(EDT-3) Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net
XX wrote:
- You can get all of the OCFA info from...
http://www.latraffic.org/radioman/orange/ocfa.html
On Wed, 07 Jun 2000 09:52:16 GMT, XXX wrote:
I have a lot of info on the new fire net. The law net info is pretty useless, since there is nothing you can monitor that you can understand. It will take me some time to type up the useful fire net info, so I will post that, probably this weekend.
Not quite true...
For those who listen to Orange County, CA, fire agencies, the info currently listed on all the websites I am familiar with is no longer completely accurate. For example, the Orange County Fire 800 MHz trunked system listed at
http://www.latraffic.org/radioman/orange/ocfa.html is accurate, but incomplete. It only lists the freqs for the Orange County "Countywide" Cell group, and to listen to Costa Mesa and Santa Ana FDs, you now need to also program (into a separate bank) the following freqs for the South Cell group:
868.925
868.625
868.675
868.375
868.125
867.875
867.825
867.825
867.625
867.375
867.125
866.875
866.625
866.375
866.175
866.125
Note that the above frequencies are shared with the new law enforcement net digital system, and so you will need to lock out about 30 undiscernable digital talkgroups to narrow it down just to the analog talk groups used by Costa Mesa and Santa Ana FDs. Not much different than the approx 50 law digital talkgroups you now have to lock out of the CountyWide Cell group to listen to all the rest of the FD analog talkgroups.
Now that the digital and *encrypted* law net is online and agencies are switching over in phases (if things go as scheduled, by the end of the year 460 MHz will go completely silent for law in Orange County, CA), there are 5 regional cell systems plus the countywide cell system: North, Northwest, South, Southwest, Laguna and CountyWide. Each cell consists of many talkgroups that are either agency specific or shared. The fire talkgroups have all their normally used dispatch and tac talkgroups on Countywide cell or South cell (in the case of Santa Ana and Costa Mesa). However, all fire agencies also have the capability of using multiagency talkgroups that are located on all six cells. These talkgroups will rarely be used, but will allow PDs and FDs and other agencies like lifeguard to interface during major emergencies, such as an earthquake.
(Hopefully, now that I have posted this info, all those websites will be updated soon!)
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Group: alt.radio.scanner Date: Tue, Jul 18, 2000, 9:51am (EDT+4) Re: Orange county,ca. fire
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In article <[email protected]>, thekennys wrote:
Question
Am I right to guess that this dept is almost all digital now.If I do get any recpt. its either data, digital, or some sort of voice dispatch, no interaction between units. Just listening yesterday, with the bc9000 and locked out any channel with non voice, found out I blocked out all channels by the end of the day, thought it was awfull quiet! I heard there are more new channels for orco, is there?
Answer
Orange County, CA 800MHz was a topic of several threads in this ng last month, but I will recap some of that and respond to your question:
No, none of the primary operations or tactical communications of the fire departments in Orange County, CA, are digital, they remain analog. The only digital talkgroups on the recently upgraded Fire Net 800 MHZ trunked CCCS (Countywide Coordinated Communications System) are those used by Arson Investigators and Public Information Officers. These are both digital and encrypted talkgroups. The fire departments also have access to several interagency talkgroups (so they will be able to communicate directly with police units, for example, when staged and waiting for an "all clear" to enter medical aid calls such as a shooting) and these talk groups are also digital. These "shared" talkgroups would also be used in the event of a major disastor, such as earthquake, firestorm, or flood.
As for your inability to hear or follow all the fire radio communications, you may be unaware of these facts:
1) The frequencies for the fire talkgroups have been somewhat changed. You may not have the proper frequencies programmed or you may be missing the control frequency required to monitor in trunking mode.
2) If you didn't know about #1 above, then you probably are not hearing anything from Costa Mesa or Santa Ana, because they are in a totally different "cell" now on different 800 MHz frequencies.
3) If you are trying to monitor Orange County fire comms on your scanner in conventional mode (rather than trunk tracking), you cannot do this any more and keep your sanity because of #4 below.
4) What IS now digital is the new Orange County Law Net 800 MHz CCCS, AND this new system SHARES all the 800 MHz frequencies that were formerely only used by the fire departments. Thus far, only Irvine PD and Tustin PD are completely switched over to the 800 MHZ digital trunked system (and hating it), but they are enough to put some digital traffic on the 800 MHz frequencies that used to be only used by fire, several times an hour, 24/7. Also, there has been considerable testing of the system going on for the past several months, and I have locked out more than 50 digital talkgroups from the five cells (North, Northwest, South, Southwest, and Countywide - each one equals one bank in your scanner that is hopefully a newer model that can scan more than one bank at a time in trunk tracking mode). In trunking mode, it is easy to tell what is a digital takgroup, not just by the annoying noise, but because these are mostly five digit talkgroup IDs whereas all the fire talkgroup IDs are four digit.
Here are the frequencies for the Countywide Cell, on which you will hear all FDs in the county except Santa Ana and Costa Mesa (well, except when they are on mutual aid with the others). These are shared by law net and fire net, so you will hear both digital and analog. You will need to lock out the digital talkgroups since they can only be heard as noise.
1. 857.4625
2. 856.7125
3. 860.4625
4. 860.2125
5. 859.9625
6. 859.7125
7. 859.4625
8. 859.2125
9. 858.9625
10. 858.7125
11. 858.4625
12. 858.2125
13. 857.9625
14. 857.7125
15. 860.9625
16. 857.2125
17. 856.9625
18. 860.7125
19. 851.0625
Here are the South Cell frequencies. These are also shared by law net and fire net, so you will hear both digital and analog. The only thing you will be able to understand is Santa Ana and Costa Mesa FDs. You will need to lock out the digital talkgroups.
1. 868.925
2. 868.625
3. 868.675
4. 868.375
5. 868.125
6. 868.875
7. 867.875
8. 867.825
9. 867.625
10. 867.375
11. 867.125
12. 866.875
13. 866.625
14. 866.375
15. 866.175
18. 866.125
I will not bother to list the other Cells, since they are completely digital and encrypted and currently unmonitorable. All the freqs are in the 851-869 Mhz range, mostly between 866 and 868 Mhz.
Mike
(And this is probably way more information than anyone wanted!)