Question about operations for Spartanburg County Fire Departments

[ffemt601]

My parents reside in the Mayo area right off 221 and last year I bought my father a 346xt for Christmas. As a avid Uniden user it was a piece of cake getting the Spartanburg SO, Pd and the troopers working especially using Bctool to import the frequencies. However, the same can't be said on the fire department frequencies and reception. I reside in MS and am traveling there on Friday for the holidays and I would like to get it squared away for him. This time I am taking two of my own scanners as well as my Ft-7800 to do some additional testing/troubleshooting.

My questions are:

1. Is the information in the Spartanburg county database correct?

2. When a department is toned out on Dispatch do they then move to an assigned Tac channel? Or will they move to their local channel depending on the nature of the call?

3. Do the repeaters cover the area pretty well or are there holes in coverage?


He mainly leaves the scanner at home and just moves it with him when on the property, so he is only interested in the neighboring fire departments. Therefore information pertaining directly to the operations of Mayo, Chesnee, Boiling Springs,Cowpens and Cherokee Springs would be greatly appreciated.

If anyone happens to be on one of the above fire departments and has time to grab a cup of coffee with a fellow fire fighter please send me a PM.

Thanks for your assistance and Merry Christmas.

 

[rescue161]

I used to be on Whitney Fire Department, which isn't TOO far Chesnee/Mayo, but that was more than 20 years ago. Back then, the county fire dispatch used 154.310 as their dispatch with no repeater on the main channel.

Here is some good info on some changes that they are undergoing. http://forums.radioreference.com/so...ion-forum/226769-spartanburg-county-fire.html

Have fun and enjoy Sparkle City for me. I miss my old home town.

 

[brian]

I listen to Spartanburg County Fire every day, and the information in the DB is correct to the extent that I know it. There will be changes to the way they use radios beginning January 1st, as rescue161 alluded to. We'll know more on exactly how that will work after it begins.

As of now, more than 90% of all county FD traffic is on 154.310 PL 85.4, which is not a repeater. This currently serves as Dispatch/Tone-out and Ops. Only for bigger operations/scenes will they be assigned a Tac channel. The reason for the changes after the new year is because 154.310 quickly becomes congested with 2 or more incidents happening at the same time and all units are trying to use the tone-out channel for their ops.

Channel 2 is used sparingly at this time, mainly for LZ set-ups for medical helicopters. Channel 3 is used from time to time, for mutual aid with Forestry and the like, or by departments that don't have a private tac channel.

Many departments have their own private tac channels, some of which are repeaters - most are not. They are used for chit-chat/coordination, and not generally for fire ops.

If you've programmed 154.310, you know what's going on with FDs in Spartanburg County. If you also program channel 2, you'll get 95% of all radio traffic from the county FDs. I think this will still be true after Jan. 1, when 154.310 is supposed to be dedicated to tone-out and 154.025 will be used for Ops.

Hope that helps.

Brian

 

[ffemt601]

I apologize for the delay in getting back with everyone, but I didn't have any internet access while I was in SC. I reprogrammed the scanner and it is working great now. It appears the frequencies were locked out for some unknown reason.

Does each department have its own tone? If so does anyone have the tones for Chesnee, Mayo, and Cherokee Springs?

 

[ffemt601]

Disregard my question as I found the answer in the wiki page. I wish this information was on the database page and you didnt have to dig around for it.