Berkshire County
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1VIqsRirGVhOn0rI0TNjrXIkAqAU&usp=sharing - zerg90 map of fire stations in Berkshire County - updated January 9 2017 and Oct 30 2023 etc
===============================================
December 2017 update on radio & dispatch info
Lee Massachusetts had a building fire on 12/14/2017 at 1215 PM so I
listened to a couple of the radio tapes. This is what I came up with.
1. On 154.31, pages by "Berkshire County" / "Berkshire County Sheriff"
are synchronized simulcast countywide.
2. Followup / response / enroute / onscene communications are not
simulcast countywide - but they do occur on 154.31.
3. Becket Ambulance can be paged on 154.31 via a base that is not
simulcast countywide. The Great Barrington FD feed picks up this base
scratchy.
4. Great Barrington FD is paged on 154.31 by Great Barrington. This is
not simulcast countywide. Apparently it is just done on a base in or
near Great Barrington.
5. Lee Police and Lee Fire are now both dispatched by Berkshire
County. Lee FD is paged and operates on 154.31. Lee Police is
dispatched by County on some repeater - possibly 154.755 R.
6. The receiver site for the Great Barrington FD feed cannot hear
mobiles in Lee.
7. Just Lee FD was paged to the Lee fire. Lenox FD was paged 4 minutes
later after Lee Fire Chief arrived at the fire. Shortly after Lenox FD
was paged, the Great Barrington FD was paged out to standby in the
Great Barrington fire station.
8. The Pownal VT FD feed clearly picks up the simulcast pages from
Berkshire County on 154.31. But the feed does not hear any of the
other transmissions from Berkshire County.
9. There was no indication that any of the 152 Mhz channels were used.
(Unless the County dispatcher was simulcasting on 154.31 and on a 152
Mhz channel - which is possible).
10. There was no indication that any 154.31 traffic in Berkshire
County was on a repeater.
To recap - on the Pownal VT feed - just the following was heard - 1215
PM Lee FD paged - 1219 PM Lenox FD paged - 1224 PM Stockbridge EMS
paged (different incident) - 1226 PM Becket Ambulance paged (by
mistake) - each pager tone set is transmitted just once
Come to think of it - if the Pownal VT feed heard Becket get paged -
why was it scratchy on the Great Barrington feed? The Lee and Lenox
pages were loud and clear. Maybe there was some local interefence that
affected the Great Barrington receiver at that moment. ???? Maybe the
Becket feed went out countywide and once locally. Damn - gotta go back
and check that out.
Upon further review -
Becket Ambulance pager tones are transmitted twice in rapid
succession. The first page tone set goes out on the countywide
simulcast system. The 2nd page tone set is on some local base
apparently. The 2nd pager tone set was heard on the Southern Berkshire
feed but not the Great Barrington FD feed and not on the Pownal VT
feed. Apparently the voice part of the message only goes out on the
countywide simulcast system.
Also - Berkshire Control can page Southern Berkshire Ambulance.
Also - Stockbridge PD responds to chest pain calls with Stockbridge EMS.
Also - Stockbridge had a chest pain call. Responding units were -
Stockbridge EMS & Stockbridge PD & Southern Berkshire Ambulance.
Ergo - that 154.31 channel is funky when you look into it closely.
Base station systems on 154.31 include - countywide synchronized
simulcast plus individual county high site bases plus Great Barrington
FD base plus maybe Adams FD base plus apparently a low level Becket
Ambulance pager tone base station plus who knows what else (maybe a
repeater in Washington)
================================================
you can skip over the next section about the maps
Jan 10 2017 - all 3 of these map links are bad now. You go Google!
Today - neither of these map links work - March 3, 2015 - WTF?
