Yaphank FD Question

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portroyalbirdy

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Hello All! I live in Central PA, but have a Fire Company connection to the Yaphank FD. My volunteer department bought a rig of theirs, (Now our Engine) and I listen to the live scanner feed provided by the department up there, just to see what goes on! I hear their tone outs (which are weird, yet cool!) and their fireground channels if the have an incident. But I'm unsure if their tone outs are done on the countywide dispatch channel, the 5th Division Low Band Channel or on one of their own! Thanks in advance!!!
 

ResqChief201

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Suffolk County FRES (Fire Rescue & Emergency Services), handles dispatching for all 147 Volunteer Departments within the county.

-The Departments are broken down into Divisons based on their geographical locations (10 Divisions Total). Each Department is then assigned a number which can range from 1 - 50. Yaphank is 30. This becomes the 2nd number of the callsign. Then each apparatus is given a number.
So example....5-30-10 is the 5th Division - Yaphank FD - Ladder 10.

-Certain Divisions such as the 1st, 2nd , and 9th Division, provide their own dispatching from a Division Dispatch center. All other divisions, including Yaphank FD, are dispatched by FRES on 46.46 Countywide Dispatch Lowband.
-Units then check enroute on the Specific division Lowband which is also monitored by the county.
-When units arrive on-scene, many depts "switch-up" and operate on UHF ops/fireground channels.

-Now keep in mind, a few departments operate as their own dispatchers and PSAPs and will dispatch and respond directly on their private UHF channels, when they receive 911 calls. BUT, if you dial 911 in these areas and it goes to the county, they still get paged by the county. Kinda confusing but thats how they do it lol.

So to answer your question, Yes, Yaphank is paged on 46.46 Lowband and their Ops is on UHF/VHF
 

portroyalbirdy

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Suffolk County FRES (Fire Rescue & Emergency Services), handles dispatching for all 147 Volunteer Departments within the county.

-The Departments are broken down into Divisons based on their geographical locations (10 Divisions Total). Each Department is then assigned a number which can range from 1 - 50. Yaphank is 30. This becomes the 2nd number of the callsign. Then each apparatus is given a number.
So example....5-30-10 is the 5th Division - Yaphank FD - Ladder 10.

-Certain Divisions such as the 1st, 2nd , and 9th Division, provide their own dispatching from a Division Dispatch center. All other divisions, including Yaphank FD, are dispatched by FRES on 46.46 Countywide Dispatch Lowband.
-Units then check enroute on the Specific division Lowband which is also monitored by the county.
-When units arrive on-scene, many depts "switch-up" and operate on UHF ops/fireground channels.

-Now keep in mind, a few departments operate as their own dispatchers and PSAPs and will dispatch and respond directly on their private UHF channels, when they receive 911 calls. BUT, if you dial 911 in these areas and it goes to the county, they still get paged by the county. Kinda confusing but thats how they do it lol.

So to answer your question, Yes, Yaphank is paged on 46.46 Lowband and their Ops is on UHF/VHF

Thank You ResqChief201! I kind of figured the were, after listening to their feed for a while (a lot of key-up and squelch, probably from other incidents in the county, but the scanner/radio can't quite get it) I think our engine had a "7" on the rear doors. So it would be the 5th Division Yaphank is 30 and Engine 7? Iv'e also heard "5-30-31" would that be a unit or a Line Officer?
 

ResqChief201

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Thank You ResqChief201! I kind of figured the were, after listening to their feed for a while (a lot of key-up and squelch, probably from other incidents in the county, but the scanner/radio can't quite get it) I think our engine had a "7" on the rear doors. So it would be the 5th Division Yaphank is 30 and Engine 7? Iv'e also heard "5-30-31" would that be a unit or a Line Officer?



Yea it's a little confusing here haha.

And yes. 7 would have been an Engine.
Here's a little break down so you can understand it more

5-0-0 = 5th Division Dispatcher
5-30-0 = Yaphank FD HQ (Base)
So if you here someone trying to call 5-30-0, they are trying to get ahold of whoever is in the radio room. (Every Dept has a radio room manned by somone during a call usually)

01-15 = Apparatus
16-20 = Ambulances
21-29 = Apparatus
30 = Chief of Dept
31-35 = Assistant Chiefs. (Most depts have three asst. chiefs and one dept chief)
40-49 = Fire Marshalls
50-59 = Captains
60-69 = Lieutenants
80-89 = First Responder Vehicles. (Depts that also run ems tend to hire one paid emt/medic during the day to staff a equipped SUV to respond to calls)

This is standardized from division to division.

