North Plainfield Fire Dept

[mdsxfire]

has anyone else heard the north plainfield FD is going to be switching over full time to region 3 on the county TRS, i heard this a few weeks ago and that they are also going to use unication Gx pagers for off duty page outs?

 

[rr60]

J....usually reliable sources indicate you are correct on part 1 and incorrect on part 2. Part 2 to be paged on 470.xxxx

 

[mdsxfire]

J....usually reliable sources indicate you are correct on part 1 and incorrect on part 2. Part 2 to be paged on 470.xxxx

actually heard some testing from station 50 on region 3 today a little after I posted this

 

[richee2000]

on the subject, does anyone know why Bernards Twp (basking ridge and liberty corner FD and EMS) are still on an antiquated VHF channel, and not on Somerset County TRS?

 

[rr60]

Having to nudge my memory. I do not believe their are ANY great Somerset 500MHZ P25 simulcast sites that are in or come close to saturation of Bernards. Add terrain and some very large corporate buildings and the result is poor in building coverage. A 700 site may have been put in on tower at PD HQ but fire and ems have not been allocated due to capacity concern. So Bernards has a system with multiple receivers. A little bit of TX analog signal with a nearby remote receiver can work well. If it ain’t broke....

 

[richee2000]

Having to nudge my memory. I do not believe their are ANY great Somerset 500MHZ P25 simulcast sites that are in or come close to saturation of Bernards. Add terrain and some very large corporate buildings and the result is poor in building coverage. A 700 site may have been put in on tower at PD HQ but fire and ems have not been allocated due to capacity concern. So Bernards has a system with multiple receivers. A little bit of TX analog signal with a nearby remote receiver can work well. If it ain’t broke....

Bernards township pd has great in building coverage on the county system. Bernardsville fd and EMS is on the system, as well as bedminster. Still not sure why Bernards fd Em's cannot switch. Capacity issue?

 

[mdsxfire]

The 500 system has decent capacity, not counting during a large storm or fire where every dept is on the radio. I’m not sure if the 700 system has more sites than the 500 for better coverage but it definitely has a lot less capacity and they are running into issues trying to get additional frequencies.

 

[rr60]

Bernards township pd has great in building coverage on the county system. Bernardsville fd and EMS is on the system, as well as bedminster. Still not sure why Bernards fd Em's cannot switch. Capacity issue?

The OP of this thread was a totally different topic. The capacity and coverage was already answered in my post #5. Bernards has a P25 700 LSM tower= good coverage. In the County generally LEO 500/700 & Fire/EMS 500 ONLY. LEO as a result has more coverage. I hope the lightbulb is on. Sites are NOT always collocated.

 

[mdsxfire]

The OP of this thread was a totally different topic. The capacity and coverage was already answered in my post #5. Bernards has a P25 700 LSM tower= good coverage. In the County generally LEO 500/700 & Fire/EMS 500 ONLY. LEO as a result has more coverage. I hope the lightbulb is on. Sites are NOT always collocated.

Somerset seemed to either semi right off the municipalities in the mountains, Warren/Watchung/Bernards area for the 500 system or didnt do enough research on how the sites would cover. but i guess the mountains were not the only places not looked at as bound brooks coverage is terrible as well on both systems. The FD uses the 500 to call in service to county then switches to a conventional ops channel due to coverage gaps and the PD tested the 700 system but apparently was not sold on it.
Middlesex County is adding sites for towns that want to migrate to the county system but have coverage concerns, 2 county sites are being added to Edison to give them coverage which will also help south plainfield, and 1 additional site is being added to South Brunswick for their transition.
Somerset should try to add sites especially in the mountain areas to get more towns switched on.

 

[mdsxfire]

Write off, stupid iPhone and it’s auto correct

 

[rr60]

Somerset seemed to either semi right off the municipalities in the mountains, Warren/Watchung/Bernards area for the 500 system or didnt do enough research on how the sites would cover. but i guess the mountains were not the only places not looked at as bound brooks coverage is terrible as well on both systems. The FD uses the 500 to call in service to county then switches to a conventional ops channel due to coverage gaps and the PD tested the 700 system but apparently was not sold on it.
Middlesex County is adding sites for towns that want to migrate to the county system but have coverage concerns, 2 county sites are being added to Edison to give them coverage which will also help south plainfield, and 1 additional site is being added to South Brunswick for their transition.
Somerset should try to add sites especially in the mountain areas to get more towns switched on.

