>>> Part 1 of 2...
As promised, here is what info I've uncovered on the City of Calgary's new
Motorola trunk system, used by its emergency services. While this info is not
by any means complete, it is up-to-date enough to plug into a TrunkTracker
and use quite well.
I won't post regular updates here (unless people ask for them); if you want
to know more, and/or if I've found anything new lately, email me at
derran@revenge.cuug.ab.ca.
The City of Calgary Emergency Services Trunk is a SmartZone system. It has
four 'zones' or separate trunks that cover the city with the same traffic on
all four (with one exception--see the talkgroup listing, below), and one zone
that carries the backup-system talkgroups. The system, as far as I can tell,
uses the three remaining Calgary Fire Department towers--Spy Hill, in the far
northwest; Forest Lawn, near Memorial Drive and 19 St NE; and #19 Station, in
the Canyon Meadows area. In addition, there is a new tower on top of Bankers
Hall downtown, and there is a new tower on 37 Street SW at about the 16200
block. The Forest Lawn tower is the one that carries the backup system; the
other four are the regular system.
The southwest (37 St), northwest (Spy Hill), and Central (Bankers Hall) zones
all have 8 frequencies including the non-roaming data channel. The southeast
(19 Station) zone, for some reason, appears to have only 7, and the northeast
(Forest Lawn) backup zone has only 4. Each zone has to be put into a separate
bank in the TrunkTracker, but you can still input all your conventional
frequencies into the same bank, so long as you don't overwrite any of the
trunk stuff, and essentially you can use the bank twice. (More on that later
for those who don't know how to do it.)
While Fire and EMS are in the clear, Calgary Police Service is using what
appears to be an ASTRO digital system on the same frequencies. My TT
successfully skips over these transmissions, but I've locked out most of the
CPS talkgroups. See below.
Here's the frequency allocations:
(Naturally, these sites have some overlap in their coverage areas, but I've
tried to give you an idea of where it works best.)
Northwest Zone (Spy Hill tower)
Covers: Western portion of the city from Deerfoot Trail & Glenmore Trail to
the northern limits; much of the surrounding area outside the city on the
west and north sides (west to Bragg Creek, north to at least Cochrane)
Data Control Channel:
868.2625
Voice Channels:
866.2625
866.6125
866.7625
867.1125
867.6125
868.1125
868.6125
Southwest Zone (37 St tower)
Covers: Western portion of the city from Deerfoot Trail & Glenmore Trail
south and west to city limits; much of the surrounding area on southwest
corner of city (west to Bragg Creek; south limit unexplored)
Data:
866.1375
Voice:
866.2875
866.7875
867.2875
867.6375
867.7875
868.1375
868.6375
Southeast Zone (19 Stn tower)
Covers: Eastern portion of the city from MacLeod Trail & Glenmore Trail south
and east to city limits; much of the surrounding area (limits unexplored)
Data:
866.0375
Voice:
866.1875
866.6875
867.5375
867.6875
868.0375
868.5375
Central Zone (Bankers Hall tower)
Covers: All other portions of city not covered by above three zones
Data:
868.2125
Voice:
866.2125
866.5625
866.7125
867.0625
867.5625
868.0625
868.5625
Forest Lawn Backup System
Covers: Apparently the city, but only to the city limits, no further
Data:
866.2375
Voice:
866.5375
867.2375
868.2375
There appears to be a frequency on each tower that is not allocated by the
trunk at any time, and just has a Morse Code identifier on it:
866.0625 - CGA 411
866.1125 - ?
868.1875 - ?
868.2875 - CGA 399
868.7375 - CGA 407
There are a whole bunch of (as far as I can tell) unallocated frequencies.
866.6375
866.7375
867.0375
867.1375
867.1875
867.2125
867.2625
867.7125
867.7375
867.7625
868.6875
868.7125
868.7625
868.7875
Some of those zones seem to skip and cover other areas, too: Placed in an
east-facing 3rd story window with my metallic telescoping RS "duck" fully
extended, my TT can capture the central and southeast trunks quite clearly.
My house is approximately 50 kilometers south-west of the city.
Anyway, on to the talkgroups. The Fire and EMS talkgroups are arranged by
channel number based upon the design of the standard Motorola portable radio:
it has a 3-position switch marked A/B/C, and a 16-position channel selector.
Thus, the channels are known as A1 thru A16, B1 thru B16, and C1 thru C16.
The tricky part: EMS and Fire do not use the same set of channels in the same
order. For example: EMS calls their backup dispatch channel C5, while Fire
calls EMS's backup dispatch B1. (C5 is a fire scene "tac" for them.) Fire has
A13 and A14 set up as their backup dispatch channels; EMS has those in use as
something else.
In any case, the channel numbers won't matter all that much, since you'll be
watching for talkgroups instead. And they are as follows:
Emergency Medical Services Department
16400 - EMS Dispatch - A1
16496 - EMS Updates to responding rigs/clearing-up reports/general chatter
      - A2
16560 - EMS Updates/clearup/chatter - A3
16592 - EMS Updates/clearup/chatter - A4
16624 - EMS Updates/clearup/chatter - A5
16656 - EMS Hospital Patches (patient status, etc) - A6
16720 - EMS Hospital Patches - A7
16752 - EMS Hospital Patches - A8
16784 - EMS Hospital Patches - A9
16816 - EMS Scene Tac (Simplex - heard in only one Zone at a time) - A10
16848 - EMS Scene Tac (Simplex) - A11
16912 - EMS Scene Tac (Simplex) - A12
16944 - EMS Scene Tac (Simplex) - A13
16976 - EMS - A14
17008 - EMS - A15
17040 - EMS - A16
16464 - EMS Dispatch, Backup System - C5 (known to fire as B1)
15376 - EMS misc. traffic (unconfirmed; channel name unknown)
15440 - misc. traffic (unconfirmed; channel name unknown)
Fire Department
All A-series channels appear to be same as EMS except where specified.
880 - Fire Dispatch, Backup System - A13
944 - Fire Dispatch, Backup System - A14
432 - Fire Inspection (non-emergency scene) Tac - B2
496 - Fire Inspection Tac - B3
560 - Fire Inspection Tac - B4
B5 thru B8 - unknown uses, unknown TGs.
TG numbers for the following are unknown.
Tri-Services: Command Channel - B9
Tri-Services: Command - B10
Tri-Services: Fire Standby - B11
Tri-Services: Fire Standby - B12
Tri-Services: EMS Standby - B13
Tri-Services: EMS Standby - B14
Tri-Services: Police Standby - B15
Tri-Services: Police Standby - B16
48 - Fire Scene Tac - C1
112 - Fire Scene Tac - C2
176 - Fire Scene Tac - C3
240 - Fire Scene Tac - C4
17168 - Fire Scene Tac - C5
17200 - Fire Scene Tac - C6
 >>> Continued to next message...
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