Pike County Fire alerting changes

[mark40]

In Pike County, two Fire Departments, Bushkill Station 24 and Forest Station 81 are now being alerted/paged on EMS 1 155.265. This is the start of a longer term plan to have all fire and EMS alerting on 155.265.

Not sure of the timing to move the rest over, other than it's not imminent. Will post follow up info as it becomes available.

 

[GTR8000]

For those unaware, nearly all EMS agencies have been responding on 151.2575 for quite some time now. This is a smart move by the county to eventually make 155.265 the dedicated Fire/EMS paging channel, with response on the 154.445 and 151.2575 repeaters. No more tones stepping on responding units, a long time coming.

 

[mark40]

Update: Delaware Township Fire Dept. Station 28, has moved over to 155.265 for alerting.

 

[mark40]

Update: Tafton Fire Dept. Station 37 has moved over to 155.265 for alerting. Wiki updated.

 

[One13Truck]

Sounds like they added more juice to the new paging channel. Haven’t heard much from the old channel in years. I’m getting the new paging channel pretty regularly with moderate quality now.

 

[mark40]

Update: Up to eight departments are set to move over on Sunday Sept 20th. Will update here and on the WIKI page upon confirmation of same. That will leave just a few left.

 

[mark40]

Update: The following Fire Departments migrated on Sunday Sept. 20th. Greely, Blooming Grove, Central, Lackawaxen, Matamoras, Promised Land and Shohola.

Only four Departments remain on Fire 1. Dingman, Hemlock Farms, Milford and Westfall.

Changes are noted on the Wiki

 

[GTR8000]

Thanks, Mark! Any ETA for the last four to cut over? And do we have the official rebranded channel names yet?

 

[mark40]

Thanks, Mark! Any ETA for the last four to cut over? And do we have the official rebranded channel names yet?

The four remaining departments have EMS squads attached that share the same tones. Likely this will be sorted in the next couple of weeks for the final push. No word yet on the rebrand, stay tuned.

 

[armycw2]

I assume you are referring to tones only? Will FD voice dispatch be moving to EMS 1 as well?

 

[mark40]

Note: Squad 26 Dingman EMS and Squad 29 Hemlock Farms-Blooming Grove EMS paging tones have been changed as of yesterday 09-23. This paves the way for Station 26 and 29 paging to move to 155.265 in the near future. No definitive word on the rebrand yet.

 

[One13Truck]

Interesting way to do that. Would’ve thought it would be easier to just assign new fire tones and only have to wrangle up and touch one set of pagers rather than two for each department.

Granted quite a bit probably run both but when we had a BLS/rescue in town we had a lot that ran fire only and a pretty good amount that ran EMS only.

 

[GTR8000]

There seems to be some confusion in this thread. Let's break it down so that it's easier to understand.

- Both Fire and EMS paging are being consolidated onto 155.265, which will effectively become Pike County Fire/EMS Paging

- Fire Response remains on 154.445 Pike Fire 1 repeater

- EMS Response is now on 151.2575 Pike EMS 3 repeater (this transition has been in the works for quite some time now)

- Fire paging used to be exclusively on 154.445, and EMS paging used to be exclusively on 155.265. This changes that, putting all paging on 155.265 and eliminates toneouts stepping on responding units.

- All Fire tones remain the same, while some EMS tones are changing to keep separation between Fire and EMS paging on 155.265. It stands to reason that there are more pagers out there with the fire tones than the EMS tones, and so it's less of a chore changing a smaller percentage of pagers with EMS tones.

 

[GTR8000]

I've already updated the database to reflect these changes. Yes, it's a tiny bit premature with some of the Fire paging still on 154.445, but we're close enough to the full changeover to list them like this now.

 

[One13Truck]

But you still have to touch all the fire side pagers and portables anyway to change the paging frequency. Why not just reassign fire the new tone sets while doing that and then not have to touch the EMS side as well? Making double the work for the radio shop.

 

[GTR8000]

Well I mean, the project is like 90% done now so, meh.

 

[One13Truck]

Yeah. No use worrying about it now. But the old Supervisor in me freaks out over the wasted time and resources. Could’ve been done easier. Not my circus though. I can get the new paging channel but not the 154.445 so at my 20 I’ll never know any changed.

 

[mark40]

Update: Dingman Township Fire Station 26 is now switched over, WIKI updated

 

[copcarguy]

Hello all,

Hemlock Farms Ambulance now has new, different tones than the Fire Dept.

 

[mark40]

Update: Hemlock Farms Fire Station 29 has switched over, Wiki updated