Saratoga County Fire Companies - VHF Channels Question

[LathamScan]

Hello all,

I've noticed that several fire companies in Saratoga County have applied for and received various VHF High Band radio channels. However, it seems like most of these channels were issued either just before or during the migration over to the County 800 MHz. system.

My question is this: do any of the fire companies actually use these frequencies, or were these plans 'scrapped' once the 800 MHz. system went online?

Thanks in advance,
Kevin

 

[Mtnrider]

Its not uncommon for this to happen. Delaware, Greene,Ulster companies have done the same thing. Redundancy never hurts. And a lot of them like to have control over a system to use and not bother anyone

 

[lafd55]

I don't believe any of the VHF frequencies are used anymore with the new system in place. The new system has pretty good range and coverage of the county which makes the VHF pretty obsolete, maybe some are used for car to car operations but would be more of a liability with fireground operations now.

 

[kc2kvy]

Mechanicville fire still uses VHF to communicate with the city dispatcher. They also use Tac39 for that purpose. They had set up an 800 to VHF rebroadcast on their second frequency, but I believe that is inactive at this point.

 

[lafd55]

I haven't heard Mechanicville FD at all on VHF except for PD. Also Waterford has their own TAC for Fire operations but PD is still on Capital Digitronics.