The truth lies someplace between. Residents and elected officials in at least one Somerset Hills town opposed a tower. That was that. The site by 78/287 is limited by 2 factors. Antenna elevation and terrain. Blind almost 340 through 120. That tower is leased space. I have never been impressed by Miller Lane (terrain), way up on Pillar of Fire in Martinsville would work like a charm, NJICS does. I hear persistent rumors of a new tower somewhere over by 78/287. Richee will be happy to hear this. It is not easy especially when budgets and politics are involved.

 

[mdsxfire]

The truth lies someplace between. Residents and elected officials in at least one Somerset Hills town opposed a tower. That was that. The site by 78/287 is limited by 2 factors. Antenna elevation and terrain. Blind almost 340 through 120. That tower is leased space. I have never been impressed by Miller Lane (terrain), way up on Pillar of Fire in Martinsville would work like a charm, NJICS does. I hear persistent rumors of a new tower somewhere over by 78/287. Richee will be happy to hear this. It is not easy especially when budgets and politics are involved.

I hear that, especially when these towns have a lot of money in them. I did read on the freeholders minutes that they approved a whole lot of money for a microwave link and other things so that may be for a new site

 

[richee2000]

The remaining PD's that are not on the county system: Warren, Watchung, Bernardsville, Bound Brook. Any word on the first 3 ever switching ? Saw the previous posts., assuming there are coverage issues in those towns? Also, 506.3125 Repeater is being used to broadcast Region 1 PD . is this a back up , or is it a go to due to coverage issues?

 

[npd155]

Similarly, why is only Bridgewater Fire District 3 on UHF still and not on TRS?

 

[rr60]

I can only speculate. Fire EMS are limited to 500 and not 500/700 as LEO has access to. This provides less in building coverage for some. The 500 TRS has capacity problems at times during large scale incidents. Any number of times users have been told to get off the TRS and operate on legacy systems or even TAC simplex channels. Further if you have been around for a long time the system has undergone many changes requiring several flashes or even new equipment. With the fact the Region and 500 TRS is under a “ T Band Giveback Cloud” this creates uncertainty for some. If you were to go on today the only way to move forward is to spend money on 450-512 conventional and trunked and 700/800 P25 radios and that can be a reach dollar wise. Some view all this as unworkable for them. Others feel there is no issues whatsoever.
Radio always = budgets+politics and that is not speculation.

 

[mdsxfire]

Heard a bunch more testing on region 3 Saturday from a weird uid, Maybe radio techs, seemed like they were testing from different locations, would think that would be for NPFD. i Thought PD started out on 500 before going to 700 so I would guess coverage should be good if they have been using it.

 

[mdsxfire]

County was test paging station 50 on the county uhf dispatch today and station 50 was going back and forth with county about the test pages being received at the station on region 3, this was after radio test were being done and having county tell them what unit name was showing up. Sounds like they will be switching over sooner than later.
Can’t wait as the Watchung repeater sounds horrible in most of north Plainfield.

 

[mondaro]

Hello, for North Plainfield Fire and EMS calls will be handled on Fire TG 807 or will they use a county EMS TG for EMS Calls can someone advise. and if they are using an EMS TG for EMS calls, which one, Many Thanks,

 

[rr60]

They have switched. Fire and EMS response on 500 TRS Region 3. Multicast Dispatch 460/470 for now.

 

[mdsxfire]

Hello, for North Plainfield Fire and EMS calls will be handled on Fire TG 807 or will they use a county EMS TG for EMS Calls can someone advise. and if they are using an EMS TG for EMS calls, which one, Many Thanks,

EMS is using fire region 3 for their calls, I have not seen them use any of the county EMS TGs