South Orange

[yaknamedjak]

A few general questions for anyone who may happen to know anything about South Orange. If you just have answers to some of the questions I'll take what I can get

Database is showing South Orange VRS to operate without a repeater, so is the base at dispatch? And is dispatch at the SOPD? So they can reach dispatch with a portable from anywhere in their response area?? I hear dispatches sometimes and then I don't hear much, but sometimes I can barely pick up the carrier of something so I get a lot of static and distant voice...so maybe picking up a portable.....Where I run/used to run, it's a very rural area, and our tower isn't very tall due to a stupid historical affiliated height restriction, and often times we can't hit the repeater with our portable unless we use a rsm and hold the radio up...so not having a repeater is new to me and just doesn't seem very safe to me for an EMS situation..Also, they are just using straight up analog, conventional, no signaling/MDC/identifiers right?

Next, anyone know the signaling used by SOFD? I hear an identifier/chirp after every tx. But I don't think I hear a chirp after "fire headquarters" or "central dispatch" talk. Is "fire headquarters" the sofd station by the train station? And central dispatch is SOPD? Sorry, I'm new to the area.

Last, for now, every morning I'm woken up by SOFD radio testing, what is Ch. 4? Some kind of S/W fire? I'm hearing this with my radio I took out a couple channels from home and added these 2 so it's not like I can just check another frequency...


Thanks in advance.

 

[yaknamedjak]

Bump, anyone?


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[ansky]

Well I live right nearby in West Orange and my reception of SOPD really isn't that great, even using a roof antenna. So it wouldn't surprise me if they aren't using a repeater. Although the hilly terrain in this area doesn't really help either.

 

[yaknamedjak]

Hm. Thanks. I have also read on here that SOVRS is dispatched by Union County? Still looking for pertinent info on any of these.


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[RadioDitch]

Hm. Thanks. I have also read on here that SOVRS is dispatched by Union County? Still looking for pertinent info on any of these.


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All EMS units, SOVRS & MONOC 900 day units, are now dispatched by Union County Central Communications (Union County 2400) in Westfield via a telelink to the PD tower in South Orange.

 

[yaknamedjak]

Thank you so much. So there are 800mhz radios on SOVRS trucks? Do they have any portables? Even recently I saw some carrying HT750s..just for pages? Thanks again.


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[yaknamedjak]

Or are you saying that they still use VHF radios but just to reach the tower which then connects with Union, without ever repeating it on VHF?


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[Radionoob37]

I am new to this whole radio scene, so I don't know what all the names if different **** are but I am a current member of the south orange volunteer rescue squad. I too was looking for the frequency to hear on a scanner as I have bit received my radio from the squad yet, but we do carry portables, some privately owned, and we keep a main radio( I guess that is a repeater) on every truck. We are dispatched by 2400 or union county but we are also dispatched by sopd. They use the call sign headquarters over the radio. Frequency is 155.220 I think. I am not the best source of information of this stuff but I do like to talk on the radio.

 

[BillMcE]

Well I live right nearby in West Orange and my reception of SOPD really isn't that great, even using a roof antenna. So it wouldn't surprise me if they aren't using a repeater. Although the hilly terrain in this area doesn't really help either.

I live in Monmouth County & I can sometimes hear SOPD. I'm using a VHF Hi band directional yagi in my attic, pointed in that direction. It was my understanding that they were using the repeater & that it was on top of the water tower at the Civil Defense building on Crest Drive in the Newstead section. Some sections of West Orange may be too close to the peak of the hill to pick it up.

 

[scannersnstuff]

I live in Monmouth County & I can sometimes hear SOPD. I'm using a VHF Hi band directional yagi in my attic, pointed in that direction. It was my understanding that they were using the repeater & that it was on top of the water tower at the Civil Defense building on Crest Drive in the Newstead section. Some sections of West Orange may be too close to the peak of the hill to pick it up.

i live about 15 miles from neptune city. i had my bcd396xt sitting in the front window of my home, w/ the portable antenna, getting close call hits off of sopds repeater !.

roughly = 43 nautical miles- on close call ! . not totally sure, but i believe south orange's repeater is on south mountain reservation <on the hill>.

 

[BillMcE]

i live about 15 miles from neptune city. i had my bcd396xt sitting in the front window of my home, w/ the portable antenna, getting close call hits off of sopds repeater !.

roughly = 43 nautical miles- on close call ! . not totally sure, but i believe south orange's repeater is on south mountain reservation <on the hill>.

That's impressive! I used to pick up SOPD with the on board antenna on my old Realistic Scanner on the 2nd floor of my house in Neptune City.

Yes, the repeater is on a water tower that's on a residential street, very close to South Mountain Reservation, pretty high up on the hill. I know the area well, as I grew up in SO & used to date a girl who lived near the tower.