Washington County (SW Utah) Miscellaneous

[Hooligan]

Cool News: Intermountain Life Flight is finishing up the construction of an alert facility at "Dixie Regional Health & Performance Center" (I assume that's just a fancy name for DRMC), and as of January they'll have a medevac help & crew based in St George.

 

[bchris]

The Great Dixie Chase

There was a great chase Friday night/Saturday morning....it really amazes me how Washington County LE doesn't have a ^%$@* mutual-aid channel they use for things like this.

I agree, Hooligan. I had just arrived in St George that night and couldn't sleep. I listened to that incident from Mesquite til the end in Coral Canyon. As things got interesting I fired up 3 scanners, and usually had different conversations at the same time on all 3, all following the same incident. Who knew you would need more than 3 at once for this area! Up north before UCAN, it seemed like all the agencies would switch to Statewide 155.505 without much hesitation. And in fact they use their regional talkgroups on a regular basis for this sort of thing. I couldnt believe these guys didn't use one on that night. Maybe they are just too shy, since 155.505 would have been broadcast over the entire state...? Like you said, I do have a hard time listening to 3 or more scanners. I do pretty well with 1 on each ear, but my brain just can't process more than that.

On a positive note, I was impressed with how well the dispatchers and the officers were able to share information without super-painful delays and mis-communications. I still don't understand not using a mutual channel, but I would have expected a disaster and I think they did a pretty nice job under the circumstances. The officer calling it out could have been a play-by-play announcer. I felt like I was right there with him! Nice work.

I enjoy listening to the occasional chase in the Northern counties, but I did find this one to be unusually interesting. Maybe it was listening to everyone coordinating everything fairly well without even talking to each other. Or maybe knowing that the guy would have been free as a bird if he turned off anywhere in Arizona, but as soon as he crossed the state line he was completely screwed. If only he had known there were 6 agencies and 20 cops waiting and anxious to pounce. Like the sign says...Welcome to Utah!

I thought it was funny that nobody ever asked what he was wanted for or if he was dangerous. Parking tickets? Murder? I guess if Nevada thought he was worth chasing, that's good enough for us! I think they were all just having a great time, as was I.

bc
.

 

[bchris]

Still no free rides?

Cool News: Intermountain Life Flight is finishing up the construction of an alert facility at "Dixie Regional Health & Performance Center" (I assume that's just a fancy name for DRMC), and as of January they'll have a medevac help & crew based in St George.

Up until my sister moved away from St George a year ago, she was a flight nurse for Life Flight. Currently they have only a fixed-wing aircraft stationed here, obviously only for transports. She said that all the communities were having fund raisers to help the Life Flight Corp buy a helicopter to station here. Now that Life Flight got a helicopter donated by the communities, I'll bet they will still charge $ for helicopter rides to the hospital. Go figure - thats corporate America. (jk) :lol:

I have never heard the hospital called "Dixie Regional Health & Performance Center". (That would be DRH&PC, a subsidiary of IHC @ DRMC in So UT ?) I have no idea what that name is. And what is an alert facility anyway? Maybe I could use one of those when I get really tired.

Seriously, that is great news. There is a lot of ground between Vegas, Grand Junction, and SLC to get hurt or lost. That will save a lot of lives and lessen a lot of pain. Long overdue.

bc
.

 

[Hooligan]

Yeah, I'm assuming that the "Dixie Regional Health & Performance Center" is just some fancy/stupid name for what everyone around here just knows as DRMC (Dixie Regional Medical Center in St George). It's kinda interesting that there's also a medevac helo stationed just 30 or so air-miles away in Mesquite though.

A medevac helo alert facility provides crew rest & standby quarters plus has an operations center to process flight requests, monitor the weather, do flight-following & mission-support, etc.

 

[Junior1970]

Cool News: Intermountain Life Flight is finishing up the construction of an alert facility at "Dixie Regional Health & Performance Center" (I assume that's just a fancy name for DRMC), and as of January they'll have a medevac help & crew based in St George.

Too bad that Intermountain LifeFlight encrypts all their comms except when you hear them respond on the LZ 1 or LZ 2 talkgroups (17184 & 17216 respectively.) They used to run in the clear on TG17280 but haven't heard any comms on that TG in well over a year.

 

[Hooligan]

Too bad that Intermountain LifeFlight encrypts all their comms except when you hear them respond on the LZ 1 or LZ 2 talkgroups (17184 & 17216 respectively.) They used to run in the clear on TG17280 but haven't heard any comms on that TG in well over a year.

Damn! My 996s & 396 stops for a split-second on P-25 secure traffic on a LifeFlight UCAN TG pretty regularly. I assume that's them, though I don't know why there would be a radio affiliating on one of their secure talk-groups down here for the past 6 or 7 months.

Once they're operational out of DRMC, I'll have to see if they use a talk-around channel while they're at the hospital, and/or have a discrete air/ground VHF-AM channel to use between their alert fac ops center & the helo when in the local area.

I assume they encrypt out of HIPAA concerns. As a private corporation, I guess they'd be easier to sue for any privacy violations than a gov't public safety agency would.

