Question for MO tones

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kruser

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The fire Agency listing (first two digits) can be downloaded from here: http://cce911.org/upload/files/apparatuscatalog.pdf

For the most part, it is accurate for the Agency or Fire District (first two digits) even though some of it is dated since last updated.

As mentioned earlier, Fire Response is heard on the Slater 800 MHz P25 system. The units respond on the appropriate "Main" talkgroup or one of the "Fire Tac" talkgroups.
For the St Louis county areas, Slater is divided between north and south with Page Avenue being the dividing line.
The Fire Dispatch talkgroups are often heard on Slater North and South talkgroups at the same time but there are times when dispatch may only be heard on one or the other.
The Dispatch talkgroups are basically a simulcast rebroadcast of the tone-out tones for activating pagers and house alert systems. These are all on VHF analog frequencies.
Slater South Dispatch (Slater TG 54755) tone-outs are heard on two VHF analog frequencies but they share the same Slater Talkgroup of 54755.
Slater South Dispatch, uses the analog tone-out frequency on 154.160 for the southernmost areas of south county like Affton for one example.
Slater South Dispatch has another analog tone-out frequency of 154.220 used by those municipalities nearer to Page Ave and the West County agencies such as Creve Coeur, Monarch, Wildwood, Eureka etc.
East Central Fire Dispatch (Slater TG 54701) center covers several inner central county fire districts like Clayton for example. Its analog tone-out frequency is 151.055
Slater North Fire Dispatch (Slater TG 54753) (most fire districts along and north of Page Ave) are heard on VHF analog 154.325. This covers several fire districts such as Maryland Heights for example.
University City Fire (Slater TG 54759) Dispatch analog tone-outs are heard on 154.370.
Muni Fire Dispatch (Slater TG covers mainly Kirkwood and Des Peres fire districts. Their tone-outs are heard on VHF analog 158.760.

The counties listed below also have Slater TGs for their respective counties but I did not list them here.
Slater for St Charles County has fire tone-outs on VHF analog 154.445. I'm not sure if all fire districts in that county use this analog tone-out frequency.
Slater for Jefferson County Fire Dispatch Tone-Outs are usually heard on VHF analog 154.310. I'm not sure if all fire districts in Jeffco Co use this tone-out frequency but many do.
Some fire districts in Franklin County use a VHF analog tone-out on 154.430. There is no Slater Talkgroup for Franklin County as technically, Franklin County is not on the Slater system. Some fire districts in Franklin County are dispatched by Central County Emergency 911 however so a Slater TG probably exists for the few Franklin County Fire Dispatch districts.
There may be other analog fire tone-out frequencies in use that have a Slater system TG but the above should about cover the majority of St Louis, Jefferson and St Charles county fire districts.
Then use the PDF linked above to CCE911 and match up the fire district number and you can get a pretty good idea of the apparatus type as well as the fire district house number for those fire districts that have more than one house location.

There are a couple free programs one can use to capture and display the actual tones as they are broadcast over the air.
Using that info, one can make a pretty decent list of fire districts, house numbers and apparatus types used within the respective fire districts for tone out info.
A person just needs to monitor the analog tone-out frequencies and write down the relevant info for each fire district as the equipment is dispatched and what tone(s) are displayed for each fire district as the tone info comes across the display screen.
It could take a while but in the end, you should have a pretty accurate list. that can be put into the Wiki pages.
 

llzel

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great info!
So are you saying an old VHF scanner tuned to one of the tone-out frequencies can hear the dispatch side only?
 

kruser

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great info!
So are you saying an old VHF scanner tuned to one of the tone-out frequencies can hear the dispatch side only?
Yes and only the initial dispatch that requires station alerting tones will be heard on the old VHF frequencies. No other traffic will be heard on VHF.
And who knows how much longer this will be in place. I'd bet it's just a matter of time before the old analog tone-outs are a thing of the past within the Slater served areas.
 

nick1427d

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Yes and only the initial dispatch that requires station alerting tones will be heard on the old VHF frequencies. No other traffic will be heard on VHF.
And who knows how much longer this will be in place. I'd bet it's just a matter of time before the old analog tone-outs are a thing of the past within the Slater served areas.

Station alerting is coming. In what flavor countywide I have no idea. At one point everyone was going to same system but that hit roadblocks. Will be internet based. I imagine we will keep tone out capability as another backup. If the dispatch centers decide to maintain the VHF licenses is a whole other question. My guess would be no and we migrate to alerts over SLATER. Chiefs like to be able to keep radios off and carry phones or pagers and only get alerted to working incidents.

Off topic but I always get concerned as we move more and more towards everything being internet based and don't plan for failures. Whenever I bring it up they always say we can always call you on the phone and give you the call that way.....
 

firebell9137

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Station alerting is coming. In what flavor countywide I have no idea. At one point everyone was going to same system but that hit roadblocks. Will be internet based. I imagine we will keep tone out capability as another backup. If the dispatch centers decide to maintain the VHF licenses is a whole other question. My guess would be no and we migrate to alerts over SLATER. Chiefs like to be able to keep radios off and carry phones or pagers and only get alerted to working incidents.

Off topic but I always get concerned as we move more and more towards everything being internet based and don't plan for failures. Whenever I bring it up they always say we can always call you on the phone and give you the call that way.....


