NYC "Mutual Aid" vs "Interoperability?

[Jimru]

Greetings to all and Happy New Year,

The frequencies that were once allocated for NYPD "Interoperability" have been re-allocated for "Mutual Aid", but I am not clear on what agency or agencies these frequencies are assigned to.

Monitoring 482.6875 sounds like an EMS dispatcher, I heard calls for Nassau County, as well as NYC citywide units. I am only hearing one side of these dispatches (the dispatcher only).

In the RR database, the first 6 frequencies below are listed as "Mutual Aid", so then another question would be: what are the last two frequencies below being used for now (S.I. North and South)?

Again, the RR database only lists these as Mutual Aid, but not, as far as I can tell, for any particular agency. It does sound like EMS, though.

The frequencies in question are (former use in parentheses):

482.6875 PL 110.9 (Citywide IO)
482.7125 PL 123.0 (Manhattan IO)
482.7375 PL 136.5 (Bronx IO)
482.7875 PL 151.4 (Brooklyn IO)
482.8125 PL 167.9 (Queens IO)
482.3875 PL 110.9 (S.I. CW IO)
482.8375 PL 186.2 (S.I. North IO)
482.5375 PL 186.2 (S.I. South IO)

Finally, what would be the actual difference between "Interoperability" and "Mutual Aid"? Are they redundant? Is it just semantics? I thought that "Interoperability" was all the rage after 9/11. Mutual Aid is an older term that I thought went out with the likes of "VHF-High and VHF-Low"!

Thanks in advance for your time and consideration in answering these questions!

Jim R. in Queens County

 

[DaveNF2G]

The term Mutual Aid is descriptive of what the Interoperability channels are intended for, but it is not the official term for those channels. Mutual Aid is a function, not a channel name.

The closest FDNY comes to "mutual aid" is usually cross-borough responses. One of the dispatchers can chime in here, but I doubt FDNY responds to mutual aid calls outside NYC or calls in outside departments for city incidents. Interoperability means, in their case, being able to talk to other NYC agencies.

 

[Rob_K]

The closest FDNY comes to "mutual aid" is usually cross-borough responses. One of the dispatchers can chime in here, but I doubt FDNY responds to mutual aid calls outside NYC or calls in outside departments for city incidents. Interoperability means, in their case, being able to talk to other NYC agencies.

I can't remember if it was this forum or another but mutual aid was discussed. FDNY does leave the city from time to time but I believe it is a case by case basis where a division Chief needs to approve it.

Edit: I didn't re-read all 5 pages but here is some info:

http://nycfire.net/forums/index.php/topic,1482.0.html

 

[emcomm]

FDNY has responded to NJ on the other side of the tunnel to help before.

 

[maalox]

acutally on 482.6875 i hear sod otherwise barely hear anything on the freqs...

 

[tbendick]

MAC1 or what was Citywide IO will rebroadcast SOD when a dedicated dispatcher is not assigned.