 

[Junior1970]

Damn! My 996s & 396 stops for a split-second on P-25 secure traffic on a LifeFlight UCAN TG pretty regularly. I assume that's them, though I don't know why there would be a radio affiliating on one of their secure talk-groups down here for the past 6 or 7 months.

Once they're operational out of DRMC, I'll have to see if they use a talk-around channel while they're at the hospital, and/or have a discrete air/ground VHF-AM channel to use between their alert fac ops center & the helo when in the local area.

I assume they encrypt out of HIPAA concerns. As a private corporation, I guess they'd be easier to sue for any privacy violations than a gov't public safety agency would.

That's what we thought up North as well. But U of U Airmed still uses the 17248 TG frequently and you hear the dispatch regularly.
One thing to check also is when DMRC gets an EMS link TG. All of the hospitals here have one. Some of the EMS agencies use cell phone in directn link to the hospital but I have heard LF use the TG for Utah Valley in Provo. Nothing specific obviously for HIPAA but common vitals and such.

 

[Hooligan]

SGPD had a shots-fired at officers incident around 12:45AM today. They returned fire & the idiot holed-up in his home, & unfortunately lived. The investigation was still going on around 4AM while I was headed home from Vegas, with units at the detail using channel 3. As I was driving down I-15 I tried monitoring 155.130 once I crossed into Utah but never heard anything on it. I also sat on 155.670 just in case talk-around mode was channel 3 but they had normal repeater dispatch traffic running on it. I've heard 155.130 referred as "Tac 3" & used by SGPD in the past. Maybe there just wasn't a lot of radio traffic during the 20 min or so window I should have been within range of hearing even weak/barely readable simplex traffic on it, but their mobile command post & investigators didn't clear the scene until 9:45AM today.

 

[Hooligan]

As of yesterday, UCAN TG 49888 has been active out of the Webb Hill (St George) site. 49888 is a simulcast of 155.850/173.8Hz repeater, which is St George PD channel 4 used for SGPD car/car, special details, and also St George Animal Control Officer dispatch. Per tuning in the input, the field units are still transmitting on VHF, not 800MHz.

 

[theaton]

UCAN Washington County

Thanks Hooligan. I took the liberty of creating a UCAN Washington County group and adding this TG. Let me know if you identify others.

-Tim

As of yesterday, UCAN TG 49888 has been active out of the Webb Hill (St George) site. 49888 is a simulcast of 155.850/173.8Hz repeater, which is St George PD channel 4 used for SGPD car/car, special details, and also St George Animal Control Officer dispatch. Per tuning in the input, the field units are still transmitting on VHF, not 800MHz.

 

[Hooligan]

NPS Zion National Park LE repeater on 169.7125 has some P-25 clear/secure testing taking place on it, with NAC 636. Normal use is still analog as of now, but obviously migrating to P-25 soon. I'll listen for P-25 testing on their two other repeaters.

 

[sg_pilot]

Washington County's feeds are down, and have been for quite some time. On a note below each feed, it says that the cable modem is down and a new one has been ordered. Does a feed provider or anyone else have any idea as to when these feeds may be available again?

 

[Hooligan]

Seems like someone local (St George or Washington County info systems techs) have been granted permission to play around with the local UCAN sites. A few days ago, the 155.610/151.4 "East Law" channel used by Hurricane & Washington City PDs was being rebroadcast on a UCAN talkgroup, as was St George PD channel 4 on another talk group. Last night, they were gone, but SGFD 1 was up on a UCAN TG.

I'm not listing the TG #s because as of now, I'm not sure that they'll be the permanent TGs assigned, but if you're local, you'll notice a lot more local UCAN patching. The only one that's consistently stayed up for the past couple weeks is the TG rebroadcasting SGPD 1.


Also, St George had a double-homicide around 3:15AM this morning. One or two suspects, armed with a firearm & a knife, entered an apartment occupied at the time by two females, and one male. The 20 & 27 year old females were stabbed and/or shot & were DOA. The male was shot but ran out across the street to a neighboring home & the neighbor called the po-po. Illegal drugs were found in the apartment...

That's a huge event for this area, let-alone the state, but there wasn't a huge amount of radio traffic as the crime scene was relatively small & suspects fled the scene.

 

[Hooligan]

Also, St George had a double-homicide around 3:15AM this morning. One or two suspects, armed with a firearm & a knife, entered an apartment occupied at the time by two females, and one male. The 20 & 27 year old females were stabbed and/or shot & were DOA. The male was shot but ran out across the street to a neighboring home & the neighbor called the po-po. Illegal drugs were found in the apartment...

That's a huge event for this area, let-alone the state, but there wasn't a huge amount of radio traffic as the crime scene was relatively small & suspects fled the scene.

Just saw on the 5PM news that the two suspects are in custody. PD hasn't released the detail about drugs being found in the crib, though earlier media quotes from them did indicate they thought the crime may be gang/drug-related.