Also this may help you while listening to understand the Signals.

Most common being Signal 2, 4, 5, 12, 13, 14, 16, 20, 21

So if you hear a Signal 13-35, that means a Working Structure Fire. Or if you just here someone say "20", that's another way of saying 10-4, Roger, Ok...

Signal - Meaning

1 - Disaster/emergency (radio freq. clearance requested, avoid all but emergency transmissions)
2 - Proceed(ing) to alarm
3 - Additional help needed
4 - Under control
5 - Return(ing) to station
6 - Leaving unit
7 - Returned to unit
8 - Refreshments
9 - Stand(ing) by
10 - Notify police
10A - Request SCPD Arson Squad
Specify Priority
11 - Notify Utilities
12 - Brush fire
13 - Structural fire
14 - Vehicle fire
15 - Drill/practice
16 - Ambulance/rescue call
17 - Unit breakdown, unable to proceed
18 - Proceeding to hospital
19 - Radio check
20 - Message received
21 - Arrived on the scene
22 - Location
23 - Miscellaneous alarm
24 - Mutual aid
25 - Dismiss companies
26 - Boat fire
27 - Plane crash
28 - In service
29 - Turn on traffic light
34 - Call HQ
35 - Working fire
36 - Unit out of district
37 - Unit returned to district
38 - Unit out of service
39 - Request fire police
40 - Request fire marshal (specify town or county)
50 - DOA
60 - MCI (Mass Casualty Incident)
61 - Doctor requested at scene
62 - Crisis management team requested
99 - Civil Disturbance
100 - Scene Emergency - all units sound air horns - evacuate bldg/area




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portroyalbirdy

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Awesome! Thank You for all of your help ResqChief201! All of that helps me understand things a lot better! I found a "Signal" sheet, but it looked outdated. So again, I greatly thank you for all of the info! I think I have just 2 more questions haha!

1) Does Yaphank/Suffolk County use 2 - Tone, 5 - Tone or Long Tone for paging? (And would you happen to have a list?) (No malicious use intended by any means! I'm just curious on how its set up! If you aren't allowed to give them out, don't feel comfortable giving them out, or just simply don't have any whatsoever, its fully understandable!)

And 2) Why are DTMF Tones used? I don't think any voice pagers decode DTMF, but I could be wrong!
 

ResqChief201

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Most Depts use 2 Tone Quick Call paging with an A/B Long-B setup. There are over 500 paging tones in just Suffolk county so I will message you a list. Most depts have tones for Chiefs, ems, fire, and some even have a tone for specific companies like eng/truck/rescue/brush...etc

As far as DTMF works, manyyyy depts still use their fire sirens/whistles. I would say at least 80 out of the 147 still do maybe more. The DTMF is used to activate the fire whistles. Some depts have different DTMF tones to alert for different calls ( 1 cycle could be a radio test, 2 cycles could be ems alarm, or 5+ cycles could be a fire call) the different DTMF tones are used for this.



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portroyalbirdy

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Most Depts use 2 Tone Quick Call paging with an A/B Long-B setup. There are over 500 paging tones in just Suffolk county so I will message you a list. Most depts have tones for Chiefs, ems, fire, and some even have a tone for specific companies like eng/truck/rescue/brush...etc

As far as DTMF works, manyyyy depts still use their fire sirens/whistles. I would say at least 80 out of the 147 still do maybe more. The DTMF is used to activate the fire whistles. Some depts have different DTMF tones to alert for different calls ( 1 cycle could be a radio test, 2 cycles could be ems alarm, or 5+ cycles could be a fire call) the different DTMF tones are used for this.



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Very interesting! And that list would be awesome! Thank You!!! Also, when you send me that PM, I'll shoot you a photo of Engine 5-30-7, Now Juniata County, PA "Engine 52" if you wish!
 
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