St George UCAN & LifeFlight

[bchris]

FYI - My sister is a flight nurse in St George on a LifeFlight fixed-wing aircraft. (They hope to have a helicopter one day.) She says they started being able to talk directly to their Salt Lake dispatcher on 'the 800Mhz radio' a couple months ago. They were told that it should work as long as they have line-of-sight to the St George area, and she has confirmed that this is the case. They have always been able to use it 'up-north'. I thought this time frame matched suspiciously to when the St George UCAN tower went online and/or LifeFlight went to digital. I did hear some type of digital transmisson on the UCAN system while at her house a couple days ago, and assumed it was being used for testing or something. My point is that perhaps the UCAN system in St George is already being used by one or more 'customers', presumably with more to follow.

 

[kd7rto]

Intertesting. I wonder if all cells on the UCAN network are now P25 capable, or if Lifeflight would revert to analog in the clear on a cell which is not?

 

[enosjones]

Just FYI In My Area Price/Carbon County, if Lifeflight can't get a hold of their Dispatch Center through UCAN on TG 58880 or 17280 they use input Frequency or simplex Frequency 468.750 pl 131.8. You can only hear Lifeflight's side of the conversation. but at least you can hear them.