 

[Hooligan]

Nothing major to report for Washington County. No new TGs active on the UCAN sites, no evidence that area LEA cars are starting to get the 800MHz UCAN radios installed, and in fact someone who would be involved with the 800MHz radio phase-in down here told me last week that he'd heard the UCAN organization had funding issues & was going to disband or re-organize! He might be completely wrong about that, but if he clueless, that'd indicate we're a long way away from UCAN migration here.


The official opening of the new St George Airport takes place next this Wednesday, 12 July. The new LifeFlight helo based at DRMC in St. George will land at 2:40PM & be on display for a couple hours. I'll try to be there to learn about their comms & deliver the RR petition that they terminate encryption on their UCAN TGs. They've already been making the rounds at other airports & hospitals in the SW Utah region they're serving.

A photo in the local paper's DRMC insert shows the tailcode as being N109RX but I don't know if that's supposed to be the exact helo that'll be based in StG or not.

 

[enosjones]

The official opening of the new St George Airport takes place next this Wednesday, 12 July. The new LifeFlight helo based at DRMC in St. George will land at 2:40PM & be on display for a couple hours. I'll try to be there to learn about their comms & deliver the RR petition that they terminate encryption on their UCAN TGs. They've already been making the rounds at other airports & hospitals in the SW Utah region they're serving.

A photo in the local paper's DRMC insert shows the tailcode as being N109RX but I don't know if that's supposed to be the exact helo that'll be based in StG or not.

Confirming the date is in July and not January? The reason i ask is i got this email from the weather service regarding the airport:

"Effective January 12 2011 at 1800 coordinated Universal time /UTC/
the NWS office in Salt Lake City UT will begin disseminating the
St. George UT Airport taf under a new identifier - kdxz. Routine and
updated tafs will be issued for the replacement Airport 24 hours a
day.

NWS personnel will need to add the following identifier to their
communications systems to receive the new taf:

Airport WMO heading AWIPS ID
St. George ftus 45 kslc tafdxz

In addition the taf change will be added to the existing taf
collectives below which are transmitted to FAA personnel and other
external customers."

and blah blah blah Just was Curious

 

[Hooligan]

Confirming the date is in July and not January?

Whoa, I must have smoked some bad rock yesterday (bought it from burner50). Thanks for catching my error Enos -- it's this Wednesday, January 12th.

Are you going to attend?

 

[enosjones]

Whoa, I must have smoked some bad rock yesterday (bought it from burner50). Thanks for catching my error Enos -- it's this Wednesday, January 12th.

Are you going to attend?

nah to far away i have no way to get there and i work and no $ :/ ... would be nice, warmer than here

New St. George Airport set to open - ksl.com more info...

 

[Hooligan]

So here's what's been consistently on the Washington County area UCAN system. My radios at home & in the car are set to search mode on UCAN, so I shouldn't be missing-out on any TG activity, and I hear all three major sites very well from the home, car & handheld.

4832 -- UHP Car/car

49664 – UHP Cedar

49696 – UHP Cedar, Virgin Area Dispatch

*49888 – SGPD 4

*50016 – Washington SO Dispatch

*50048 – East Law (Hurricane & Washington City PDs)

*50080 – SGFD 1 (SG, Santa Clara, et al FDs)

* denotes TG is merely rebroadcasting the agency's VHF repeater channel.

For 4832, I'm just hearing UHP Virgin Area car/car traffic on it, not car/car comms from other parts of the state, so the TG must be set up to not rebroadcast activity statewide. 4832 is the only TG that's 1005 800MHz UCAN & not rebroadcasting the VHF channels. 49664 & 49696 is a mixture of some UHP & perhaps AP&P, DNR, etc. using 800MHz & others on the older VHF repeaters. All the other TGs except LifeFlight are simply rebroadcasting the VHF repeaters they're linked with.

There is also a LifeFlight P25 secure TG in use. I assume that Dixie Regional Hospital's comm center has had a UCAN radio on the LifeFlight channel since UCAN became active down here, so that radio affiliates with Webb Hill, which in turn broadcasts all the traffic on that TG. I don;t know right now which TG that is, as the Uniden XT scanners that I have only stop on it for a split second then go back to scanning/searching once they realize it is an encrypted TG. I'll manually camp out on some of them, just so I can ID which TG it is.


Other than that, I've occasionally get the UCAN Engineers TGs, and had one or two Salt Lake & other county public safety TGs become active down in the past, probably the system engineers wanting to test one of the locals sites for a while. I doubt it was a radio from up there affiliating down here while someone was at a conference or something, unless they left their radio on 24/7.


I downloaded & installed the latest UniTrunker software, but it doesn't seem to want to communicate with my BC-396XT.

The new LifeFlight helo based at Dixie Regional Medical Center in StG becomes operational this Friday, covering a 5-county area as far N as Beaver, plus some communities across the AZ & NV borders.

 

[Hooligan]

Quick correction:

When I've heard people switch from UHP Virgin dispatch over to UCAN 4832 (UHP Car/Car) they've said go to "800 car to car."

I still hear occasional UHP car/car traffic on 155.745/210.7Hz which is their statewide car/car VHF channel.