Statewide 800 Frequencies for Helicopters

[kb9wsi]

I have spoke with three different pilots / flight crews in NE Indiana (Dist 22) about the use of the states 800 MHz system. Here is my question, currently the hello has 195- VHF & UHF radio channels they use, they want to add the local county 800 talkgroups also. Cant we make this easy and have them use the county wide mutual aid channels? This would make things simple for the LZ coordinator, EMS, County Law and ISP. These are the ONLY Channels that all public safety persons have true interoperability. The state cant talk on the county talkgroups, the county can’t talk on the states talkgroups and if at all possible the fire and EMS should not listen to ISP Disp. or Ops channels. So to sum up my question, Hoosier SAFE-T people can we designate CMA1 as primary and CMA2 as a secondary channel? This might just be the thing to get all the counties using the county wide mutual aid talkgroups......... What do other public safety users think? Are all or some counties adding / using the regional mutual aid channels?

 

[kb9wsi]

Does anyone have any input on this subject? The EMS hellos don’t want to say this is what they are going to due, because of customer service issues. I do not have an 800 MHz scanner (yet) so someone please answer this question. How much radio traffic is on the mutual aid talkgroups C-MA1, B-MA1, E-MA1...ect. With my radio I only can RX C-MA1 because that's what tower my radio is on. And then what about traffic on the secondary mutual aid talkgroups, I am unable to scan those talkgroups has anyone ever heard anything other than a test on those? I am looking for input and advice please post your info.

 

[djbrane]

Dove Flight

I heard "Indy Operations" calling Dove Flight today on Safe-T TG 65376. Which by the DB shows SW-MA9. They were going to a scene flight on I65 near Remington and the way they were talking it sounded like they were using the TG as their main 800 channel.

Also, is Dove Flight new to the area? I have heard of PHI, Lifeline, Samaritan, Air Angels, Lifeflight, but never Dove Flight.
Can someone tell me where they came from?

 

[FireEng828]

Dove Flight

Dove Flight = PHI

 

[djbrane]

I had heard rumor that PHI was famous for changing their name when bad publicity came about. Thus, crash in Anderson, means changing their name to Dove Flight.

I assume they changed their name statewide and are no longer referred to as PHI at any of their bases?

 

[jwasson]

In the Indianapolis region, J-MA1 is used between ISP District 52 (Indianapolis), Johnson County, and City of Greenwood PD. In the Pendleton region, G-MA1 is used to simulcast tone drop dispatch traffic along with ISP-51-DISP. Ocassionally, INDOT Hoosier Helper Units have contacted District 51 on G-MA1 as well.

 

[FireEng828]

Phi

they go by "PHI Dove Flight"

 

[scannerfreak]

As far as I know, most EMS Helo's use the 800 MHz NPSPAC conventional freq's. to communicate with the ground.

 

[djbrane]

They are evidently using the SW-MA9 TG as their main dispatch channel. I heard them again today giving position info to "Indy Operations". They said they were lifting off of Eagle Creek.

 

[KB9QPE]

Dove Flight is the PHI helo assigned to St. Vincent's Hospital in Indy...the St. V's logo has 3 doves on it.

 

[bessiedawg]

I recall reading someplace that there were technical problems with using 800, or perhaps digital, with helicopter communications. Was it that the 800 spectrum possibly results in some type of interference to navigation equipment ?

 

[radioscan]

Here in Ohio they are using NPSPAC/iTAC 2 and NPSPAC/iTAC 4 and are calling them
AIRMED 1 and AIRMED 2

867.0125 ------ AIRMED 1 = NPSPAC/iTAC2
868.0125 ------ AIRMED 2 = NPSPAC/iTAC4

 

[racin06]

Yesterday on MA-9, I heard Dove 1 landing at Jennings County Hospital and Dove 3 landing at Ball Memorial Hospital (Muncie?).

 

[JunkersBikes]

Yesterday on MA-9, I heard Dove 1 landing at Jennings County Hospital and Dove 3 landing at Ball Memorial Hospital (Muncie?).

I heard the Dove 3 landing at Ball Memorial Hospital yesterday, I forgot to wrie down the TG though, from what I heard, the communication seemed flawless being on SAFE-T

 

[kb9wsi]

Progress

It’s good to see some progress on 800 MHz with some air ambulance companies. To give everyone some history I am a fire chief of a small department and a member of our counties 800 MHz committee. When I posted this I had spoke with the chief pilot of Parkview Samaritan and a member of Lutheran hospitals crew. Both were willing to explore better types of communications, changing or wrong PL’s and many other factors have been a huge issue in the past and have delayed patient reports to the incoming crew and LZ info was not able to be passed on to the pilot’s. I have a issued 800 MHz radio and due to some issues I am not going into at this time we are unable to scan anything other than our local talkgroups and C-MA1. To this day I have not heard any air ambulance traffic on my radio. The reason I started this thread was to possibly address the use of a statewide standard for those of us on the ground to communicate with the guys in the sky. It seems some progress has been made and I am looking forward to seeing some type of SOP statewide. It only makes sense to not try to maintain over 300 pre-programmed radio frequencies when all they need to do is dial in one channel for anywhere in the district, zone or quadrant.

 

[KB9QPE]

I am not an expert on this, but I attended a presentation given by the higher ups in Hoosier SAFE-T and asked them about the prospects for a common air-ground simplex frequency for helicopter use in communicating with on-scene agencies. They responded that it is possible. Apparently the FCC mandated that all new 800mhz public safety radios allow for a common set of interagency (mutual aid) frequencies--one of which is the 868.0125 simplex frequency that Radioscan mentioned they are using in Ohio. IIRC it would require the local agencies to program their radios for this to work.

 

[Garymaxon1234]

I heard Dove 3 talking to Indy Operations flighting between Winchester and Muncie tonight on SW-MA9.

 

[racin06]

St.Vincent Health and PHI Air Medical Announce Dove Flight

I thought this may be of interest to the participants of this thread. The following link is a recent article explaining the Dove (St. Vincent Health) helicopter system: http://www.stvincent.org/about/news/Dove_Flight.htm

 

[KrisK]

How would someone program SW-MA9 into a radio shack scanner pro94?
Thanks
KrisK

 

[Garymaxon1234]

It's talkgroup 65376. It is analog so you be able to hear it.

GT