Several Questions about Atlantic county system

[policefreak]

Jeez, where to begin. First of all I would like to know if the Atlantic City PD is digitally encrypted. I also notice a conventional channel listed in the database that I don't remember seeing before. What's that all about?

Second, I notice Hammonton has a site. Has anyone ever listened to it? Besides the digital Hammonton PD does it cover EMS or Fire?

Third, is there a talkgroup on any TRS where I can hear both sides of the conversations on channels 155.175, 154.31 and 154.355?

Finally, since it seems atlantic county is so split up municipality by municipality, does anyone know if the entire county will go to TRS anytime soon?

 

[KC2SVY]

Atlantic City PD is digital, it's also motorola and not part of the County System. However it can be picked up with a APCO 25 (like $500) scanner. Rest of AC to my knowledge is analog.

Hammonton Fire does have a talkgroup but I've only heard them use it as a secondary channel for officers, haven't heard it come patched up to county fire north (their main fireground freq). I have not heard Hammonton EMS on the county TRS.

The only time you will hear both sides of a conversation (VHF and trunked) on a trunked TG is when a patch is put up (such as EHT, Northfield, Absecon and occasionally Galloway Fire). There are no full time patches, the patches are taken down when the incident is over.

Each municipality has the opion to jump on the county TRS (for lack of a better phrase), however due to the cost factors (radios cost several times more compared to VHF) and the fact that it's a repeater system some agencies are against switching to it (if can't hit the tower, you can't talk to anyone unless you both are on I-TAC). However there is supposed to be a guaranteed 95% coverage of the entire county, most of the problems are when people are inside buildings in which case sometimes no radios will transmit out of, especially metal buildings. Most PD's are on it because they utilize provoice which currently there's no scanner in the world that can decode.

 

[blah546]

Ditto everything above. The AC system used to have a patch set up all the time to EMS1 and Fire1 but have since discontinued it.

 

[policefreak]

Wow, Ok that sucks. Was listening to it today, god it is confusing!!! First of all the only traffic I hear on the Hammonton site is Brigantine PD, which is nowhere near Hammonton!! I can't get that on the Mays Landing or Egg Harbor sites. As far as Hamilton Twp EMS goes, what is it that they refer to as a rescue? Is it an ambulance, or is it a fire-rescue engine? Oh, and I found two talkgroups that weren't listed on the database. One was 628 and the other was 163, both were in DEC format to be clear. 163 sounded like they were just testing. The Atlantic City Motorola system scans beautifully. Even the digital transmissions come in clear. I think Atlantic County EDACS could be an interesting system to monitor, but I just don't understand how it works. I know this is a lot to cover, but does anybody have any thoughts?

 

[blah546]

Brigantine and Stockton are the only PDs on the system that are still analog. I frequently hear Brigantine on the Hamilton tower. With Hamilton EMS they're usually referring to dispatching an ambulance, however the rescue squad (which is what they call it and why you hear them say rescue) also has a jaws truck and some SUVs. I've never heard 163 but it's something for EHT. 627 and 628 are for the county jail.

 

[policefreak]

Well, which is it?!

I hate to keep waking up this miserable, sorry existance of a thread, but the more answers I find, the more questions I have about Atlantic Co. TRS. Today I got what I thought was brigantine PD on the Mays Landing TRS. The TGID IS 1633 in dec format, isn't it? Except it sounded like they were dispatching fire apparatus for a "wires down" call because the dispatcher said, "Station 'x' fire apparatus respond to..." I didn't hear any tones go out but the ensuing comms didn't help me much in figuring out which agency it was. Had an officer or firefighter just determine that there were cable wires down and that they were removed from being a hazard. Did they switch talkgroups? And every now and then I get a peep out of digital EHT PD talkgroup 145. Today it showed up as "145 1" on my BC396 display. Again it sounded like they were dispatching an ambulance to a medical emergency, rather than police. Then I did not hear anymore activity on this channel OR the Egg Harbor EMS talkgroup about the call.
So, is it common for different agencies to "share" a talkgroup, or am I missing something here?
Also while I am at it, how do the i-tac frequencies work? They are in fact, conventional? Are they analog, simplex, or do they have a repeater? And the most important question, who actually uses it?
What exactly, are the agencies they refer to in the database right under the I-Tac frequencies block?
Not to mention the fact that I found a new unidentified talkgroup, 2019. this looks familiar, but I don't know what it is and it is not listed in the DB.
Thanks in advance,
Policefreak.

 

[blah546]

Wow that's a lot.

OK first thing: I've never been clear on what channels Brigantine do and don't use, but I have heard dispatches like that on the PD1 channel so that's normal for them. Also for EMS (and I think fire, but it's been a while since I looked) in EHT they always patch EMS with PD while they're dispatching. Not sure what the reasoning is, maybe so they don't have to dispatch a patrol unit seperately. EHT's actuall EMS channel isn't usually simulcast on the Mays Landing tower, that's why you didn't hear anything. You might also hear a dispatcher on EHT's PD channel in analog, although I think they may have fixed that problem.

As far as I know the ITac frequencies are simplex. I've never hear anyone use them but since they're simplex they might be getting used and I just can't hear. I'm not sure what the agencies listed under ITac are supposed to mean but it appears to coincide with the agency number on the TRS (IE if you look at the AFS for EHT TGs they all start with 01, Galloway is 02, Hamilton 03, etc...).

2019 is the airport police, both EHT and State PD use it. I'm not sure why it's not in the DB.

 

[PM08203]

Ocean City, EHT & Brigantine all simulcast EMS & FD dispatches on PD. Each does it slightly differently. That is why you hear what sounds like a FD call on a PD tg.