Wayne County Dispatching Pike County EMS.

[mark40]

This morning heard something I had not heard before. For about an hour or so Wayne County was dispatching Pike County EMS units on 155.265, the Pike EMS Dispatch freq. Later heard Pike Comm Center "testing 1-2-3, testing 1-2-3" several times. Perhaps Pike was down for a time with Wayne providing dispatch?

I've been listening here in Pike for the past 16 years and have never heard Wayne dispatch Pike Co before.

Is this type of redundancy common across neighboring counties?

 

[cpg178]

Based on Pike doing testing, then assuming it went back to status quo, I would say your probably right that they went down for some reason. It most likely comes down to agreements counties have with each other, also would require the ability for Wayne to transmit on the Pike towers which depending on how it is setup could be alot more complicated than having the channel in the console.

Here in Lackawanna, our dispatch 'RED' is a simplex channel, so unless a neighboring PSAP had arrangements to acess the tranmitter sites from their location, you cant transmit from there. Now if PIKE EMS Dispatch is a repeater then all Wayne needs is to have the repeater properly programmed into their consoles and they should be set.

 

[GTR8000]

Pike EMS is simplex, not a repeater. Multiple transmitter sites which the county accesses via wireline. Fire is a repeater, however the county also controls those via wireline.

Pike was testing on the channel prior to Wayne briefly taking over, so it sounds more like it was planned than anything else. Could've been a test of the capability, or a console software upgrade, or etc. etc. etc.

Keep in mind that many, if not most/all, of the counties are linked over the state's microwave network. It would be fairly trivial to setup remote wireline so that one county could control another county's base stations and repeaters, even while being out of range of the actual RF.

 

[mark40]

Along the same lines, do most or all county dispatch centers maintain a separate stand alone, remotely located redundant dispatch? When the new Pike facility was being built seem to remember reading that the old dispatch would remain for this purpose.

It also seems logical for a neighboring agency to have the capability of taking over short term and/or until the back-up could be activated in a longer term situation.

 

[smorris]

I wonder why Pike uses simplex for EMS? Monroe Co upgraded their EMS channel plan about five years ago when they stopped using their simplex A1 and started using the repeated A6 channel. Gary Hoffman told me they did this so units can hear and talk directly to one another for situational awareness purposes. Also, I was told that the MCCC maintains a backup console in the basement of the courthouse, where the MCCC used to be prior to 2001.

 

[GTR8000]

I wonder why Pike uses simplex for EMS?

Because they don't feel the need to have it repeated and simulcast like 154.445 is.

 

[smorris]

Now I see, Pike has an EMS disp channel and a separate one for routine EMS traffic that is repeated.

 

[GTR8000]

Now I see, Pike has an EMS disp channel and a separate one for routine EMS traffic that is repeated.

Well, not exactly, no. 151.2575 is never used, all EMS traffic is on 155.265.

 

[mark40]

Well, not exactly, no. 151.2575 is never used.

151.2575 is one of my "White Whales", hope to catch it one day. Another rare Pike catch is 151.235, have heard Emergency Mgt. on it but not in a long time.

 

[GTR8000]

Maybe once every few months someone kerchunks 151.2575, but that's about it. Seems like a waste of a perfectly good repeater. The only thing that ever comes through on 151.235 is either intermod or some distant station hitting the input when there's strong ducting.