Does anyone know what CMed channel WS Fire uses to communicate with area hospitals? I have all the local freqs programmed and I don’t hear them at all on any of them. Do they even use CMed? Any responses to this inquiry are appreciated. Thanks.
I don't know about present day but I can confirm that West Springfield Fire used CMED in the past for ambulance-to-hospital communications. A few years back I was at The Big E for the day and saw them transport multiple patients to the hospital throughout the day. Each time they came up on Springfield CMED PL 100.0 (initially on Med 4 for calling/hailing and then to their assigned Med channel) to give the hospital a report on what they were coming in with.
As others have already mentioned in this thread, West Springfield Fire's use of CMED may no longer be the case in 2023 with all of the changes/advances in technology that have occurred over the years. The CMED system in Massachusetts started back in the mid 1970's when federal grant money was plentiful. Fall River CMED (now Bristol County CMED) was one of the very early adopters of the UHF Med channels in the Commonwealth. The CMED system was initially designed/engineered for full duplex communications but that is no longer the case today. The actual CMED analog radio technology hasn't really changed much over the last 45+ years other than the UHF narrow banding that occurred about 10 years ago per FCC mandate. The narrow banding opened up the additional 10 splinter Med channels (Med 12-102) so there are now 20 Med channels available for use in the Commonwealth.
One thing to keep in mind when trying to monitor the ambulances/mobiles on the 468.xxxx MHz frequencies is that those 16 channels (Med 1-8 and Med 12-82) are "usually" non-repeated (with some possible exceptions) so you are monitoring the mobile radio directly. Per the Massachusetts EMS Communications Plan "Subscriber radio equipment shall have, as its
maximum transmitter output, a power of between 25 watts and 50 watts." In reality what that means is if the ambulance has a 25-watt UHF CMED radio with a unity gain antenna, you will probably only be able to hear them reliably/intelligibly if you are within a few miles of the ambulance. If you have a base station/rooftop scanner antenna and flat terrain in your area, perhaps you will hear the mobiles a little bit further out. YMMV
The 16 CMED/Hospital transmit frequencies on 463.xxxx MHz (Med 1-8 and Med 12-82) are much easier to monitor as they have higher power and substantial antennas for area-wide coverage. Med 9, Med 92, Med 10 and Med 102 on 462.xxxx MHz are designated as EMS dispatch/coordination channels and are "usually" repeated (with some possible exceptions) so there is no need to monitor those 4 repeater inputs on 467.xxxx MHz.
