Union County Update

[16b]

Union County fire agencies have switched to MARCS full-time (as of a couple of weeks ago).

There has been a news post on the MARCS page (http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=TRSDB&sid=901) for a while now, but it's finally up-to-date with what is actually happening.

The dispatcher will be heard on VHF for a loooong time, because of the number of volunteer/off-duty firemen with pagers, and the fact that station alerting over a digital trunked system seems to be a challenge.

 

[xusmarine1979]

What about their mutual aid band? This will suck for my grandad, he has a scanner that's about 20 years old I think. He just lives outside of Dublin and won't be able to hear the Sheriff.

 

[16b]

What about their mutual aid band? This will suck for my grandad, he has a scanner that's about 20 years old I think. He just lives outside of Dublin and won't be able to hear the Sheriff.

Yes, the Sheriff has been off of VHF for a while. I'm sure they still use 155.370 from time to time as they did before.

The fire dispatcher still transmits on VHF for all of their traffic (not just disptaches) on 154.250. So the only thing you cannot hear is the mobiles. Since their VHF channels are not repeaters, I never heard the mobile units very much anyway.

I don't like the MARCS decision myself for a few reasons (beyond that fact that I can't listen). Oh well, almost everything will be digital eventually. It sounds ho-hum, but that's that way it's going to go, one way or the other. P25 is really a good thing, because it gives scanner listeners at least a chance (albeit an expensive one, for now).

 

[xusmarine1979]

Yes Sir. When I was in Jerome Twp. visiting my grandparents not too long ago we could hear the Mobile FD because I remember hearing them say (Jerome FD) that they were "in quarters". That was a few months ago though.