Mutual aid radio channels - Boston area - a recap

To recap the mutual aid channels in the Boston Mass area

CMED - 463.075 - and UHF med channels - tower sites all over eastern

Mass - shared by all communities for ambulance to hospital comms

primarily

BAPERN 3 - wide area police repeaters - repeaters all over eastern

Mass - mostly used for dispatcher to dispatcher comms

BAPERN 4 - wide area police repeaters - repeaters all over eastern

Mass - backup channel

State 800 mhz TRS - maybe 20 talkgroups for mutual aid comms - (but

very few local agencies use 800)

Metro - BAPERN Central channel - 470.9875 - maybe just 1 repeater

Metro - BAPERN Central Tac channel - for real ??

Metro - MEMA channel - 471.6875 - very few local users - maybe just 1 repeater

Metro Fire White - 483.2875 - maybe just 1 repeater site - dispatcher

to dispatcher channel for 34 FDs

Metro Fire Red - 483.3125 - maybe just 1 repeater site - FG channel

shared by 34 FDs

Metro Fire North - 1 repeater channel (rarely used) - maybe only 1 repeater

Metro Fire North FG - 1 simplex channel

Metro Fire Central - 1 repeater channel (rarely used) - maybe only 1 repeater

Metro Fire Central FG - 1 simplex channel

Metro Fire South - 1 repeater channel (rarely used) - maybe only 1 repeater

Metro Fire South FG - 1 simplex channel

Bristol County - 1 police countywide channel 482.5125 - maybe just 1

or 2 repeater sites

Bristol County - 1 police countywide simplex channel - 482.3875

Bristol County - 4 or 5 county fire channels - 1 might be countywide -

4 serve quadrants - maybe only 1 repeater on each channel

Plymouth County - 2 countywide police channels - unknown of just 1 site

Plymouth County - 5 countywide fire channels - maybe just 1 repeater

site (rarely used) - 1 channel is used for dispatcher to dispatcher

comms

Norfolk County - 1 countywide police channel (BAPERN South) - maybe

just 1 repeater site

Norfolk County - 3 countywide fire channels (multi synchronized repeater sites)

Essex County - 1 countywide police channel (BAPERN North) - maybe just

1 repeater site

Essex County - 1 countywide fire channel - 460.1375 / 154.07 - for

dispatch to dispatch comms only

Essex County - 2 countywide FG channels - simplex - 487.3875 + 153.83

Middlesex County - 2 or 3 regional police channels - BAP W + BAP NW +

NEMLEC 3 - unknown how many repeaters

Middlesex County - couple of regional fire channels - repeaters at

Tewksbury + Concord + Holliston

There is a lot of overlap between the Metro channels and the county areas

Each county has approx 30 communities - each with its own police dept,

fire dept, and amb service.

Utac and Vtac channels are just beginning to be used.

If you sift thru this info you can see that there is not a lot of

depth to coverage. If 2 major incidents were to break out in any 1

community, it would be very difficult to have more than 1 or 2 working

mutual aid channels available for each incident.

Maybe when the Utac channels are implemented, they can dedicate 2 for

fire and 2 for police. Alternately, the present channels could

probably be built out (by adding many more repeaters throughout the

metro area).