OPP Dispatchers

[acurayyz]

I have recently become interested in police/EMS radio after being solely an aviation listener (being in the industry). Unfortunately I do not have a digital trunking scanner so I rely on online scanner feeds. Lately I've been listening to the Simcoe EMS and Fire feed (which includes Barrie Police, Fire, OPS30-37, and Georgian CCAC) and the York Region Ontario Bell Fleetnet feed (which is pretty much the same as the Simcoe feed from what I can hear). Several questions I have are:

1) What OPS frequencies does the Orillia headquarters center cover and does each Simcoe Country OPS channels (OPS30 to OPS37) have separate dispatchers? One of the feeds has alpha tags available so I can see OPS30 show up when it's a 1-Bravo unit, OPS33 for 1-Oscar, etc).

2) Where else does OPP have central communication centers (staffed with dispatchers)

3) Who dispatches York Region EMS? Toronto CCAC or Georgian?

 

[EJB]

I have recently become interested in police/EMS radio after being solely an aviation listener (being in the industry). Unfortunately I do not have a digital trunking scanner so I rely on online scanner feeds. Lately I've been listening to the Simcoe EMS and Fire feed (which includes Barrie Police, Fire, OPS30-37, and Georgian CCAC) and the York Region Ontario Bell Fleetnet feed (which is pretty much the same as the Simcoe feed from what I can hear). Several questions I have are:

1) What OPS frequencies does the Orillia headquarters center cover and does each Simcoe Country OPS channels (OPS30 to OPS37) have separate dispatchers? One of the feeds has alpha tags available so I can see OPS30 show up when it's a 1-Bravo unit, OPS33 for 1-Oscar, etc).

2) Where else does OPP have central communication centers (staffed with dispatchers)

3) Who dispatches York Region EMS? Toronto CCAC or Georgian?

I dont know much about Central zone OPP and its dispatchers, I dont listen much to them or run Trunk 88 on them at all but I might be able to answer your other questions:

2) In the south London has a dispatch centre and handles everything west of Cambridge to Windsor and north to Bruce Co.

3) Georgian CACC dispatches York Region EMS.

 

[mikewazowski]

1) What OPS frequencies does the Orillia headquarters center cover and does each Simcoe Country OPS channels (OPS30 to OPS37) have separate dispatchers? One of the feeds has alpha tags available so I can see OPS30 show up when it's a 1-Bravo unit, OPS33 for 1-Oscar, etc).

Most channels are patched together and therefore only require one dispatcher.

1OPS30 Barrie and 1OPS35 Midland are patched together.
1OPS31 Collingwood and 1OPS33 Huronia West are patched together.
1OPS32 Dufferin and 1OPS36 Nottawasaga are patched together.
1OPS34 MnJkaning and 1OPS37 are patched together.

So 4 dispatchers for for 1OPS30 to 1OPS37.

Keep in mind that Dufferin County is also covered as well as part of Grey County.

2) Where else does OPP have central communication centers (staffed with dispatchers)

The OPP website would be a good place to look but it's London, Orillia, Smith Falls, North Bay and I believe Thunder Bay.

3) Who dispatches York Region EMS? Toronto CCAC or Georgian?

Georgian CACC

 

[Northerner71]

Thunder Bays PCC is huge, it runs from the Manitoba border to just about Hearst and then runs quite a ways north and all along Superior North Shore. The PCC is quite busy because all the little towns are OPP and they also provide coverage for the Conservation Officers. It is none stop activity. The cool thing about listening up here is that you pretty much know who and where they are talking about.

 

[acurayyz]

Thanks for the responses guys! Just another quick question or two at this point. Is there a listing of the fleet numbers of EMS units by service? Since paramedics do not announce that service they are (Simcoe, York, etc) all I hear is just "Georgian 3035". Both Simcoe EMS and York Region ambulances have 4 number codes which all start in 3 (AFAIK).

The only scanner I own is an older Pro-90 that I only use for VHF scanning (air band mostly). I still can't figure out the trunktracking feature. Is there anything police/EMS related that I may be able to pick up (perhaps York Region stuff?) on this unit? I was looking at the UNIDEN BC346XT that can do TrunkTracker III - EDACS, MOTOROLA, E.F. JOHNSON. I'm not sure what this means as I am not very good with digital networks but I do know it doesn't handle P25 which is what I think OPP and most police services use, right?

 

[bglatour001]

The 4 digit number that EMS units mean:

First number is the region, second number is the number of patients, and the 3rd and 4th numbers are the actual unit number.

So an example from my area, North Bay 5466, Region 5, 4 patient capacity and unit 66.

 

[acurayyz]

I always thought they use the number on the side of the ambulance (at least for where I've seen) but I've definitely heard a callsign like 3503. What I was looking for was a fleet chart breakdown for the different EMS services (York, Simcoe, etc) with their fleet #s and ambulance types (Crestline, etc).

