Why Can't I Hear Dispatch On A Talkgroup?

[Unlimited]

I have the Sioux Falls Fire on my scanner and on there dispatch talkgroup I only hear it called out on it about two or three times a month at the most. Whenever the fire department gets called out I never hear it over there dispatch channel. But I do hear it on EMS. I know they get called out at the same time but is there a way how I can hear the fire department gets called out if I have EMS turned off? I like to listen to calls that come in for the fire department but I dont get to hear the medicals calls when they get dispatched out for that. If I have EMS turned on I hear it but if thats off I don't hear them called out. Is there anyway how I can program it so I can hear it on the Fire channel too if they get called out? Because I dont like to have EMS turned on all the time so I can hear when the EMS and Fire get called out.

-Zach

 

[SkipSanders]

Most likely, the Fire Dispatch is patched to multiple talkgroups, and scanners often have problems with patched groups. If you don't have all the groups in the scanner, you may not hear the transmissions.

San Diego Fire, for instance, has at least 3 talkgroups patched together for 'Dispatch', and which one is 'primary' at the moment varies with which way the console set the patch up.

 

[Unlimited]

All I know is they have one talk group for dispatch. then they have channel 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. they NEVER use those for dispatch only fire ground. DOes anyone know how I can fix this?

 

[guitarbrian30]

buy another scanner

zach,

they(metro comm) are using the multiple patches for a single call. which means they are broadcasting on

SFLS FIRE 6 and Rural/metro or medstar at the same exact time.

they do have the cabibilty to light up the entire screen and talk to everyone at once.

Metro comm does over a civilan shadow (ride-a-long) course that takes up an entire saturday. IT is very cool just to see what goes on in the trenches, You will also get to sit next to dispatchers taking calls and such for four hours.

I think this would give you some insight.

The problem is not really a problem. I rather listen to fire ground stuff anyway. Sorry buddy that you are still having that problem,

 

[Unlimited]

Yes, I know they go over many talkgroups at once. I just want to know that why do they dispatch on the channel and the fire station can hear it but it doesnt come over the scanner? Unless i have rural metro channel going. And, for that thing im not old enough yet for it. What I mean is does the audio just no go over the scanner because they send if off in certain stations? Or the scanner doesnt understand what the is thats trying to go over it. Then the talking like the address and what the cal is comes over.

 

[orgchemus]

Are they using alpha-numeric pagers, where it is paged to a fire station pager via text, and not voice?

Rapid City, SD has gone to alpha-numeric pagers so you cannot hear the initial page because it's text and not voice. They are text paged, so the only way to know that they were paged, is by listening to when the departments acknowledge the text page and when they go in route to the call. It sucks but I'll have to deal with it!

Rapid City Life Flight is about the only agency still using a voice system.in Rapid City.

 

[Unlimited]

I dont think so.

I know they have a voice go over in the station because Sioux Falls is a paid department with no pagers only radios. So i think they are voice

 

[orgchemus]

It sounds very similar to the Rapid City Fire Department and EMS. They used to page over the air but they no longer do so and it is frustrating. You cannot hear the call dispatched to the individual fire house or engine company, you only hear the transmission when they acknowledge the page from dispatch.

I have a friend whose coworker's dad works for the Rapid City Fire Department and she is going to ask and find out how they are now paged. It may be a few days, but I will post the answer.

 

[guitarbrian30]

paging

they get text based pages. to digital pagers, cell phones, etc. they also use the computer in the truck to head to calls.

they also get a rip and run dispatch. just in case.. and so Metro does not have to repeat the address 9 times.

In the county we the same treatment for dispatches. just no MDT for dispatches. same on cell text message, and rip and run

 

[SCPD]

I listen to Sioux Falls feeds from time to time. Its seems to me one of the streamers should offer the law enforcement side of the city/county while another provides the fire department. Hmmm interesting concept. 3 people are providing more or less (with some variation) the same feed.

 

[guitarbrian30]

feeds

believe it or not we (feed providers) Have actually discussed splitting up some of the feeds. I let the other two guys hash out the city of sioux falls stuff. I have some problems connecting with that pesky sioux falls tower. I am 22 miles as the crow flies and sit kinda of in a bowl ( black hole) on top of the matter. I think I will be getting a pre-amp with a filter on it. hopefully that will grab some more signal.

I guess I focus primary on County and State dispatches and have added two more counties to my feed since i am only 5 miles from the county lines. I have picked up some more pursuits and other fun listening stuff as a result.

Thanks for listening!

 

[bbtkd]

I listen to Sioux Falls feeds from time to time. Its seems to me one of the streamers should offer the law enforcement side of the city/county while another provides the fire department. Hmmm interesting concept. 3 people are providing more or less (with some variation) the same feed.

I am one of the feed providers and declined an offer to split traffic, for selfish reasons. I had the first feed in the area, providing one place to go to listen to all emergency traffic. I live near Sioux Falls so both Sioux Falls and Minnehaha County traffic are of interest to me, and I suspect many others. I wanted to be able to listen to a single comprehensive feed from my phone. There are no known apps to listen to multiple feeds. There is rarely enough conflicting traffic to make my feed hard to follow. When there is an emergency you hear all responding agencies.

We don't all provide the same thing. One of the others includes other counties and another provides a different mix of talk groups, including some non-emergency. My feed and another provide tags. One of the other feeds is frequently down, but my scanner, PC, and network equipment are all on battery backup so that my feed is only ever down when my ISP is down or for the few minutes once a month when I have to patch my PC. Also, as GuitarBrian mentioned, he lives on the fringe of the Sioux Falls towers so he feeds from a county tower. Lastly, our audio quality differs greatly.

So - I am disinclined to participate in splitting up the traffic. Dividing them up limits you to listening to the few agencies or talk groups on a given feed, totally missing related traffic on other talk groups.

 

[SCPD]

Well I suppose that's how it'll be then.