Is Wilkes County fire utilizing Viper now or is it being simulcast?
Wilkes County
- Thread starter SouthernRoller
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When I was up there in the fall for the Apple Fest.
They were simulcasting on both Viper and VHF
Ems is strictly Viper for patient encode reports to Wilkes Medical Center.
David
They were simulcasting on both Viper and VHF
Ems is strictly Viper for patient encode reports to Wilkes Medical Center.
David
sloop
Member
Sorry that this is late in response....for the most part Wilkes is VHF and will be for some time due to the geography and cost of changing over to viper. SHP is using viper and WKS lake is on their own P25 system (doesn't work well). Stone Mtn. State park , NC Wildlife, and NC Forestry Service (still simulcast for local fire depts.) have viper but Stone Mtn Park uses VHF around the park because they can't access Viper over most of the park. In all anything that you would like to (or need to) listen in on is VHF (except SHP).
ncdadof3
Member
Wilkes Fire has been dispatching on Viper.
sloop
Member
Great to know....only trouble is none of the fire departments (except maybe Wilkesboro and N. Wilkesboro) have viper capable radios. They all use 154.400 dispatch, 154.280 fire grounds, and maybe their own private channel. The two towns have been pushing for a change over to viper but the rural depts. are against it because of cost and reliability in certain areas of the county.
So with them still on 154.400 I would assume they're simulcasting on Viper.
sloop
Member
They must be, but I did not know that the Communications Center had obtained VIPER in their system yet............the last I heard was that they were still trying to get the money for county wide and very few were wanting it. I will check into that Monday night and get back on here and let you know what I find out.
Yeah up here in Ashe, it's the same thing. To much expense for the county commissioners to swallow, but they do simulcast SO and FD on Viper depending on who's dispatching .
Not alot of Viper traffic heard in Ashe anyway. Mainly NCSHP Newton, and sometimes what Ashe simulcast of their VHF traffic. Haven't even heard Wilkes in a few days here now.
sloop
Member
OK, talked to a tech this morning....Wilkes Comm. center does simulcast sheriff and fire, however vhf is still primary. No new id's are being issued because of change over to phase 2 in the future. Old units may or may not be able to be converted to phase 2. New units cost average $4000 to $6000 each with 24 fire departments average 5 trucks each and 6 HT for officers the cost to switch over would be $120,000 - $180,000 per department or $2,880,000 - $4,320,000 for the county. That doesn't include the cost of new repeaters to cover some of the more mountainous areas of the county. For that reason alone I don't see a switch over any time soon.
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