North Jersey PD and FD Frequencies From 50 Years ago

[CM1]

A few weeks back I had thought about posting something simiar to what you have here - the fond memories (ecspecially for those who know NJ) I got started about 45 years ago with a Bearcat IV (gift).

The first thing you mentioned was 155.610, that was a busy frequency down here in central NJ too, it had South River PD, Spotswood PD, Helmetta PD, Jamesburg PD and Monroe PD on it. On some nights I remember hearing stuff from the north (I guess I now know who it was) and Long Branch PD from the south. All with the little stock antenna.

Being only about 2 miles away from the NJ Turnpike I had there "Operations" channel and NJSP "green" (main) channel. I can remember listening to there c/c frequency (I want to say it was the "amber" channel) conducting radar traps.

Of course I had 155.220 for the Middlesex County hospitals and remember hearing the DTMF's going over the air to alert whatever hospital the squads were trying to call.

Then there was 33.82 - the county fire dispatch channel (still used, but not as much today). It seemed to carry traffic successfully for every fire department in the county without a hitch, until departments slowly migrated to their own channels and systems etc..

Now everything is all over the place; and somehow that's progress? LOL

 

[902]

902, thanks for sharing your memories. Back then we lived in Saddle River and my brother was a member of the Saddle River Valley Rescue so in addition to my old Regency crystal scanners and eventually my Bearcat 210 we had a Plectron receiver connected to a CB ground plane on monitor most of the time so we would hear all of the 33.86 FD transmissions from NW, Central and East Bergen. We also regularly would receiver Pike County, PA and Chester County PA, in addition to occasional skip as you described. I recall one occasion when California skip was occurring plugging in some of the California Highway Patrol frequencies on my 210 and receiving transmissions from a CHP motorcycle in the Sacramento area. With online scanners these days it seems like no big deal but back then I was totally amazed.

You should still be amazed! With all this technology that's coming out, and all of it being heavily network-dependent, our past generations were just as "civilized" (for the lack of a more complete word) as we are today. Maybe more so, given the technology framework they functioned in. Low band did the job, and if it weren't for the manufacturers intentionally removing product and marketing higher frequency bands, it would STILL do the job with much less infrastructure.

 

[902]

462.950 was a common EMS frequency in the tristate area. There's probably 4 or 5 volly EMS squads in NYC alone that use that frequency at low power with different PL/DPL not to mention Empress EMS in westchester that's running at pretty decent power.

I remember back when I worked for NYCEMS around 1984, a co-worker brought his BRAVO MX in. I looked at the back and was surprised they were operating on MED 9. The MED channels were taboo in NJ at the time because we used them as active online medical control. MED 9 and 10 were intended to be active coordination, except for one thing - the semi-duplex bases that the MIC communications centers had could only receive mobiles and portables, not other base stations, at least without a control station. Most of them were hard-wired and did not work as a repeater without enabling a console repeat function "mixer" (as in "mixer off message, K").

 

[ansky]

Does anyone happen to know the history of the West Orange radio system? I can see from that article that they were on low-band and now they are using an 800 MHz EDACS system which has been around for a long time. I was wondering what they used in between since they don't have any conventional channels licensed.

 

[Markscan]

West Orange police were using 155.415 for years. I think Engelwood also used that frequency if I recall correctly. The FD was low band . WO had lots of problems with VHF back in the day, due to the mountains and valleys. I started scanning in 1983, seems like a life time ago.

I’m surprised their still using EDACS. I thought they might join NJICS.


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[de784]

West Orange police were using 155.415 for years. I think Engelwood also used that frequency if I recall correctly. The FD was low band . WO had lots of problems with VHF back in the day, due to the mountains and valleys. I started scanning in 1983, seems like a life time ago.

I’m surprised their still using EDACS. I thought they might join NJICS.


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West Orange went to there current system in the early 90's

 

[mshumeyk]

A few weeks back I had thought about posting something simiar to what you have here - the fond memories (ecspecially for those who know NJ) I got started about 45 years ago with a Bearcat IV (gift).

The first thing you mentioned was 155.610, that was a busy frequency down here in central NJ too, it had South River PD, Spotswood PD, Helmetta PD, Jamesburg PD and Monroe PD on it. On some nights I remember hearing stuff from the north (I guess I now know who it was) and Long Branch PD from the south. All with the little stock antenna.

Being only about 2 miles away from the NJ Turnpike I had there "Operations" channel and NJSP "green" (main) channel. I can remember listening to there c/c frequency (I want to say it was the "amber" channel) conducting radar traps.

Of course I had 155.220 for the Middlesex County hospitals and remember hearing the DTMF's going over the air to alert whatever hospital the squads were trying to call.

Then there was 33.82 - the county fire dispatch channel (still used, but not as much today). It seemed to carry traffic successfully for every fire department in the county without a hitch, until departments slowly migrated to their own channels and systems etc..

Now everything is all over the place; and somehow that's progress? LOL

For most of the first half of my life I lived within a few miles of the Parkway and traveled it frequently, so I monitored the Parkway 154.905 channel often. Back in the 70's long before The Weather Channel and smartphone weather radar all NJSP Parkway comms from Cape May to Montvale could be heard on 154.905 so we tracked approaching Nor'easter snowstorms by listening to the troopers constantly reporting what milepost the snow had reached and how hard it was snowing. It was a pretty accurate way of predicting what time the snow would start in our area.

