Table of Contents
1. New Items
2. Dispatch and Communications
3. FDNY
4. Radio Freqs/Scanner Site
5. NY EMS
6. NYPD
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NEW ITEMS
Backup 7 Digit Emergency Phone Numbers in NYC - April 2000 or look here
To listen to NYPD live on the Internet, please go to www.apbonline.com or www.policescanner.com
To listen to FDNY live on the Internet, please go to www.thebravest.com (since July 1999)
NY NJ Port Authority File - also see posts to fireradio around 04 June 2001 for info on the TRS
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11 September 2001 - Arab terrorists rammed 2 jetliners into the World Trade Center towers - close to 3,000 people were killed, including 345 members of FDNY. In August 2002, there have been multiple newspaper stories concerning the radio problems that FDNY encountered. (see yahoogroups.com/group/firerad2 or alt.firefighters or FDNYING at yahoogroups.com - Aug 2002
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DISPATCH AND COMMUNICATIONS
911 is the phone number to dial in New York City in order to report an emergency that requires police, ambulance, or fire service. All 911 calls are initially answered by police calltakers at the Police Public Safety Answering Point at the MetroTech Center in Brooklyn. Fire calls are forwarded to the 5 fire dispatch centers. (Each of the 5 boroughs has its own fire dispatch center.) Ambulance calls are forwarded to the ambulance dispatch center in Maspeth.
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Ambulance Dispatch - All city emergency ambulances are dispatched from by the Maspeth Dispatch Center. Most calls are transmitted to field units via mobile data terminals (MDTs) which operate at the 800Mhz range. All ambulances have 1 MDT, 1 mobile radio, and 2 portable radios. The two-way radios operate at 476Mhz or 800Mhz. Most radios in the 476Mhz range also have police radio channels.
1999 - Due to the sinking of the Maspeth HQ into the ground, all ambulance dispatch operations now take place from temporary buildings next to the EMS HQ in Maspeth. In the future, all dispatchers will operate from the MetroTech Center near FD HQ in Brooklyn while the 5 fire dispatch centers are being rehabbed. When the rehabbing is completed, the EMS dispatchers will be decentralized into the 5 different fire dispatch centers. Presently, additional EMS channels are being put into use in the 484Mhz range for ambulance use.
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Fire Dispatch
Here is a great website by Supervisory Dispatcher Frank Raffa �Great Site� - look for "Ext 261" for detailed Dispatch Office Operations Info - "Stats" have annual NYC fire deaths from 1975 to 1995 - 10 Codes - Radio Terms
The Bronx Office has a website with audio clips. Look down below under FDNY for the hot link.
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5 fire dispatch centers serve New York City - 1 per each of the five boroughs of the city. Incidents are received via telephone from the public and from alarm companies. Incidents are also received from Emergency Reporting System (ERS) boxes that are located on many street corners. Presently (in 1999) there are 10,159 ERS boxes in operation. Each box has 1 speaker and two buttons. Pushing the blue police button will connect the user to the Police Dept PSAP. Pushing the red button will connect the user to the borough fire dispatch center. 4,918 telegraphic pull ("Gamewell") boxes are still used by the fire department to receive alarms from high hazard locations (primarily from wired alarm systems in high hazard buildings).
Frank Raffa's website has detailed info explaining the internal workings of the fire dispatch centers. (The Manhattan office has 4 calltaker positions/consoles)
The fire dispatchers work for 12 consecutive hours. There are 4 platoons/shifts/tours of dispatchers. They work two 12 hour day shifts (from 7AM to 7PM) followed by two 12 hour night shifts (from 7PM to 7AM). Then they have 96 hours off duty. Starting salaries are approximately $28,000 per year.
The Manhattan and Brooklyn offices have a minimum of 1 supervisory dispatcher plus 7 regular dispatchers on duty at any time. (The Brooklyn office goes down to 1+6 from 1AM to 7AM). The Queens and Bronx Offices have a minimum of 1 supervisor + 6 dispatchers on duty. The Staten Island has a minimum of 1 + 4 on duty.
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Samples of NYFD Box Cards - 1999
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Police Communications - see below
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General Scanning Info
Beside the Fire Department frequencies there are dozen's of other agencies that will fill up your scanner and keep you wondering if New Yorker's suffer from RF radiation..LOL.
We have a very good EMS/Fire/News/Police buff frequency that's in use 24 hours a day. If anything major is happening it's announced on this channel: 461.6500 mhz.
For the Fire Department frequencies that were mentioned earlier the pl is 186.2. The fire ground/HT frequency 153.830 mhz does not use a pl code.
EMS is under the Fire Department's jurisdiction and is on the UHF segment. The best channel to monitor is EMS, City Wide, 478.0125 pl. 85.4.
