State Fire M.A. on State D.P.S. 800mhz T.R.S.

[xerb1962]

So you are with Cashion F.D. I take it?

 

[plaws]

why? how often does a volunteer firefighter using VHF need to talk on the radio to another firefighter that uses 800?

You're kidding, right? Norman's neighbors to the north, Moore and OKC, are 800, though only recently for Moore. But ALL their other neighbors are on hi-band. Little Axe VFD is on Norman's system and there is a patch now, supposedly to Lexington (though I can't find the VHF side), for those folks.

But that still leaves Noble, PInk, Slaughterville, Goldsby, Newcastle ...

 

[eharlow]

Nope

So you are with Cashion F.D. I take it?

Nope...south from there...Deer Creek. Cashion dispatches themselves via a telephone encoder type operation. (and man is it annoying sometimes)

 

[xerb1962]

Yep, that Cashion telephone patch is not only annoying , It is also DANGEROUS!
I am sure you have heard both Guthrie and Edmond dispatch try and talk to the person who is toning out C.F.D. only to be ignored, because, and obviously the person on the patch is not listening to 154.130!

Also the person/persons, will activate their tones with total disregard with whatever ops might be occuring on 154.130, here again due to the fact they dispatch via land line without monitoring the ongoing ops!

 

[car2back]

You're kidding, right? Norman's neighbors to the north, Moore and OKC, are 800, though only recently for Moore. But ALL their other neighbors are on hi-band. Little Axe VFD is on Norman's system and there is a patch now, supposedly to Lexington (though I can't find the VHF side), for those folks.

But that still leaves Noble, PInk, Slaughterville, Goldsby, Newcastle ...

Okay, I see a need for the command units for these depts on a mutual aid fire to be able to communicate, but I still don't see enough justification for the VHF M/A to be patched fulltime to an RMA or SMA. A problem I always saw when you give every FF their own radio is, the seem to spend more time talking on it then fighting fire. :wink:

 

[Secret_Squirrel]

A problem I always saw when you give every FF their own radio is, the seem to spend more time talking on it then fighting fire. :wink:

That's because you've been watching the wrong firefighters all this time.

 

[StormCrusader]

Hard patching vs console or field patching

PB, a "hard" patch generally means a patch that is hardwired, and therefore active 24/7. There normally isn't a need for that, as departments on separate bands typically don't work together on EVERY call.

As noted by others, you certainly don't want to hard patch channels in widespread use. Imagine for a momeny a hard patch between say, OCFD (800 EDACS) and SFMA (VHF-hi). Every time OCFD made a ride there would be radio traffic on a widely used VHF channel - unnessary traffic unless there was a ride involving both OCFD and someone on the VHF channel.

Console patches are typically temporary patches set up by a dispatch center between two channels. These can generally be easily set up on the fly, as needed to support an event in progress. On a Motorola Gold Elite console, patching involves about four keystrokes.

Field patches are about the same as a console patch, involving the use of a patch box (ACU-1000 and TCBs are typical) and dedicated radios. Again, done only to support an acutal event.

I know hard patches into the 800 systems are discouraged, as they tend to take up a lot of system resources. That is one reason the OKC EDACS channels aren't hard patched to the State TRS.

 

[PolarBear25]

PB, a "hard" patch generally means a patch that is hardwired, and therefore active 24/7. There normally isn't a need for that, as departments on separate bands typically don't work together on EVERY call.

As noted by others, you certainly don't want to hard patch channels in widespread use. Imagine for a momeny a hard patch between say, OCFD (800 EDACS) and SFMA (VHF-hi). Every time OCFD made a ride there would be radio traffic on a widely used VHF channel - unnessary traffic unless there was a ride involving both OCFD and someone on the VHF channel.

Console patches are typically temporary patches set up by a dispatch center between two channels. These can generally be easily set up on the fly, as needed to support an event in progress. On a Motorola Gold Elite console, patching involves about four keystrokes.

Field patches are about the same as a console patch, involving the use of a patch box (ACU-1000 and TCBs are typical) and dedicated radios. Again, done only to support an acutal event.

I know hard patches into the 800 systems are discouraged, as they tend to take up a lot of system resources. That is one reason the OKC EDACS channels aren't hard patched to the State TRS.

OK.. I think I Understand it now..

 

[eharlow]

Cashion paging

Yes, I totally agree. We might be calling them for mutual aid and they tone out without even listening to what traffic is going on. Then, we're basically locked out from talking because they are pretty powerful from their base. It's terrible. I heard Kingfisher call that number once and they didn't realize it was a pager number. They were stuttering like "uh, um, we need someone from Cashion to call Kingfisher Fire Department at XXX-XXXX." That's one reason I'll be glad to get off State Fire so I don't have to monitor them all the time.

 

[eharlow]

Update

Oak Cliff is going active on 800 within the next month if everything holds true. They will tentatively be on I believe it's 4H - VFD1 and 4I - VFD2. The plan is to still tone out on 154.130 due to there being no 800mhz pagers like the Minitors. I guess we'll see how it goes!

 

[PolarBear25]

Great News

That is great news..