Watertown Fire - P25

[n1zyy]

I don't have my scanner online right now to grab the NAC (I'm rearranging the shack) (that wasn't intended to rhyme), but I'm hearing P25 on 483.7125, Watertown (MA) Fire's frequency. On a commercial handheld, I can put in the decode-everything NAC of F7E and hear fire-related traffic, but I don't have the means right now to find the actual NAC they're using.

If someone with a scanner that's not in a box wants to take a listen, they haven't been confirmed on the Middlesex County Fire Departments page in nearly 2 years.

[garys]

They were analog Wednesday when I was out in that area.

[n1zyy]

D'oh! I heard traffic talking about fire apparatus on the Watertown fire frequency, but in P25, so I was foolishly sure it was them using a new mode. It's not like another fire department in the area would be licensed on the same frequency...

...except for Tewksbury Fire, which uses P25 and is the next town over from me. And also, apparently, Concord fireground.

So disregard this. I almost certainly heard Tewksbury.

[ecps92]

Could that have been Tewksbury Fire on $307 ??

Never mind, was replying to the 1st post, glad you figured it out

I don't have my scanner online right now to grab the NAC (I'm rearranging the shack) (that wasn't intended to rhyme), but I'm hearing P25 on 483.7125, Watertown (MA) Fire's frequency. On a commercial handheld, I can put in the decode-everything NAC of F7E and hear fire-related traffic, but I don't have the means right now to find the actual NAC they're using.

If someone with a scanner that's not in a box wants to take a listen, they haven't been confirmed on the Middlesex County Fire Departments page in nearly 2 years.

[AJ1L]

Some of the spacing on what seems like just fire departments on T-Band like this in the Boston area is truly puzzling, and they've been around for quite some time. A couple other very short spaced one are Brookline and Wakefield on 483.4375 and Salem/Newton on 483.4625.

[garys]

Early on with both FD and PD systems that was not that unusual. Some of the systems used different PLs and that actually decreased interference to the public safety users if not to scanner listeners. Bedford and Brockton share 482.7125, but with different PLs. Well, different Pls initially and now Bedford is P25.

Depending on where I was, I could hear both on a scanner, but their radios were deaf to each other.

Over the years as channel spacing changed, more and more T band (and regular UHF) frequencies have become available, to it's less of an issue.

Perhaps a bigger issue overall was two adjacent towns sharing a frequency because neither was thought to be busy enough to need their own channel. Canton/Stoughton and Milton/Randolph come to mind. There were even more in Plymouth and Bristol Counties.

Some of the spacing on what seems like just fire departments on T-Band like this in the Boston area is truly puzzling, and they've been around for quite some time. A couple other very short spaced one are Brookline and Wakefield on 483.4375 and Salem/Newton on 483.4625.

[W1KNE]

Perhaps a bigger issue overall was two adjacent towns sharing a frequency because neither was thought to be busy enough to need their own channel. Canton/Stoughton and Milton/Randolph come to mind. There were even more in Plymouth and Bristol Counties.

482.8125 N997 is still shared by Acushnet, Fairhaven and Mattapoisett.

[garys]

I'd have to dig back through the memory banks to remember who else shared and have since gone to different frequencies. I think that there are a bunch in Plymouth County.

Then again, I remember when a lot of towns shared 155.730 in both Plymouth and Norfolk Counties. Bill does as well. That's when Brockton PD was on 155.865 (I think). Oh, Brockton and Everett FDs shared 154.310. And I think Cambridge and Weymouth shared different VHF frequencies with Concord NH fire dispatch. Back when Concord used one frequency for themselves and another for the surrounding towns.

Of course if you had a ten channel crystal controlled scanner you could hear about 20 different agencies.

482.8125 N997 is still shared by Acushnet, Fairhaven and Mattapoisett.

[n1zyy]

Over the years as channel spacing changed, more and more T band (and regular UHF) frequencies have become available, to it's less of an issue.

As someone who didn't live in MA until after narrowbanding, did they start out with 25 kHz spacing but using the "odd" ones? I see a lot of .4125 or .4375 frequencies, but not a lot of .425 or .450, and always wondered why that was. Or maybe it was the other way around and they moved to the new "interstitial" frequencies as more frequencies became available? (And wasn't T-band technically exempt from narrowbanding?)

I always wondered why they don't make TV channel 15 available here, 476-482 MHz. Looks like it's got a few TV licenses in Maine, but that's a lot further away that's a lot further from Brookline than Wakefield...

[garys]

Yes, it was all the "odd" frequencies above 469.00 to start. The "even" numbers came along later on, although I don't recall exactly when. And UHF was the opposite.

As someone who didn't live in MA until after narrowbanding, did they start out with 25 kHz spacing but using the "odd" ones? I see a lot of .4125 or .4375 frequencies, but not a lot of .425 or .450, and always wondered why that was. Or maybe it was the other way around and they moved to the new "interstitial" frequencies as more frequencies became available? (And wasn't T-band technically exempt from narrowbanding?)

I always wondered why they don't make TV channel 15 available here, 476-482 MHz. Looks like it's got a few TV licenses in Maine, but that's a lot further away that's a lot further from Brookline than Wakefield...

[RKG]

Re: Watertown: It has plans to add a new Sub-Part L repeated channel, in digital mode, as dispatch, and when this happens the existing channel, which will remain analog with same freq and PL, will be a repeated fireground channel. The schedule for these changes is, as far as I know at the moment, not fixed, but when it happens the new freq and NAC will be published.

At the same time (whenever that happens), Watertown PD will change to digital, on same freq.