Of all the Police frequencies these are the most active to monitor activities in the five boroughs of NYC. SOD is the most active as highway patrol, emergency service and other major units operate on this freq. as their primary assignment. All assist police officer signals are also sent over, hostage situations and just about every major event that involves the NYPD is announced here. SOD (Special Operations) 470.8375 pl 136.5 CW1 470.6875 pl 100.0 CW3 470.8625 pl 151.4 CW4 470.8875 pl 123.0
There are three decent area web sites that have listings of police, fire, EMS, transit etc. in and around NYC.
http://www.n2nov.net - Charles Hargrove's website has the most extensive listing of NYC frequencies.
http://members.aol.com/fd.347 - Frank Raffa an FDNY Supervising Dispatcher has some great info on FDNY.
http://www.nf2g.com/scannist - David Stark's scanner info site. If you need a frequency for anywhere in NY State, some Vermont and other areas this is the site to go to. Hope this info helps. 01Nov00
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New York City Fire Department
?March 2000 - added 2 new small boats
Historic Fireboat Website with good links
Steve Spak's FDNY Photos Website - has the Super Pumper
United Firefighters of NYC - Local 194 Website
The Bronx Comms Office - 2/99 - includes audio files of notable fire radio messages
FD Dispatchers Association - 1997
Another Good Site with Basic Info
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Here are Parts 1 and 2 of a management study done on the NYFD in 1997 - it has lots of interesting info. Part 1 and�Part 2�
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August 1999 - you can join FDNYING at www.onelist.com to receive breaking news about the NY City FD - and Real-Audio-Scanner @ onelist.com has bulletins announcing when NYFD has a multiple alarm fire (gone as of Dec 1999) - also see [email protected] - check out www.incidentpage.com
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Subject: New FDNY 10 code, 10-77 >Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1999 22:08:53 EDT
Effective 0900 hours, July 19, 1999, the radio signal 10-77 is officially established. (Some impatient chiefs have used this signal twice over the past weekend.) The response will be 4 engines, 4 ladders, 3 battalion chiefs, 1 deputy, 1 rescue, 1 squad, the SOC battalion, the Safety Battalion, a FAST truck, and a CFR-D engine.
A second alarm will increase the response by 4 engines, 2 ladders, a satellite unit, a battalion chief to act as the Communications Coordinator (COMCORD), the Field Comm unit, Mask Service unit, a RAC, a tactical support unit, and the Photo unit (car 23F).
This response was designed for use at high-rise multiple dwelling fires. The decision to transmit 10-76 or 10-77 resides with the IC. The 10-77 signal is geared more towards multiple dwellings as opposed to the 10-76 which was originally designed for commercial structures.
Frank Raffa - Supv. Dispatcher, FDNY - Frank Raffa's Little Hole in the Web
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25 April 2000 - found on PhotoPoint
Ye Olde Super Pumper Tender - as of June 2001 Photopoint started charging for usage
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54 Firefighters Transferred From Queens Firehouse - October 27, 1999
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Engine Fails To Respond To Reported Serious Fire - April 2000
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October 2000
The dispatch policy was not really reduced. The MINIMUM response was raised to 2+1 from 1+1. Since the inception of roster staffing in the 1980's the UFA has contended that they require 2 engines to stretch the first line. That's when the 10-14 engine began, thus insuring that there would be at least 2 engines per structural response.
I am not privy to the details of the deal that precipitated this change. I believe that the city, always worried about availability for CFR runs, traded off the minimum response in return for the loss of the 10-14 engine. This policy only affects single source alarms. There still will be 3+2 on a second source.
Mr X - www.FDNewYork.com
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FDNY Redistributes UHF Portables In Analog - Feb 2003
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NEW YORK CITY AMBULANCE SERVICE
FDNY*EMS UHF Frequency plan: Nov 1999 CW------------ 478.0125----- 85.4 BRONX-N--- 478.2125----- 85.4 BRONX-S----477.8375----- 85.4 MAN-N------ 483.2375----- 85.4 MAN-C------ 483.4875----- 85.4 MAN-S------ 483.3625----- 85.4 QNS-N------- 477.9125----- 85.4 QNS-S-------- 483.6125----- 85.4 BKLN-N----- 478.2625----- 85.4 BKLN-C----- 477.8625----- 85.4 BKLN-S----- 484.2375----- 85.4 SI-------------- 484.4875----- 85.4 TAC-1-------- 478.0125----- 85.4 TAC-2-------- 487.4875----- 85.4
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EMS is now (?1998) part of the FD. See the "FDNY Sucks" webpage for an alternate view of this marriage. Or look Here for video clips and news about NYC EMS
In the 1990s, each ambo had a 470Mhz mobile radio and a 800Mhz mobile radio. Either 800Mhz or 470Mhz portables would be assigned to an ambo depending on what part of the city the ambo was assigned to.