https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=z2YiLSc2g1QM.k7CenOfjOVwM - Feb 28 2015 - link to my map of Berkshire County fire stations map - dont ask me how it is different from the other links - dont ask me how you access Street View or Satellite View - if anyone can explain to me what Google has done to their Maps function, please drop me a note
(I think that both of these links will take you to the same map - hopefully with the same functionality)
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.399136,-73.216265,9z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!6m1!1sz2YiLSc2g1QM.k7CenOfjOVwM?hl=en - my map of Berkshire County fire stations - almost complete - I need to double check some info and add some NY fire stations over the border - 11/7/2014 - I need to put all info on 1 layer somehow (maybe) - if I was really ambitious, I would make sure that all of the fire stations are visible in Street View
https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=z2YiLSc2g1QM.kJhCJhKeMLLY - my old map of Berkshire County fire stations - if I can figure out how to pretty it up - it will be golden - 11/6/2014 - defunct - no good - NG - deprecated - trashed - kaput - etc
--------------------------------------------------------------------
PSAP Info
7/6/2022 .. maybe between 2014 and 2020 ... the Adams and Lee PSAPs closed
Per the July 2011 & April 2014 FCC PSAP Registry, there are 8 PSAPs in Berkshire County - Adams + Berkshire County + Dalton + Great Barrington + Lee + North Adams + Pittsfield + Williamstown .... (7/6/2022 ... per 2020 mifog .... berkshire county is the psap for lee and adams ]
(freqs shown are dispatch channels)
Adams PSAP dispatches - Adams PD 155.13 + Adams FD 154.31 + Adams Amb 155.22 ..... (berkshire county is the psap for adams per 2020 mifog 6/7/2022]
Berkshire County PSAP dispatches - multi PDs on 153.965 & 155.775 (south) + multi FDs on 154.31
Dalton PSAP dispatches - Dalton PD 154.875R + Dalton FD 153.815 + [serves all residents of Windsor 155.715R and Hinsdale (?154.725R for Hinsdale PD?) (per Dalton 911 webpage - 5/5/2014)] - (I never hear Dalton / Windsor / Hinsdale being paged via 154.31 from any scanner feeds - 3/7/2015)
Great Barrington PSAP dispatches - Great Barrington PD 155.775 + Great Barrington FD 154.31 + Southern Berkshire Amb 155.775 ... (7/6/2022 ... great barrington is the psap for just great barrington]
(XXXX old info ... 7/6/2022 ] ...Lee PSAP dispatches - Lee PD 154.755R + Lee FD 154.31 + Tyringham (???) + Stockbridge (???) - (Lee is PSAP for Tyringham and Stockbridge per FY2014 Lee Annual Report) - [County tests pager tone sets for both Lee Fire and Lee Amb on 154.31 on Weds nights- presumbably this is for backup purposes - 3/2015] - I never seem to hear County paging out Lee FD nor Tyringham FD nor Stockbridge FD on 154.31 - I think thats a sign - 3/7/2015 - never hear anyone paging them out actually - maybe I could hear Lee via the Pittsfield scanner feed - maybe not - [Dec 14 2017 - County dispatches Lee FD on 154.31 - and handles all of their radio comms apparently - there was a bld fire - heard via Great Barrington FD feed at Broadcastify - 12/17/2017]
North Adams PSAP dispatches - North Adams PD 170.15R + North Adams FD 159.225R + North Adams Amb 155.8425R + Clarksburg FD 154.31 (3/4/2015) + Stamford VT FD 154.31 (3/2/2015) + ? Readsburg Vermont FD ? .... (N adams is the psap for north adams and clarksburg 7/6/2022l
Pittsfield PSAP dispatches - Pittsfield PD 154.80R + Pittsfield FD 154.34R + contract Ambulances
Williamstown PSAP dispatches - Williamstown PD 155.25R + Williamstown FD 154.13 + ? Village Amb (?155.22?)
Recap - 154.31 is used for fire dispatching by County + Adams + Great Barrington + Lee + North Adams - (probably Adams + North Adams could easily move off 154.31 - however Lee and Great Barrington might have to come up with new channels for fire dispatch - unless they use their PD or DPW channels)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Berkshire County Massachusetts - fire radio channels
2012 info
Dispatch - 154.31 - Bases & Mobiles - PL 107.2 - paging and response channel - shared by "County" dispatcher and some smaller FDs - the "County" dispatcher handles approx 15 FDs - there might be 2 or 3 other small FDs that also use the freq for dispatch and response (they are dispatched by their local PD dispatcher)
FG 1 - 154.16 - Bases & Mobiles - PL 107.2 - (possibly just the County dispatcher has base stations on this freq)
FG 2 - 158.805 - mobiles only - PL 107.2
FG 3 - 153.8825 - mobiles only - PL 107.2
Response - 152.9825 - NAC 311 - this might be a new channel for talking to the County dispatcher
Interior - 155.805 - PL 107.2 - mobiles only - inside ops at working fires
Command - 159.7575 - NAC 413 - this might be a new channel for ICs to talk to Chiefs or the dispatchers
Pittsfield FD + Adams FD + Dalton FD + North Adams FD + Williamstown FD + ??? have their own local radio channels (so they might not be heard on the above channels very often)