Pennsylvania
Contents -
1. Misc - Scanner Info + Statewide Radio Info
2. OpenSky Info
3. County by County Info
-----------------------------------------------
Police service is provided by the State Police, City PDs, Borough PDs, and Township PDs. I dont think that the Sheriff depts in PA provide road patrols. There are a couple of regional PDs in the Philly area.
Fire service is provided by neighborhood FDs, Township FDs, City FDs, and Borough FDs. There are no regional FDs or County FDs. Wildfire service is provided by PA DEP (State Forestry), the USFS on the Alleghany Natl Forest (they probably have one truck), and the MT Joy Forest Fire Crew and ?1 other independant Forest Fire Crew. Many VFDs cooperate with the DEP as Deputy Fire Wardens (or something like that). Basically - DEP provides lookout towers, supervisors, and helos and planes. The ground work is basically provided by the volunteer and municipal fire departments.
Ambulance service is provided by Philadelphia FD, Pittsburgh City Health Dept, City FDs, Borough FDs, Township FDs, Volunteer neighborhood FDs, volunteer ambulance squads, hospitals, and private companies under contract to local governments. There are no countywide ambulance agencies IIRC. Helicopter ambulances are provided by ?hospitals in the larger cities. PA State Police has 3 or 4 larger helos but I dont think that they respond to EMS incidents.
911 dispatch is provided by countywide 911 centers - even in the larger counties. They dispatch police + fire + EMS units. (The only exception is the suburbs to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia - mergers are ongoing of 911 dispatch centers in those counties (Alleghancy Co more so than Montgomery County) as of January 2001)
-----------------------------------------------
Scanner Email lists - [email protected] (Philli area) + [email protected] + [email protected] (Central PA) + [email protected] + [email protected] [onelist.com = egroups.com - now is yahoogroups.com]
June 2001 - see PHLCOMM at www.yahoogroups.com for very detailed info on the Philadelphia area
As of 19 Aug 00, [email protected] has 184 members. There were no posts between August 11 and August 19, 2000.
Scanner News Groups - ?phlscanner or phlradio?
West PA Scanner Site at www.wpascanner.com-June 2001
Old entry for W PA Sccaner site - www.geocities.com/wpascanner">See The Western PN Scanner Page for Statewide radio systems info and Pittsburgh area radio freqs - on 11Aug00, this site changed from www.geocities.com/wpascanrec to www.geocities.com/wpascanner
State Radio Systems - updated Jan 2000
Big Freq List for a SP Radio - has many local freqs - added 27July00
Central PN Monitors Association
Greg Halpin's Webpage for York Area FDs - Jan 2000
Joe Dames's Website for Harrisburg Area FDs - Jan 2000 - has good radio info and fire station lists
SW PA Scanner Guide by D Ruhe at http://www.pitt.edu/~ruhe/ (Dec00) - has lists of fire and EMS stations for many counties plus radio freqs
See www.firehouse.com/links, or The Fire Station, or www.fire-ems.net for multi FDs in PA that are online
===============================================
Info on the New Opensky Statewide Radio System
--------------------------
June 2001 - seems that Lancaster County has recently signed on to use the State TRS - perhaps York County also - apparently there has been a testing project underway in the Harrisburg area
------------------------
?Nov00 - project is way over budget?
Hello, $187 million for a State system is very cheap. Here in Florida we have half a Billion dollars invested in an Astro IMBE system and it only covers half of the State (I'm sure everyone here knows the story). Costs in the neighborhood of 30 million for one county alone are about par for the course nowadays.
