Toronto Public Safety System

[imcleish]

I want to program the Toronto Public Safety System in my BC246T, and with the design of the system and the 246 I believe each tower site should be programmed as a system. Do I need all 4 tower sites?

It appears Fire as an example has: Talk Groups, North Talk Groups, East Talk Groups, South Talk Groups, and West Talk Groups.

As best as I can comprehend, the N/S/E/W TG's would coincide with the N/S/E/W tower sites.

Where do the "general" talk groups fall in this system? are they active off of all towers all the time or only on user demand?

Are the police on a specific tower? I believe I read somewhere that all EMS is operating off of the south tower.

Thanks in advance for your advice and help,

Ian

 

[mciupa]

I want to program the Toronto Public Safety System ... Do I need all 4 tower sites?

I'll answer your question with a question:

Can you receive each of the site's control channels from your Duham location?

I know that when I visit Newcastle, Ontario.. I can get the South and East
sites, no problem. Check what you can receive and program accordingly.

Where do the "general" talk groups fall in this system? are they active off of all towers all the time or only on user demand?

I think all four towers, as needed.

Are the police on a specific tower? I believe I read somewhere that all EMS is operating off of the south tower.

All four towers.

Happy scanning

 

[imcleish]

Thanks,

Yes, From Durham using a Watson W-801 antenna I can pull in the south site with static, and the east site clearly.

As for the fire talk groups N/S/E/W, do you know if they repeat on all towers, or only the respective towers?

 

[mciupa]

As for the fire talk groups... do (they) repeat on all towers, or only the respective towers?

I have only heard fire comm's affliliated to their geographic zones
on the assigned tactical channels.

I would hazard to guess that the East and South Fire Zones are relatively
busier than the North and West. At least it seems like it on any given
night that I listen in. So I'm sure you'll hear plenty of calls.

We had a six alarm fire in NW Toronto a couple of weeks ago and had
units from all over the city responding and all were dialled over to West
Tac 2 and Strategic 1. That incident was on the West Zone tower.

Speaking of Zones, hear is a cool link provided by the City of Toronto
with the Fire Command areas.
http://www.city.toronto.on.ca/fire/stations/index.htm

 

[imcleish]

Thanks for the help/clarification with how to program and scan the Toronto System.

 

[dhollands]

I have the BC246T. I found it best to have one system for each tower, with all talk groups in each system. From Markham, I can generally only hear the North, east and south towers.

You can hear a talk group on a given tower if there is a portable or mobile radio on that tower set to that talk group. For example I, don't normally here west talk groups, but ocassionally they can be heard on the N, E,S towers. I have just assumed someone in that zone is monitoring that call.

I have found that the station dispatches on the dispatch talk groups seem to only be on the South tower.

 

[als_medic]

I have my BC246T programmed with all the towers (control channels only) in one system. Not worth doing if you are fixed in one location, but I drive all around the GTA and it works wel. Saves a lot of memory space, especially as I have alpha tags for ALL the talk-groups, with GQKs by geographic area (i.e. GQK1, Fire North COmmand and Police 3X Divisions)
I can send you the ACR246 .mem file if that helps.

Simon

 

[imcleish]

Simon,

Could you post a zip of that file here?

 

[als_medic]

Here it is, along with all the conventional frequencies for Emergency Services in Toronto as well as the EMS EDACS system.
For the EDACS system I have all the towers for the East tower enetered. As the frequencies for the other tower are the same, with the same LCNs, it works fine anywhere around Toronto.
Hope this helps, let me know.

Simon

 

[imcleish]

Is toronto ems currently using both the edacs and motorola systems? Do any of the toronto services use the analog systems, or are they just mothballed for use incase of trunk system failure?

Thanks

 

[als_medic]

Toronto EMS is supposed to be moving to the PSS system. Their portables are alrady switched over and the systems used to be patched together. The Ambulances are still on EDACS, but I'll ask around and see when things should be switching.
As for the conventional frequencies, ther is some use. All services use them when working in the subways and Fire uses the Fireground and talkaround frquencies quite often. Police use some, but intermittently.

 

[imcleish]

Thanks,

What station do you work out of? I work in the ED/Trauma Room at Sunnybrook.

 

[als_medic]

I work on the Helicopter 7799, out of the Island Airport.

 

[imcleish]

Now I'm stuck trying to put a face on the name...

 

[als_medic]

I've been off work for 3 months with an injury, but should be back on monday.
PM me and I'll send you a pic.