The Parkway NJSP troop cars had two high band radios before the change to 800mhz maintenance/road service conventional analog system. One was always on the 154.905 main frequency. The second radio was left on 154.95, which was purely car to car, simplex, and not monitored at the station. The conversations on car-to-car were at the very least "interesting". It was basically like you were in a cop bar listening to the troopers talk about their social lives, their political philosophies, the qualities of the drivers they had stopped and knucklehead driving mishaps they encountered. They seemed to have no idea that their conversations could be heard. The second radio used for car to car also contained the 154.68 mhz frequency which back then was NJSP Channel 10, which allowed high band Parkway and Turnpike units to speak to Troop A B and C stations. It was also used for backup Parkway communications when the main 154.905 repeater went down. 154.95 became "Channel 3" car to car in their main radio once they removed the second high band radios and installed the 800mhz Parkway radios in the early 80's (not to be confused with the current NJSP Trunked radios.)

 

[Archie]

MSHUMEYK

Thanks a million for posting this magazine link!! Have been very anxious to see old frequencies for Westchester County, NY. Interesting to note that Yonkers PD in 1969 had both a VHF low and one UHF frequency. Did not check yet, but do any other the 1970's issues have police and fire frequencies listed??? Again many thanks !!

 

[Archie]

Are there any other sources for early 70's NYC area PD frequencies please? FCC site only goes back to 1978.
FYI: White's Radio Logs author Charles Dewitt White published out of Bronxville, NY.

 

[railtrailbiker]

Does anyone remember POLICE CALL? I think those data sheets were published by Gene Hughes out of California. I have some from the 1960's and 1970's.

 

[Archie]

Does anyone remember POLICE CALL? I think those data sheets were published by Gene Hughes out of California. I have some from the 1960's and 1970's.

D

 

[Archie]

Do you have any NY editions of Police Call ???

 

[Tech792]

For a few bucks on Ebay, I picked up a 1972 Police Call from 1972 that covers NJ, PA, DE & MD. Pretty interesting to say the least. Lots of low band in use back then.

 

[ansky]

Does anyone remember POLICE CALL? I think those data sheets were published by Gene Hughes out of California. I have some from the 1960's and 1970's.

Yup. I used to love going to Radio Shack to thumb through the new edition each year. I was too cheap to spend 10 bucks to actually buy a copy LOL.

 

[railtrailbiker]

Do you have any NY editions of Police Call ???

Yes. I think I do. What are you looking for in particular?

 

[Archie]

If you have Police Call from the early-mid 70's, was interested in the frequencies for Yonkers, NY PD please. Many Thanks !!

 

[Bob1955]

Love that listing, I used to listen to a lot of different agencies using a AM/FM multiband tunable, and a Lafayete tunable. 155.370 became Westchester County's mutual aid channel in 1975 when Mt Vernon went UHF like White Plains, and GSP had in the mid to late 70's an alternating simulcast system similar to NY Thruway. 2 channels that alternated every 10 miles or so and were simulcasted. The only problem along the GCP was with temperature inversion weather they would interfere with themselves. Same happened with NY Thruway, and that's one of the reasons why they went UHF.

radioman, yes the New York State Thruway Authority uses 453.425/453.525 alternating.(Old frequency was 154.650 way back-interfering with Rhode Island too) Do the radios in the NYSP cars have scanning heads?
I'm surprised that New York State Police TMC(Troop K) doesn't use repeaters. You have base to car on 155.505, car to base on 154.920 and then NYSP Statewide car to car is 154.665. I remember way back in this area they used 155.520 for car to base. That frequency was also used by Sandwich Police on Cape Cod and Barnstable County Sheriff too. I used to get them in the Summer from New Rochelle, NY as the signal would go down the Long Island Sound and I had a Electra Bearcat BC-300 too.

 

[railtrailbiker]

Have not yet found my old POLICE CALL books, but did find my old "Communications Research Bureau" sheets from 1968 and onward.

As per CRB in 1968, Yonkers NY PD was listed as:

KEB442 on 45.50 MHz

A later undated sheet shows them as:

KJR433-4 on 453.275 and 453.925 MHz

An even later undated sheet shows PD as:

KJR433-4

Channel A: 453.475, 458.475, 156.015
Channel B: 453.275, 458.275, 155.805
Channel C: 453.925, 458.925, 155.055

An even later undated sheet shows PD as:

KJR433-4

Channel A: 453.475, 458.475, 156.015
Channel B: 453.275, 458.275, 155.805
Channel C: 453.925, 458.925, 155.955

 

[Archie]

railtrailbiker,

Thanks you so much for the quick, informative reply and info !!! appreciate it !!

 

[radioman2001]

I have to look I do have a Police Call from I think 1976. Yonkers at that time were on a mobile portable split VHF transmit and UHF receive. What's listed above seems about right, when Yonkers went all UHF in the 80's those VHF were re-purposed to Anti-crime or Street-crime. They were still using HT-220's then.

Quote"
Do the radios in the NYSP cars have scanning heads?

If you are talking about Thruway they had a SP radio from GE which was a 40 watt Mastr II with a 2 frequency switch marked NY/Syracuse and Albany/Buffalo which changed the PL code. The PL codes were different between the 2 zones (110.9 and 97.4), then the radio scanned between the 2 UHF frequencies looking for the best RF signal. The control head also had an additional squelch pot located in it that would be set for 20db quieting squelch opening. So basically it scanned for the best signal.
I bought about 20 of those SP radios in the late 80's when Thruway changed them out for Maxtracs