Radio Failure

[Gargamel37]

anyone know what happened last night around 10pm. The entire County 800mhz radio system as well as the Firecom & Medcom low band & Vhf radios went down?

Firecom had use of a few towers, but 800 was completely OOS for atleast 1/2 hour. Sector cars were getting calls from the Pct Desk on cell phones.

Isn't there a backup system? I believe SCPD has a backup 911 & dispatch, but I don't think FRES does.

[mpfd257]

Around 2245 we were told to get someone to cover our radio and receive calls via landline because Firecom was down. Around 0015 they called back and said they were up and running again.

[Gargamel37]

funny thing about FRES was, they were down - but they were toning out depts on chief tones, I guess to tell the chiefs to get their station manned.

either your down or your not!!! LOL maybe the sector freqs were OOS because 4-2-0 had to take over for nissequoge for a boat fire.

[LIFireEMS]

Doesnt SCPD host the 800mHz? If thats the case, shouldnt FRES still have control over the low-band and VHF operations?

[CFD208]

I would imagine there is a common link between the systems. Maybe it was whatever system carries the radio signals to the towers to be transmitted. That seems like it would involve all the countys radios. I'm sure theres at least one FRES operator on here that can help explain what happened.

[excapt55]

I heard it was a bad flux capacitor. It was only putting out 1.01 gigawatts and not the required 1.21

~

[chunkylover53]

Here's the unofficial word. There was a problem w/ a UPS on the computer system that runs the 800 system. Since FRES and the PD are all on the same 800 system when one goes out so do the others. Now the lowband having problems, all i can guess is that the 800 going down somehow ties into the lowband being microwaved from the radio room to the towers?

[Gargamel37]

Apparently FRES only had use of their Yaphank Tower, possibly the Hampton Park Tower also. Like Chunky said, all the towers are linked via microwave.

[scannerman5555]

years ago tielines { phone co } to radio towers and other stuffed in the county

Brentwood had tie lines too ... all col.'s in the dist plus the sirenes too.... lighting will make them go off all the time or main house disp. col 1 area east house ........

[warthog]

The only back up system we have at county is the larger command van. As far as I know, we have never used it in an emergency.

[chunkylover53]

scannerman5555 said:

years ago tielines { phone co } to radio towers and other suffed in the county

Brentwood had tie lines too ... all col.'s in the dist plus the sirenes too.... lighting will make them go off all the time or main house disp. col 1 area east house ........

Can anyone translate this for me?

[warthog]

I can't, but I don't even know what exalt & smite are.

[chunkylover53]

warthog said:

I can't, but I don't even know what exalt & smite are.

Oh that's easy. When buffy message board people find you E-cool and or E-tough they can "exault" you there by raising you "karma"
If you're an E-douche, you can be smited, there by reducing your karma.
However if you actually care about any of this you need to get off your computer and get a life.

[DILLIGAF51]

Basic run down of how the county radio system works.
1) Dispatcher keys up on "x" tower at FRES.
2) Radio system shoots a microwave beam from FRES Yaphank towner down the street to the PD HQ's tower.
3) PD HQ's tower (the "main tower", if you will) then re distributes the radio signal out to the appropriate tower.

So, when the PD UPS system went down, so did FRES. Despite the fact we work on lowband and UHF, all radio traffic is transmitted on microwave until it hits the transmitter on the desired tower, which converts it to the proper frequency.

There are exeptions, notably the Yaphank towers. Because both towers are directly on top of FRES, all radio equipment and power supplys are stored internally, and therefore there is no need to be on the microwave system. FRES transmitts directly out of the room, to the tower and out on the air and doesnt have to go to the PD HQ's tower.

Also on the fire side, the Greenport tower is run off a dedicated phone line, as is the Medcom Sayville and Port Jefferson towers (similar to how tie-lines work). They are independant of the microwave link.

[CFD208]

Thats E-cool.

[warthog]

The Greenport tower hasn't worked in 5 years. There's a money issue betweeen Southold town and Suffolk county.

[chunkylover53]

dilligif6214 said:

Basic run down of how the county radio system works.
1) Dispatcher keys up on "x" tower at FRES.
2) Radio system shoots a microwave beam from FRES Yaphank towner down the street to the PD HQ's tower.
3) PD HQ's tower (the "main tower", if you will) then re distributes the radio signal out to the appropriate tower.

So, when the PD UPS system went down, so did FRES. Despite the fact we work on lowband and UHF, all radio traffic is transmitted on 800 MHz until it hits the transmitter on the desired tower, which converts it to the proper frequency.

There are exeptions, notably the Yaphank towers. Because both towers are directly on top of FRES, all radio equipment and power supplys are stored internally, and therefore there is no need to be on the microwave system. FRES transmitts directly out of the room, to the tower and out on the air and doesnt have to go to the PD HQ's tower.

Also on the fire side, the Greenport tower is run off a dedicated phone line, as is the Medcom Sayville and Port Jefferson towers (similar to how tie-lines work). They are independant of the microwave link.

Yo Warthog, get a load of this guy, he's got like 5 minutes on the job and he's tellin' people how it works. Settle down n00b!

[fireguy810]

Actually, we just got a letter saying the Greenport tower is back online. We've been getting Sig. 19's done by county off the greenport tower for the past couple weeks now.

[Gargamel37]

warthog said:

The Greenport tower hasn't worked in 5 years. There's a money issue betweeen Southold town and Suffolk county.

The Greenport Tower was shared by FRES & 8-0-0. About 5 years ago when they did work on the water tower, they took all the antennas off it, that's when the problems started.

About 4 towers that FRES uses they don't own, that's why they're not listed on FRES FCC license. The only tower they own which is not on the FCC is Hauppauge, probably cause it's relatively new.

[warthog]

fireguy810 said:

Actually, we just got a letter saying the Greenport tower is back online. We've been getting Sig. 19's done by county off the greenport tower for the past couple weeks now.

I stand corrected the Greenport tower is back in service. I'm still waiting for my letter.

[LIFireEMS]

chunkylover53 said:

warthog said:

I can't, but I don't even know what exalt & smite are.

Oh that's easy. When buffy message board people find you E-cool and or E-tough they can "exault" you there by raising you "karma"
If you're an E-douche, you can be smited, there by reducing your karma.
However if you actually care about any of this you need to get off your computer and get a life.

I got bored waiting for Hot Jobs to be repaired and found some cool options to activate.

[Luke]

cfd208 said:

Thats E-cool.

No exalt love for him then....?

[CFD208]

luke said:

cfd208 said:

Thats E-cool.

No exalt love for him then....?

I wasn't entirely sure "exalt" was a good thing. But I'll tell ya what, I'll "exalt" you for being sharp.

[Luke]

lmao thanks... favor returned for acknowledging my sharpness

you can thank me later for bringing back to even