Former fire station CCS - country communication system

WA Department of Fire and Emergency Services (6AR and 6IP) (Including the Fire Services, SES & VMRS) and Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions

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bacca
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Sep 03, 2021 7:31 pm

Former fire station CCS - country communication system

Post by bacca »

Hi all,

Does anyone have any on air recordings of when the country fire station used to use a CCS - Country communication system, that would make automated announcements over a LOW VHF simplex frequency installed at most of these outer metro stations?

I remember these systems could perform a number of remote control functions by sending a DTMF over the radio from the fire appliances, such as sounding the town siren on the station building, or dialing back to FESA's comm center.

When a 000 call would come through the CCS box at the station would transmit a pre-recorded female voice saying "Attention attention! Emergency call! " over the station frequency.

Would be interested to hear form anyone who knows anything about these older systems, who built them or if anyone has any old photos of one.

Thanks
JhG123
150+ posts
150+ posts
Posts: 253
Joined: Mon Oct 29, 2018 8:20 pm

Re: Former fire station CCS - country communication system

Post by JhG123 »

Original CCS cabinet
https://i.imgur.com/a/Wb3wEOH.jpg

Refreshed CCS cabinet
https://i.imgur.com/a/8ohrIin.jpg

"The Country Communication System (CCS) is a network of 79 terminals located at Volunteer Fire and Rescue Service (VFRS) and Volunteer Fire Emergency Services (VFES) stations across Western Australia.

Originally installed in the late 1980’s and refreshed in 2006, the CCS main function was to monitor local Direct Brigade Alarms (DBA’s) attached to the CCS by Telstra telephone lines and notify Country Volunteer personnel in the event of an arising incident.

Fast forward over 30 years, the CCS functionality has now been replaced by alternate notification and alert systems and procedures.

Coupled with the introduction of contemporary fire alarm monitoring systems which are administered and monitored by Chubb and DFES ComCen, who to this day remain the first point of call for DBA alarm reporting, the CCS is now being decommissioned as most functionality is redundant, and the CCS is extremely aged and can no longer be supported.

Decommissioning of the CCS infrastructure will require minor works to be carried out on station by DFES radio technicians. The removal of the CCS capability will result in changes to the following station level functions:

- Station radios and telephone to radio interconnect
- Keycase monitoring
- Station landlines and telephones
- Paging and town sirens

Further information and rollout schedule will be available for each region as the project progresses with those remaining 26 stations holding secure key cases prioritised in the first instance commencing early March, refer below to the section about keycase monitoring. The remaining works will be conducted during preventative maintenance visits commencing in May 2020. "
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