In PA they are building a state wide system--at least 95 per cent coverage per county. Cost? started at 179 million--cost overruns added another 42 million and they haven't purchased the radios yet--Total cost when done: My guess $$250 million at least
-----------------------
18Dec00
Pennsylvania's digital system is currently undergoing limited testing and is still heavily under construction.� All state agencies still currently use their respective systems:PSP - VHF Hi DEP - VHF Hi DCNR - VHF Hi PGC - VHF Lo PFBC - VHF Lo PennDOT - VHF Lo Attorney General - UHF DOC - UHF/VHF Lo PEMA - varies
There are other users (state universities, state hospitals, etc) that are scattered around the spectrum. The plan calls for PSP to migrate once the new towers are built (this is where to money looks like it will go over budget...land acquisition apparently has not been as cheap as hoped) and the system fully tested. Others will move over later.�
The system is also available to counties that want to jump on board.� Right now, only two of the 67 counties in PA (Lancaster and Cumberland) have seriously pursued this option.� Last I heard, two other counties were also looking into joining.� Right now, the system has been tested by PSP in both the Harrisburg and Philadelphia areas. Tests in the Harrisburg area supposedly went well.� I think testing is still underway in the Philly area.� Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to monitor the licensed freqs to tell you...everything is digital.�
The system is also unique in that it is MA/COM's Open Sky digital trunked radio system.� Here are a couple of websites out there: www.radio.state.pa.us - apparently, they are still not updating the project status page...I have complained about this, to no avail.
http://www.macom.com/opensky/ - Vendor's official page
Information is sketchy and hard to get, even for Commonwealth employees. The above info comes from various sources, including radio techs and a reporter from northeast Pa who has made it his mission to gather info on the system (I'm glad he is...someone should be watching).
-----Original Message----- > From: peter szerlag [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Friday, December 15, 2000 9:31 AM > Subject: Status of New Statewide Systems? > > > Anyone have any info on the status of the new > statewide radio systems? NY, > CO, ?CA, PA? I heard something about PA being way > over budget but that is > all that I heard. I have seen 800Mhz freqs licensed > for the system. > > Anyone know if NY is moving ahead with their system? > I know that they have a > website - STAR something or other? CA did a > statewide radio analysis a year > or 2 ago - anyone know if they are planning a > statewide upgrade of some > sort? Indiana is apparently slowly moving from 42Mhz > to 800Mhz. And perhaps > Alabama and South Carolina have gone somewhat to > 800Mhz. Anyone have better > info? Is all of Louisiana State Police on 800Mhz > exclusively? > > Peter S -- FAQ: http://plaws.net/scan/scan-l.txt
===============================================
Adams County
Adams County Fire Stations List
-----------------------------------------------
Alleghany County
W PN Scanner Page with Extensive Info -now at www.wpascanner.com (June 2001)
Whatever happened to the info that I received from the Pittsburgh International Airport FD? The Natl Guard fire station at the site was considered to be a "training fire station" more than a active fire station. (?1999 info)
-----------------------------------------------
Bucks County
-----------------------------------------------
Carbon County
June 2001 - didnt I just pick up a mega list of Carbon County freqs from the phlscanner list?
-----------------------------------------------
Chester County
List of Chester County FDs with websites from www.lionvillefire.org
-----------------------------------------------
Crawford County
-----------------------------------------------
Cumberland County
Cumberland County Fire Stations List
-----------------------------------------------
Dauphin County
Dauphin County Fire Stations List
-----------------------------------------------
Lackawana County
Scranton FD has a online radio feed at www.scrantonfire.com/scanner1.html - Oct00
Most FD dispatch is done on 154.31 by the County 911 Center
-----------------------------------------------
Lancaster County
Lancaster County Fire Station List
-----------------------------------------------
Lebanon County
List of Lebanon County Fire Stations
-----------------------------------------------
Lehigh County
June 2001 - I recently picked up a mega list of Lehigh County freqs from the ?phlscanner list
-----------------------------------------------
Luzerne County
June 2001 - see the archives at fireradio list for excellent Scan Luzerne webpage
-----------------------------------------------
Montgomery County
List of Online Fds in Mont Co - with Station #s - on www.atfd.com
Abington Township FD Website - www.atfd.com
-----------------------------------------------
Northampton County
Northampton Regional EMS - recently formed from the merger of 3 nonprofit volunteer ALS + BLS agencies - see "Services" for areas covered (cover into Lehigh Co also)
June 2001 - I recently picked up a mega list of freqs and more from the phlscanner list
-----------------------------------------------
Perry County
List of Perry County Fire Stations
-----------------------------------------------
Philadelphia County
Public Safety Info for Philadelphia
Philly 2nd Alarmer Fire Buffs - May 2000 - has list of Philly Stations
Feb 00 Bld Collapse + May 00 10th Alarm - Response Listings
Large Article About New Philly Trunked Radio System -?Nov 1999
-----------------------------------------------
Schuylkill County
Unknown source on this very, very detailed info - Unknown if ambos are dispatched on police or fire freqs - Public Safety Radio Systems
-----------------------------------------------
Washington County
Nov 1999 - here is some new info that is possibly not on the W PN Scanner Site
Police Radio Zones
Zone 1 : East Washington - Washington - South
Strabane - North Franklin - Donegal Twp. - Claysville
Zone 2 : North Strabane - Canonsburg - Chartiers
- Houston - Smith - Hanover - Burgettstown -Midway -
McDonald (Even though this is technically an Alleg.
