North County Fire & Medical (Sun City West) Freq

[jheitman]

I have looked everywhere and can't find the frequencies for the Sun City West Fire Department (now the North County Fire & Medical Department).
Can anyone help me?
If I had the primary dispatch frequency perhaps I could "Discover" the site details.

I eventually found the Community Posse frequencies in the RR data base in my Sentinel software, but no joy on the Fire Department

 

[Phoenix805]

North County is part of the greater Phoenix area system and is dispatched by Phoenix Fire on their Analog channel 1 - 154.190. I imagine like most valley fire departments they probably have encrypted talk groups for admin use. You should be able to hear routine traffic on the RWC system for medical calls or on the analog channels for fire calls. Unfortunately there's no easy way to differentiate their calls, you pretty much have to listen to everything and hope you catch something in their area.

MIB can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think most of the radio traffic in that area is generally on A10 & K10.

 

[WIS262]

North County is part of the greater Phoenix area system and is dispatched by Phoenix Fire on their Analog channel 1 - 154.190. I imagine like most valley fire departments they probably have encrypted talk groups for admin use. You should be able to hear routine traffic on the RWC system for medical calls or on the analog channels for fire calls. Unfortunately there's no easy way to differentiate their calls, you pretty much have to listen to everything and hope you catch something in their area.

MIB can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think most of the radio traffic in that area is generally on A10 & K10.

A6 for hazards, K6 non-hazards, and more than likely K10 for clear channel.

 

[jheitman]

North County Frequencies

Thanks guys, I'll start poking around using your suggestions, see what I can set up.

Jim

 

[KB7MIB]

Correct, the North County Fire and EMS District uses A-6 as the primary channel for fire and haz-mat incidents south of the CAP canal, with A-10 being the primary north of it.
K-6 is the primary talkgroup for typical EMS calls, and K-10 through K-15 would be assigned for multi-victim incidents such as car accidents with multiple patients, or for mountain rescues that they may assist with.
TG's 1812 (K-2), 1811 (K-3), 1810 (K-4 encrypted), and 1809 (K-5 encrypted) may be in use by North County as well for various administrative needs.
Apparatus numbering runs from 101-109. Currently, there are four stations, three within Sun City West itself, and one outside the walls.
I haven't seen anything recently, but several months ago, there was talk of merging North County and Wittmann into one district. I don't know the current status of those talks.

The Sun City West Sheriffs Posse uses talkgroups 62000, 62032 and 62064 on the Maricopa County trunked system. Use the White Tanks Mtn tower site. (860.5375 is the Sun City posse.) Sworn and Reserve deputies use the four West talkgroups. 344 is the primary deputy in the SCW area, and 340 is their sergeant. Also, add in the frequencies for VTAC 11 and VTAC 12. Deputies frequently use these for informal car-to-car chit-chat. I regularly hear Sun City area deputies and the sergeant on them, and I have heard deputies in the Wittmann area also using them.

John
Peoria

 

[jheitman]

Thanks,
I'm not getting the North County Fire. My software has the TGID for dispatch as 1795, correct?
I've been scanning the White Tank Regional Park Frequencies along with Simulcast G:West Valley.
Getting nothing. What Tower Sites should I be using?

The Posse uses the TGIDs you listed and I'm receiving dispatch on the White Tank frequencies, although none are 860.5375. White tank frequencies I have are in the 851 band and the 853 band

 

[Phoenix805]

Yes, 1795 is correct. I can't speak for everyone on here, but for me I get 1795 (fire dispatch) on Simulcast B & G, and I've never heard them on White Tanks. I would suggest listening to dispatches on analog 154.190 unless that's not an option for you. That freq should be heard easily all over the valley.

As it's been discussed before, low power, low antenna heights (similar to a cell system), and multi-path issues from different tower sites all make for frustrating listening. Good luck!

 

[KB7MIB]

The Sun City Posse uses a conventional, analog NFM repeater on 860.5375. It is not a part of the Maricopa County trunked system.

The RWC trunked system can be difficult to monitor due to multi-path interference issues. Some hobbyists have had better luck with Uniden scanners than the GRE/Whistler scanners in dealing with this issue. Otherwise, you may have to invest in a 700MHz directional antenna for your base station, and play around with which direction to point it in for best reception. Pointing it at the closest simulcast transmitter site isn't always the best direction to point it in.
That of course doesn't help much with portable or mobile monitoring.
And you won't hear the FD on the White Tanks IR site, except for K-2. You will occasionally hear K-6 on the Towers Mtn IR site. I'm not sure how well you'll get Simulcast B in SCW, but Simulcast G will cover the community.
Otherwise, just listen to the analog VHF frequencies. 154.190 is dispatch A-1. 154.310 is A-6 and 151.370 is A-10.

John
Peoria

 

[jheitman]

Your suggestions are working

I'm getting SCW FD on the RWC off the "Towers Mountain High" site.
I'm also getting just SCW FD on the Analog, Conventional, NFM frequencies
I'm getting just the SCW Posse on the Maricopa County system from White Tanks.

I will try the SCW FD on Simulcast G

I will try SCW Posse on the conventional repeater on 860.5375

Finally I need to try the Maricopa County Sheriff, West to complete local coverage.

I'm thinking of putting up a 20ft Discone in the back of my house.
Will not stick over the roof.
Will this be an improvement?
So far I'm just using the extendable whip which came with my BCD536HP.

Thanks

 

[KB7MIB]

The Sun City West Posse does not use the 860.5375 conventional repeater. The Sun City Posse is the sole user of that repeater.

Due to the regional automatic aid system in place, you'll hear the Phoenix Regional Dispatch Center communicating with every department and district in the system, and you cannot isolate any particular department or district. You will hear the dispatchers communicating with units from Phoenix, Glendale, Peoria, Sun City, El Mirage, Surprise, North County and all the rest. I have heard Peoria and Surprise units in the Towers Mtn IR site, because one or more radios from North County, Surprise and/or Peoria affiliated with that site on K-6.

Putting up a discone should extend your reception distance of mobile and portable radios on the VHF channels, but it probably won't help with reception of Simulcast G.

And BTW, if you look at my update on the North County/Wittmann consolidation thread, the two districts have consolidated, and North County now has five active stations, with 3 inside SCW (101-103), 2 outside (104 & 106), and 1 future planned (105) station. There is a map on the North County website.

John
Peoria

 

[jheitman]

MCSO

I have tried to set up the MCSO for the West Side, but I'm getting very little traffic.
I'm using Dispatch, TGID 43120, on sites Central Court, Smith Peak, White Tanks, and Yarnell Hill.

When I listen to Broadcastify for Maricopa East and West, No traffic is common.


On Antennas, I would like to hear more traffic with the dispatched units, fire, police etc. Most everything in this area seems to be in the 770 to 850 MHz range. I'm not sure if an elevated discone or elevated Yagi is best. I can't have a separate yagi for each site. I can imagine a discone on top and one directional/ high gain antenna below. How do you guys solve this problem?

 

[jheitman]

I want to thank JOHN (KB7MIB) for all the information provided, I really appreciate it.

Thanks Again,

Jim