From the FDNY Sucks website - ambos must transport stable patients without lights and sirens now - SAD engines no longer respond to health care occupancies - some EMS calls no longer get Engine responses
The EMS Union has a website with a ?newsletter
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August 2002 - City ambulances in New York City have a crew of 2 people usually - right? All " 911 " ambulances in NYC, whether operated directly by the city or via the contracts, are staffed with either two emts or two paramedics. (if it's an emt and medic crew, which can sometimes happen when filling slots, then it's considered an emt unit).
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New York City Police
see PD website
Fight Breaks Out Between NYFD + NYPD Officers at HiRise Rescue - 1999
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February 2001 Dispatch Times
info from www.dispatchnews.net - comments from alt.med.ems
New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani released his semi-annual report on the performance of city departments, and noted that the average response time to Priority 1 police calls increased to 12 minutes during the 4 months ending Oct. 30th last year--it was just 10.8 minutes during that same period of 1999. What's more, the average response time has increased each year since 1993, when it hit a low of 7.9 minutes. Fire department response times were slightly lower for the same period: an average of 4 minutes 38 seconds in 2000 compared to 4:54 in 1999. [Info excerpted from www.dispatchnews.net]
Anybody know what the EMS response times were?
Not offhand. It tends to be in the range of nine minute average (note that word average) for the high priority runs. The lower priority calls are cacluatlated separately and thse figures aren't as widely available. but see my comments later on...
If a business cooked their figures the way NYPD does with response times, the owners would follow Leona Helmsley to jail.
The proper way and the sensible way and the obvious way and the CAAS way to record these is from the moment the person makes the 911 call to the arrival of the unit. NYC EMS uses that one. (alas, they use 'lampost arrival time' rather than patient contact, but at least it's defensible)
NYPD uses 'car dispatch to car arrival' time. The call processing and delays in HQ prior to the radio dispatch are simply ignored.
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Warning
All of these times are totally unreliable. The police times are gathered during occasional sampling periods when cops tell the dispatcher when they are on the scene sort of when and if they feel like it. They don't routinely tell the dispatcher, and compliance during the sampling periods is spotty at best. The basic answer to police response time is "who knows", but if it is a hot job you can usually expect to see more cops than you ever thought existed faster than you ever thought possible.
Fire dept times tend to defy reality. Try making a phone call, getting even basic info and then sending it somewhere else, getting 5 guys out of bed, getting dressed, going downstairs, starting your truck, getting everybody aboard and driving somewhere, even close by in that amount of time. There is some question as to whether the clock starts when the job comes into 911, when the job goes to the company or when they leave the house.
Bogus EMS response times have been a long standing tradition in NYC. A number of EMS directors have met their demise in various response time scandals over the years. So, even if they published something, nobody would believe it.
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GENERAL INFO ON RADIO SYSTEMS
From the ScanCom list - June 2001
Subject: Re: [ScanCom] NYPD info
Reply�to: [email protected]
All of the Tac Frequencies are in use as Point to Point Frequencies. Channels A-F are used by Precinct Units on a consecutive basis. You normally have to be within a few blocks to monitor them. Tac G is used by ESU and many times you hear the Aviation units talking to them on the ground, since they are so high they carry for a long range. The Inter-operability Channels are currently being used by various NYPD units for administrative Messages and some surveillance. They are quite active. The FDNY still is not using them nor is the Bureau of EMS so the NYPD has sort of grabbed them for now. They are designed for inter-communication between the FDNY & The FDNY BEMS. The NYC DOITT system is only being used by the Office of Emergency management to talk to their units and to the base stations of other agencies. I don't believe it was intended to inter-communication between field units as the inter-operability channels were. also, I have not heard any FDNY units on the DOITT system in weeks. They see to be telling nits to use Cell Phones and they ma be using one of the NEW FDNY Frequencies but� have not been monitoring them.
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Updated - 8 April 2000 - FDNY radio info moved to different file - info added about BC HT ops - 25Apr00 - added Super Pumper photo and Table of Contents - 5May00 - added E Fails Story - 21July00 - Steve Spak's FD website - 27July00 - FDNY/EMS Sucks website - 07Aug00 - link to Port Auth file - 25Oct00 - 2+1 min - EMS response policy changes - 01Nov00 - general scanning info - 15Feb01 - June 2001 - info on general status of NYPD radio channels - 10Feb2003 - FDNY Redistributes UHF HTs
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