Co. Boro.) - Mt. Pleasant
Zone 3 : Union - Donora - Charleroi - Ell-Co Area
- RESAD - California - E. Bethlehem - Fallowfield -
Bentleyville - Carroll - West Pike - Beallsville -
W. Brownsville - Centerville - N. Charleroi
Zone 4 : Future Split of Zone 3
Zone 5 - Peters - Cecil
Zone 6 : Future split of Zone 2
----------
Message: 4 ���Date: Thu, 6 Jul 2000 12:31:47 -0400 ���From: xxx Subject: Re: Alerting pager not alerting, need suggestionsI live in a County where the radio signals (VHF High Band) are not strong enough to set off two-tone belt carried pagers. The pagers usually do not alert indoors, and coverage is spotty outside in many areas of the township.. We use 46MHz for our FD dispatch and this is what we've done for 20 years, no reason it won't work on 155MHz or any other frequency: 1) Each station has a decoder for their 2+2 or DTMF tones (older stations sitll use 2+2/Motorola QuickCall I, moving to DTMF so we can have a REAL group call.) We dispatch 1+1/QuickCall II Pager tones then the stations 2+2/DTMF Siren tones on each dispatch. 2) After each stations decoder decodes their "siren" tones the STATIONS base then RETRANSMITS their PAGER tones (1+1/QuickCall II etc.) to rebroadcast for their immediate area. 3) Dispatchers wait till they hear "come back tones" the stations 1+1 pager tones a second time then give the message. This solves: 1) Coverage problems stations rebroadcast in their immediate area to activate pagers, home monitors etc.. 2) Provides and acknowledgement that the siren at the station and their decoder was activated. Not all stations do this, as a result of being dispatched by differing center previous to the 1994 consolidation. My agency does not use rebroadcast tones, but most of the other 53 stations do. I say at most 10 don't. PCO Peters Twp. PD, Wash Co. @ Washington Co. E911 http://washcodps.hypermart.net - UNOFFICIAL Washington Co. E911 Page http://free.prohosting.com/~wpadisp - Western PA Dispatchers Page & List
-----------------------------------------------
Westmoreland County
Jan 2000 - discussion on the wpa scanner list - EMA director quit/fired - due to lack of support by local FDs for new 800T system
Police Radio District 6 (South)(155.565) is simulcast on Fayette County Talkgroup 880
More Info - EMS Unit Radio Numbers
-----------------------------------------------
York County
List of York County Fire Stations
-----------------------------------------------
Updated - 15May00 - Philly 2 Alarmers - 7July00 - Wash Co paging info - 27July00 - big list SP + local PD freqs - Mont Co FDs - Chester Co FDs - 19Aug00 - OpenSky VMRs + Email scanner lists - 10Oct00 - minor changes - 03Dec00 - SW PA Scanner Site by D Ruhe - 31Dec00 - statewide TRS update - 07Jan01 - $250M pricetag - changes to general PA info + spelling corrections - June 2001 - misc stuff - corrected wpascanner
-----------------------------------------------