Fire Service

[dean_aberdare]

Has anyone got a list of frequencies, Ive done a full reset on my scanner and also has anyone got which callsings apply to which station in the South Wales Area Im sure such a list exists because I had it before but misplaced it...in fact anything useful and uptodate in South Wales be good..

[G0TVJ]

It shouldn't take too long to find them as they're all between 70.5 and 71.5 mHz so it's easy to search the whole range very quickly. I believe all the South Wales ones have now changed to FM.

The callsigns are a bit more tricky as they're all changing, ready for when regional control rooms are implemented as part of the Firelink Airwave project. Swansea, Neath and Port Talbot are on 70.950 FM with the callsign WM. There is another WM on 70.850 FM which I think is West Wales and the frequency for your area used to be 71.375 - maybe that's changed now.

Fez is probably the best person to answer this question - he can probably hear them all from the top of his mountain I would be interested in an up-to-date list too. I've always enjoyed 'Fire Brigade DXing' and would like to make the most of it before they all disappear off to Airwave in the next year or so.

Neil

[fez]

70.850 is indeed mid/west wales fire and rescue. Also using WM callsign as base.

WM - New HQ call sign

National Format - F = Fire, W = Wales, M = Mid and West Wales, 66 =
Station No, P 1= Pump 1

Example for station 66 - FWM66P1 that???s mid and west Wales station 66
appliance pump 1.

On the local radio it would just be 66Pappa1.

LIST OF APPLIANCE AND ROLE:

Appliance Type Characters:
A = Aerial, B = Boat, C = Command, F = Fire Investigation, H = Haz Mat,
P = Pump, R = Rescue, S = Op's Support, T = Transport, W = Water

Role Characters:
F = Fire-fighter, C = Crew Manager, W = Watch Manager, G = Group
Manager, A = Area Manager,
B = Brigade Manager.

So you could here something like 10Romeo1 - That would be a rescue
appliance. Or you could here Golf10 - That would be a group manager's
radio.

Have a look at here: http://www.fire-999.co.uk/html/call_signs.html

Thanks for thinking so highly of me on me hill. But I have actually never scanned 70mhz from my hill I don't think. Never felt the urge and sort of forgot as Im too busy Dxin on 11m or theres tons of activity on Coastguard.

Will have to give it a go.

The main purpose of the Firelink project is to provide the FRS with the communication facilities necessary to mobilise resources in response to any 999 call and maintain communications between the control room and incident commander. The project will replace each fire and rescue services' current main scheme radio technology with, for the first time, a single wide area communications capability in England, Scotland and Wales.

Firelink will be more than just a replacement radio system. It will support national roaming for all fire and rescue service vehicles, allowing resources to work beyond their own boundaries and communicate more readily with the police and ambulance service. It will also bring better voice quality and improved security.

[fez]

Bugged up, Please delete

[fez]

Bugged up, Please delete

[fez]

Bugged up, Please delete

[G0TVJ]

I think you might enjoy a bit of Fire Brigade DXing, Fez. I used to go up into the hillls North of Swansea with a friend back in the 80s. We used a variety of scanners attached to a quarter wave whip on the car roof cut for 70mHz and the results were quite amazing. Just about everything in the Southern UK could be heard about as far East as London, as well as Birmingham and further North. The 70mHz signals seemed to go a lot further than Mr. Plod on 155mHz and it took a bit more skill in those as days as frequency lists weren't readily available. We used to sit up there for hours trying to catch place names then looking them up in a road atlas and attempting to work out what we were hearing. It was actually quite educational in terms of both radio propagation and geography (sighs nostalgically...)

Neil

[dean_aberdare]

Thanks for the info guys..but Im really after Mid-Glamorgan/Cardiff sort of area..but I may be able to get Neath/Port Talbot area from here I'll have to try

[G0TVJ]

Just search between 70.5 and 71.5 for a while Dean. You will find the local frequency very quickly. There's a lot of activity on the fire service channels and they tend to be very big signals so you should find what you want in no time.

Neil

[dean_aberdare]

Hi Neil yeh freqs have been found but wanted the info such as station numbers, appliances etc..just makes it more interesting..

[G0TVJ]

Ah I see. That link Fez posted above should help a lot if they've gone to the new system. You will have to work the station numbers out from extensive listening (the way we used to do it in the old days ) but the last part of the callsign, indicating the type of appliance, should be the same everywhere under the new system. I'm not sure about the codes they use for the type of fire/incident but they must be on the web somewhere.

What are the frequencies and callsigns you've found so far? I'll need to put them in my radio ready for my next trip out west.

Neil

[fez]

me?

Also dean you have to remember fire brigades are just changed over to the new callsigns around the UK. Not much work is probably being done by scanner enthusiasts to find them all because they are likely to go to the airwave tetra network in a few years.

[G0TVJ]

Yes, you, Fez... in your above post of 15th August at 11:00 hrs. Unless you've been cloned

Neil

[fez]

Well freqs to listen to are a bit bleak homebased.

Really only get ambo base side, Fire brigade, Mil air in the week daytime and a bit of maritime so i havn't really found many new freqs. Im mainlt into transmitting at the moment and rarely go into my local town. This should change once I get my own vehicle i can go scouting about.
Also been pretty busy with one thing or another these past months.

I also havnt recorded any of the callsigns as they have only been using them 1-2 months.

[maggsc]

Apparently Fire is going Tetra in the next 6 - 8 months (along with the Ambulances)

I've also heard that Tetra actually operates via O2 mobile frequencies. Not sure how true this is but it came from a (usually) pretty reliable source! Whether or not the O2 masts are also Tetra masts I don't know!

C