OES 1 & 2 (154.16 and 154.22)

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BirkenVogt

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OK, I thought I would get another thread going on this one. I have been monitoring today but heard nothing. However I was out of the office most of the morning.

Yesterday morning I heard some sort of status report along with DTMF tones and even a dial tone. And I think some other beeps and squawks. But I was driving then. That was on OES 1. I would be interested to learn what activity anybody else has heard.

Birken
 

brandon

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Here is a good article on socalscan about the OES traffic you might be hearing

<snip>
Hello All,
>
> Througout this past weekend I've been hearing a lot of east coast
> emt/fire traffic on my Pro-95; in the worst room in the house, the
> traffic is booming.
>
> While monitoring SoCal fire traffic, the scanner stops on 154.16 MHz
> [what I thought was OES #1] and I hear times that are three hours
> ahead of us.

Alain -

Yes, you are hearing traffic from the eastern portion of the U.S. via
"skip," through the OES network (OES 1 [154.160] or OES 2 [154.220]).

The legacy OES Fire system used 33 MHz channels as the inputs to the 154
MHz mountintop repeaters. The system has been converted to 159/154 MHz,
but most of the 33 MHz receivers remain active, and when they receive
the correct frequency / tone combination, the repeaters activate with
the 33 MHz traffic.
</snip>
 

BirkenVogt

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I have not heard any skip yet but what I was hearing was a roll call being done by Sacramento for units on the frequency, one of whom was San Francisco Fire...but I did not catch much more than that.

The reason I am interested in this is that it was published until recently that this system was defunct so it is interesting to hear it going again.

Birken
 

inigo88

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Approximately what day of the week and what time of day did you hear it? I'd be interested to get scanrec running and try and catch something.

Thanks
 

BirkenVogt

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It was Sunday morning and there was quite a flurry of activity for a little while. Yes I would like to get ScanRec going on quite a few different freqs I just never seem to get that "round tuit"

Birken
 

northzone

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BirkenVogt said:
The reason I am interested in this is that it was published until recently that this system was defunct so it is interesting to hear it going again. Birken

That information was wrong. The system was never "defunct". People just forget about it during the winter, but every summer you will hear traffic on it.
 

BirkenVogt

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Who exactly is using it then, and how?

I guess I figured the microwave intercom would be the way ECCs normally communicate.

Birken
 

johntodd

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northzone said:
That information was wrong. The system was never "defunct". People just forget about it during the winter, but every summer you will hear traffic on it.

I find it interesting that the system would go unused during the winter when we have such strong storms and flooding occurring.

What does OES use for comms during the wintertime?
 

smokeybehr

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To answer a few questions that might be here I'll toss out whet I know:

Brandon is right about the 33MHz in/154MHz out system on OES1 and OES2. DGS is s--l--o--w--l--y removing the LB receivers. Currently, there are only 4-5 locations that *don't* have the LB receivers, which leaves nearly 2 dozen sites that are running the dual front-end system.

From May to September, the LB VHF skip comes in from the East Coast, and we quite often hear the same licensees every year. It's just pure dumb luck that they have the same frequency and tone that ends up opening one or more mountaintops.

Generally, yes, the ECCs communicate via the microwave system. They have the "Green Phone" system, which is the internal state PS phone system. They also have an intercom-type system, that when they pick up the handset and talk, it comes out on every ECC console, including the contract counties, CDF HQ, OES HQ, and North & South Ops.

OES has more ways to communicate than you realize. The OES1 and OES2 channels are just one way. There's also CESRS ("Ceasers"), CLERS, OASIS, Satellite Phones that work like both cellular phones and dispatch radio, and the good ol' twisted pair. The channels are used all the time for different things. Just because you don't hear it, doesn't mean that it's not getting used.
 
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BirkenVogt

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smokeybehr said:
Generally, yes, the ECCs communicate via the microwave system. They have the "Green Phone" system, which is the internal state PS phone system. They also have an intercom-type system, that when they pick up the handset and talk, it comes out on every ECC console, including the contract counties, CDF HQ, OES HQ, and North & South Ops.

OES has more ways to communicate than you realize. The OES1 and OES2 channels are just one way. There's also CESRS ("Ceasers"), CLERS, OASIS, Satellite Phones that work like both cellular phones and dispatch radio, and the good ol' twisted pair. The channels are used all the time for different things. Just because you don't hear it, doesn't mean that it's not getting used.

Well don't hold back. Let us know how they work. That is the purpose of this board.

I am aware of CESRS but the only thing I ever hear on that is bleed over from some fire department dispatch. But what is OASIS?

Birken
 

selgaran

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BirkenVogt said:
But what is OASIS?

Operational Area Satellite Information System. OES leases capacity on a geostationary satellite to provide telephone and low-speed data services to connect the various OES locations, other State locations, and the 58 operational areas. The typical Op Area set up provides 6 or 7 phone lines and one data channel. OES (and I think Caltrans) has several trailer units that can be taken to wherever to provide phone service pretty much anywhere (most often used on fires).
 

WD8CZP

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Smokey & selgaran have it right. We've had OASIS since the early 90's and is currently undergoing a major transition from analog to digital which will allow VoIP and increase our conversation capacity. We are the only state that "owns" our bandwidth & transponder section; meaning that we don't have to go through a contractor to 'load shift' or constantly move around like some other systems. We also operate our own two hub's, one North, one South. We have eight transportable trailers on the system, three of which are painted Caltrans orange and are operated by them. The TMC's are also equipped with earth stations as are all 58 counties and some other locations. Currently one trailer is assigned to the Orleans Complex fire ICP in Humboldt County supporting them with phone/data. Depending upon the load we can now provide a full T1 up/dn link for data. OASIS also provides a dn-link only channel of our EDIS (Emergency Digital Information Service), a program that I manage and is also undergoing a major overhaul. Once completed, EDIS will provide multiple solutions for public alert and warning.

Ben J. Green
Assistant Chief, Telecommunications
California OES
 
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