New Talkgroups on DC Fire/EMS System

[dtscho]

Yesterday I heard talkgroup 36880 in use. Whoever was using it was running some sort of operation at Eastern Market. It may be another channel for the Department of Health, as I thought I heard something about "DOH Command." Anyone got anything on this TG?

(By the way, 35536 was also in use at Eastern Market for the Emergency Management Agency.)

Another new talkgroup I've noticed on a couple visits to DC is 34352. This is in use for some sort of prison/jail/detention facility. One user talked about "visitation." This TG falls in the range of St. Elizabeth's--maybe it's a new one for them...?

Dave

 

[dtscho]

Forgot one I heard on May 1: 34960. This was the day of the special election in DC, and someone on this talkgroup mentioned a "problem with election workers."

Dave

 

[Dewey]

Either these are on the FD's 800 system, or they are in some non-PD radios as none of the 4 talkgroups mentioned are in DC PD's current standard configuration.

 

[dtscho]

Correct, they are on the FD's 800 MHz system. They're in the range of the "City Services" talkgroups. DC seems to be rapidly increasing the number of talkgroups for various city agencies.

Dave

 

[Jonesym20]

confused

I'm a little confused, doesn't the PD and FD in D.C. both use the same TG's, thats what it looks like in the database. Can I delete some TG's in either system in my scanner? (ie. delete Police TG's in the 850 FD system?)

thanks

 

[dtscho]

Both the MPD and DC Fire draw from the same "pool" of talkgroups. For the most part, you'll see police talkgroups on the 460 MHz system, and fire talkgroups on the 850 MHz system. Sometimes you'll see a talkgroup on the other's system. But if you definitely want to hear all police transmissions, make sure you're monitoring the 460 MHz system. And if you definitely want to hear all fire traffic, make sure you're monitoring the 850 MHz system. You can't program one of the systems and expect to hear all the police and fire traffic.

Hope this doesn't make things more complicated...

Dave

 

[Jonesym20]

so pretty much, just leave each system with all the talk groups to keep everything covered, right?

 

[Dewey]

so pretty much, just leave each system with all the talk groups to keep everything covered, right?

Jonesym20, I'm glad you're up and running ok now! From those times that I've watched the two different 603d systems on Trunker or UniTrunker, I've never seen any FD talkgroups on PD's 460 system, and only 1 PD talkgroup on FD's 850 system. Not saying that it doesn't happen, I just haven't seen it in the one or two times that I watch every couple months to see if anything has sneaked in. I will say that if they did do, it would make the already busy PD system a lot busier. When PD first migrated to the trunked system, they started with the same 13 freqs that they were using on the conventional system (and in reality, that only 12 when you consider the control channel). Since then they've added a couple more freqs, but the system is still very busy during the "active" hours.

Dewey