Agreed. There are scanner apps that pick up the slater freqs as well. Be safe everyonrle. Thanks for the info and help
 

SirtifiedIdiot

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This seems to be most up to date for Chesterfield or Monarch.
 

nick1427d

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Regarding the apparatus catalog. As mentioned earlier the numbering scheme is pretty much standard for St. Louis county. The truck year make and model may be outdated but if you hear a truck dispatched as 2217 it’s still an ambulance just newer more than likely. A lot of the fire departments have websites and/or social media pages where you can see their apparatus. Some departments will label trucks as 2227 but May still run out of station #1 or any other station fyi.
Most central county departments run some flavor of proximity/GPS dispatch so nearest truck gets assigned.
Christian EMS is another weird one where they give the truck a designation for the firehouse it is normally running out of but even then it might have a fill in. Example is Mid county FPD has a Christian ambulance running out of it designated as 4517 but it’s not a Mid County Ambulance.

MABAS in IL uses a similar model, last 2 digits aren’t the same as Stl county but first two digits for department is the model they use typically.

Might be helpful for some to make your own catalog via the wiki on here.
 

firebell9137

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The tones are for each apparatus. Terry's note above shows tones for pumper 2224 (house 2) and ambulance 2257(house 5). They do have full house tones or all houses tones for something like severe weather alerts. Example. One set of tones alerts all firehouses for a tornado watch. It would take 10 mins or so to alert each and every apparatus.

do you happen to have those weather alert tones for my pager please? or does anyone?
 

bdzig

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The "weather alert" tones that you are probably referring to are the Central County supergroup tones. On frequency 154.220, the tones are 1433.4 (199) and 903.2 (159).
 

firebell9137

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Monarch FPD is dispatched on Central Fire Dispatch (154.220). The tones are by house, not apparatus, and are as follows:

Group (First Alarms) 433.7 553.9
House 1 330.5 584.8
House 2 330.5 617.4
House 3 330.5 651.9
House 4 330.5 688.3
House 5 330.5 726.8
Officer Call 330.5 903.2
2202 (Duty Officer) 433.7 617.4

Apparatus Numbering

Most St. Louis, Jefferson, Franklin, & St. Charles county fire protection districts use this current 4-digit code system to identify trucks. This system was developed to integrate fire services throughout the region, permitting smoother responses across dispatch boundaries. Some private & support agencies are also included in this regional plan.

First Two Digits - Agency Identity Code
Third Digit - Station or House of Origin
Fourth Digit - Truck Type


Third Digit Types:

0 -
Administration
1-8 - Station Number
9 - Reserve or Specialized Equipment


Fourth Digit Types


Fire Truck Types

Code

Administration Vehicle

Pumper

0

Fire Chief

Pumper

1

Asst. Chief

Pumper/Aerial

2

Duty Officer

Tanker or Pumper/Tanker

3

Batallion/Shift Chief

Rescue Pumper

4

Batallion/Shift Chief

Combination Truck (Pumper/Tanker/Rescue, Aerial/Pumper/Rescue, etc)

5

Batallion/Shift Chief

Rescue Truck

6

Fire Marshal

Ambulance

7

Chief Medical/EMS Officer

Brush Unit

8

Other Administration

Misc. Vehicle

9

Other Administration

Boats are typically identified with "69", although not always.
Air Cascades/ Supplies are typically identified with "89" or "49".
Ambulance districts use numbers in pos. 3 in ascending order to indicate unit #s, than house #s, when mulitple units run out of the same house.
Reserve units are only used when they are needed and will assume the identity of the equipment it is replacing; unless it is used in addition to the equipment.

You wouldnt happen to have Maryland Heights fire's group call tones for my pager?
 

NjorrKyrt

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I just joined after finding this! I have been working on a seperate database called Fire Wiki. I've mainly focused on finding apparatuses for fire agencies in Missouri. My apologies if I should start a new topic discussion.

From what I gathered, should I try to at least update or add apparatuses for agencies across the state? I know from my past visits on RadioReference is that there's a lot of work to be done!
 

bdzig

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You wouldnt happen to have Maryland Heights fire's group call tones for my pager?
Sorry, I just saw this.

While we still have tone paging in St. Louis County, Maryland Heights Fire Tones (on North Dispatch 154.325 MHz) are:
Group1153.41251.4
House 11153.41357.6
House 21153.41395.0
Officer Call1153.41122.5
Duty Officer1153.41285.8
 

bdzig

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Franklin County is not on the Slater system. Some fire districts in Franklin County are dispatched by Central County Emergency 911 however so a Slater TG probably exists for the few Franklin County Fire Dispatch districts.

The only departments in Franklin County that are dispatched by Central County E911 are Pacific Fire and Meramec Ambulance. Both use SLATER to communicate with the dispatch center using the South Region talkgroups. For ease of dispatch, their paging frequency was changed from 154.430 to 154.220 to coincide with their move to SLATER. When other departments such as Boles Fire mutual aid to Pacific, Central County will patch their Pacific Fire Main (155.280) to whatever South Region talkgroup is being utilized for the incident.
 

firebell9137

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Sorry, I just saw this.

While we still have tone paging in St. Louis County, Maryland Heights Fire Tones (on North Dispatch 154.325 MHz) are:
Group1153.41251.4
House 11153.41357.6
House 21153.41395.0
Officer Call1153.41122.5
Duty Officer1153.41285.8

Thanks.
 
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