York and Durham Police Patch?

[jonesyxvii]

It's 2:30am (can't sleep) and on YRP 5 District air I've just heard York dispatch doing a test with Durham police dispatch. (I thought Durham used Mike and was unmonitorable, but this was very clearly them.)

This test included York dispatch calling a Durham unit, Durham dispatch calling a York unit, and the units calling each other. It concluded with York dispatch calling the YRP unit on their "backup radio."

Has anyone heard this before? What's it all about?

Rob

 

[unlisted]

I've been hearing it for years, its called patching. (interoperability) Dispatch in York and dispatch in Durham have the ability to "patch" the two different radio systems together, to be able to chat the way you heard if there is a large incident, or if the helicopter is called into their area, or vice versa. Basically York dispatch has a Durham radio, and vice versa. (well, not exactly all the time, but its the easiest way to understand it)

I've heard them (attempt) to patch before when chasing suspects on backroads close to the region border line. (I have also heard quite a bit of "bugger ups" before were only the dispatchers could hear the "patch" and had to play "relay"- basically killing the "patch" feature..) Sounds like they were testing it out when you heard tonight..

Most police agencies have the capability to patch into other (local to them) agencies. OPP and YRP have been patched often before. EMS and Fire do it to. There are also kits one can purchase, so on a large scale incident, all the incident commander needs from your dept is a portable radio, and you can talk to personnel on scene.

 

[bigcam406]

TPS and Durham do regular patch tests as well,usually very early in the am when it isnt busy.

 

[SuperTex]

On the Motorola dispatch console you can patch together pretty well whatever you want. If it's programmed you can patch in most cases. The ability is there to patch a phone to a radio which is kinda cool as well.

Most Public Safety agencies have a "common" (Ontario Police Common, County or Intertownship, Ontario Fire Marshall, EMS Common, for example) and / or have the surrounding area's frequencies on their radio to be able to respond in a Mass Casualty Incident, large scale incident, Mutual Aid or mulitple agency event. You will also find that municipalities have "extra" frequencies that are rarely used to liason with other agencies, Joint Incident Command and Emergency Operation Groups.

 

[Forts]

Quite often London CACC will patch the helo's on UHF onto Fleetnet hospital talkgroups and it seems to work very well. It's also quite nice when OPP and London Police are patched together... the 2 digital systems sound very good tied together. Strangely enough ChathamKent police don't go this route, they patch to 142.7700.