 

[EJB]

I always thought they use the number on the side of the ambulance (at least for where I've seen) but I've definitely heard a callsign like 3503. What I was looking for was a fleet chart breakdown for the different EMS services (York, Simcoe, etc) with their fleet #s and ambulance types (Crestline, etc).

The 2nd number does not necessarily reflect the number of strechers than a ambulance can have because if you scan Peel Regions paramedics many of their units have zero's for the second number i.e. 3035.

As metnioned correctly, the first number, in this case 3, is for the area, all EMS units in Peel, York, Halton, Durham begin with 3.

One thing about the EMS services in Halton, they seem to move around their indvidual units. For example, Halton is a large area and has some rural areas where their is a good deal of distance between urban areas and the individual EMS units have a limited amount of kilometers that they are allowed to be used for so 3176, in 2008 was a local EMS unit in Burlington was moved up to Milton later on andI have heard it responding to calls in Georgetown then months later generally in Oakville.


There are lists on this site of EMS units per service but they are out of date. The best way to follow this and establish your own list is to run a program called Trunk 88. The inventor of this program is a charming fellow who visits this site often enough.

I dont know if your 346 has a USB cord that will allow it to run Trunk 88 but your older scanner you mentioned can be altered (tapping the discriminator) to run the program also.

If your version of the 346 has radio Id's you can make out which unit is what also.

 

[EJB]

Thanks for the responses guys! Just another quick question or two at this point. Is there a listing of the fleet numbers of EMS units by service? Since paramedics do not announce that service they are (Simcoe, York, etc) all I hear is just "Georgian 3035". Both Simcoe EMS and York Region ambulances have 4 number codes which all start in 3 (AFAIK).

The only scanner I own is an older Pro-90 that I only use for VHF scanning (air band mostly). I still can't figure out the trunktracking feature. Is there anything police/EMS related that I may be able to pick up (perhaps York Region stuff?) on this unit? I was looking at the UNIDEN BC346XT that can do TrunkTracker III - EDACS, MOTOROLA, E.F. JOHNSON. I'm not sure what this means as I am not very good with digital networks but I do know it doesn't handle P25 which is what I think OPP and most police services use, right?

The OPP operate on P25, you cannot hear this on a non digital scanner like the 346 but you can hear the EMS units and Mto patrols in analogue. Outside of that I dont know of many other police services that are digital and scannable. For example, Peel and Halton Regions, Toronto, and Hamilton remain analogue in the clear. Services such as Guelph (P25 Encrypted), Brantford (EDACS unscannable), Windsor (same as Guelph) and London (same as EDACS) are unscannable.

A lot of in the clear services listed above use their computers more these days at the expense of radio dispatches.

 

[fire4117]

Just a slight change in that info.

1st number is the region
2nd number reflects the patient capacity**
Last 2 are the unit # for the rig.

**The 2nd number denotes either a single patient or double patient capacity. Here's the explanation.

If it's an even number, it can carry 2 patients, if it's an odd number it's a single patient unit, with the exception of 3 which denotes a supervisor or rapid response unit. This is the info provided to me from a CACC dispatcher friend of mine.

So, for example, Simcoe County Paramedic units;

3502 is a single patient unit,
3227 is a 2 patient unit,
3398 is a Rapid Response Unit,
3345 is a Supervisor Unit.

Like I said, this info was given to me by a dispatcher friend of mine, so hopefully it's up to date.

The 2nd number does not necessarily reflect the number of strechers than a ambulance can have because if you scan Peel Regions paramedics many of their units have zero's for the second number i.e. 3035.

As metnioned correctly, the first number, in this case 3, is for the area, all EMS units in Peel, York, Halton, Durham begin with 3.

One thing about the EMS services in Halton, they seem to move around their indvidual units. For example, Halton is a large area and has some rural areas where their is a good deal of distance between urban areas and the individual EMS units have a limited amount of kilometers that they are allowed to be used for so 3176, in 2008 was a local EMS unit in Burlington was moved up to Milton later on andI have heard it responding to calls in Georgetown then months later generally in Oakville.


There are lists on this site of EMS units per service but they are out of date. The best way to follow this and establish your own list is to run a program called Trunk 88. The inventor of this program is a charming fellow who visits this site often enough.

I dont know if your 346 has a USB cord that will allow it to run Trunk 88 but your older scanner you mentioned can be altered (tapping the discriminator) to run the program also.

If your version of the 346 has radio Id's you can make out which unit is what also.

 

[exkalibur]

It used to be that "4" and "5" vehicles were single and double stretcher Regional Spares.

However, that's changed quite a bit over the past few years.

You're exactly correct in the use of even and odd numbers, aside from 3.