are used for convenience and EMS people do know their proper and intended use.

I'm Captain of our squad and not only deal with our radios (among other stuff) but with other local agencies. I wish I knew how to educate our users of the proper and intended use -- their eyes just glaze over if I try explain just the four JEMS channels let alone VCALL/VTAC/UCALL/UTAC even in the most generic sense. They just know to switch to whatever channel they are told to use by the IC or EMS Branch Director.

If your agency calls it NJ Attorney Gen WQAU448 or channel 8 and mine calls it VTAC 2, you and I might be able to figure out we can talk to each other but I wouldn't trust half of our respective EMTs or medics to figure it out themselves.

As far as the State Police Entertainment Network, I was at a presentation by the Attorney General's office just a couple months ago about interoperable communications in NJ and they said they were pursuing legistlation that would criminalize (in NJ law) the abuses we've seen in the past as opposed to the current situation where all you can really do is complain to the FCC about a license violation.

 

[elk2370bruce]

As part of the ICS initial briefing, radio channelization is supposed to be included (IC Form 205). In our drills and exercises, we hand out to the crews which channels will be used and for what purpose. This little SOP (Excel) chart then gets taped to the console of each participating rig. As to what we each call the "channel" it makes no difference since our own dispatcher (and/or leadership) is gonna say, "Hey guys, Go To Channel on your console and meet ______Squad. All that counts is that the units meet on the right frequency as sent by their own town's dispatch. I always use the KISS system to reduce the number of worker bee variables.

 

[apu]

I'm happy when our dispatchers remember who to call for mutual aid let alone figuring out what radio channels should be used.

 

[mredding]

I got text tags (finally). The reason I labelled them as "Middlesex County" was because of the PL, as this varies from county to county, as does the frequency for JEMS 1. Don't look at me, I wasn't involved in how they are programmed. What's in parentheses is my notes.

Notes				Channel	RX Freq		RX PL
(Middlesex County) JEMS 1	1	155.2200	103.5
(Middlesex County) JEMS 2	2	155.3400	103.5
(Middlesex County) JEMS 3	3	155.2800	103.5
JEMS 4 (Carrier Squelch)	4	153.7850	CSQ
VMARS Repeater (KKQ927)		5	151.1600	103.5
VCALL (NJ Attorney Gen WQAU448)	6	155.7525	156.7
VTAC1 (NJ Attorney Gen WQAU448)	7	151.1375	156.7
VTAC2 (NJ Attorney Gen WQAU448)	8	154.4525	156.7
VTAC3 (NJ Attorney Gen WQAU448)	9	158.7375	156.7
VTAC4 (NJ Attorney Gen WQAU448)	10	159.4725	156.7
REMCS-6	(Repeater)		11	155.1000	107.2
JEMS 3 (Carrier Squelch)	12	155.2800	CSQ

Note: The PL has been updated for Ch. 11. Apparently OEM had the radios programmed incorrectly. The information above reflects the latest information from OEM. I think. No guarantees.

EDIT: Yes, this is Lou Sasso's baby. Apparently they got a lot of money and didn't know what to do with it. This is why ambulances in the county are supposed to be retro-fitted with cutoff switches (you know, the ones that let you take the key out and let the truck run, but it dies if you tap the brake without the key in) in the near future as well. They are supposed to be moving OEM activities to MedCentral, since it is technically staffed 24/7 whereas the Fire Academy in Sayreville is not.

 

[elk2370bruce]

Thanks Matt for the update. With anything EMS, I always call Lou Saso - the Wizard of Med Central.

 

[mredding]

The VMARS Repeater (finally) went live recently. I don't know of any instances where it has been used yet.

 

[wa2zdy]

RX: 151.340 @ 103.5 Hz
TX: 151.160 @ 103.5 Hz

This used to be the Middlesex County Park Police repeater. How's THAT for a 20+ year old memory?

 

[mredding]

That's impressive.

I guess that explains "Notice the pending amendment for KKQ927 to change the purpose to 'COORD DAILY EMS WORK OPS' from 'PROVIDE RADIO COMMUNICATIONS ESSENTIAL TO THE FORESTRY-CONSERVATION ACTIVITIES OF THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX.' "

RX: 151.340 @ 103.5 Hz
TX: 151.160 @ 103.5 Hz

This used to be the Middlesex County Park Police repeater. How's THAT for a 20+ year old memory?

 

[robbinsj2]

Sounds like they're getting interference from NYPD Transit Bureau, Div 1/Manhattan South
(NYPD Tx=151.340/103.5, Rx=160.905/103.5 per this database).

Jim

 

[Joseph11]

EDIT: Read post wrong, sorry.

 

[mredding]

County VMARS New Squelch Tone

County OEM is supposed to change the tone on the VMARS Repeater (if they haven't already) from 103.5 Hz CTCSS to 051 DCS due to the interference from NYPD.