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FESA frequencies

Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2005 4:59 pm
by vk6hgr
Fire and Emergency Services Authority Web site

VHF mid band (78Mhz) Frequency List (old network)
2003 FESA Frequency list

VHF High band (164MHz) WAERN (new network)
WAERN VHF frequencies

Old Frequency lists (good for reference)
Fire Services
FESA Frequencies

Other FESA Information
Incident information
Channel Allocations

Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2005 8:38 am
by wayne
Noticing on the ACMA website new FESA allocations on the vhf-hi band have entered the local ones in for my area but have'nt as yet heard any activity, are FESA moving to these from the vhf-lo band or are they additional channels to the current ones, they all seem to share the same sites as vhf-lo so their coverage will be simular ?

Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2005 4:50 pm
by Fastlane
FESA has been given 20mil by the Government to build a new radio network. The VHF Hi-Band frequencies are new allocations for this new network - there are no repeaters in place yet, however!

The new network will use VHF Hi-Band in country areas and UHF in Perth. The actual radios in-vehicle will be dual band.

Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2005 6:16 pm
by vk6hgr
Fastlane wrote:FESA has been given 20mil by the Government to build a new radio network. The VHF Hi-Band frequencies are new allocations for this new network - there are no repeaters in place yet, however!

The new network will use VHF Hi-Band in country areas and UHF in Perth. The actual radios in-vehicle will be dual band.
Interesting.

I thought VHF-lo would have had much better range, especially out in the sticks where firies find them selves more often than not.

Will have to look at what their UHF allocation is. The ACA took 420-430Mhz from WA amateurs for the Police CADCOM network. Since that's fallen through (for now) I wonder if FESA will use that allocation.

Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2005 6:29 pm
by Fastlane
Out in the sticks, they use VHF Mid-Band and also HF. I believe the reason for moving to High Band, is theres much more frequency space available, and also there is interopability with Marine (and as such, VMRS). They're already having huge problems with VHF-Mid, due to
inversion layer interference.

I guess the plan is more frequencies, more repeaters, better coverage..

Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2005 7:20 pm
by wayne
I wonder also if some users here are having trouble with intermodulation from strong fm radio stations causing desensitivity and sporadic triggering and timming out of repeaters like the QRM i get in the 78 to 79 mhz band here in Bunbury as some of the local FESA channels are within 1 to 2 klm of 50 Meg watt FM radio stations at Mt Lennard which are designed for maximun saturation down to Augusta and Margaret River as i often hear of their own repeaters tripping or responding to just hash or a high background noises and splash.
I know the ACA has set the level of out of band interference but 50MW is a hell of a signal to keep at bay, when it mixes with other similar signals of the same power it produces all sorts of intermod products.

Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2005 1:15 pm
by vk6hgr
CTCSS should prevent the repeater from opening by itself from an intermod signal, but it isn't foolproof.

Sporadic-E and other interesting propogation effects at 70Mhz would mean country firies would pop up on Perth channels and vis-versa... DX is great for radio amateurs but a pain in the butt for FESA :-)

Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2005 1:28 pm
by wayne
Gavin, do know where the site is for 78.1125 Mhz ?
it carries metro fire traffic and puts a good regular signal down here into Bunbury, the only listed sites in our part of the world for that freq i can find on the ACA webite is Lancelin and the stirling ranges and i doubt it's either of them, i guess more likely a pinjarra site or somewhere near there.

Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2005 11:55 pm
by Fastlane
wayne wrote:Gavin, do know where the site is for 78.1125 Mhz ?
it carries metro fire traffic and puts a good regular signal down here into Bunbury, the only listed sites in our part of the world for that freq i can find on the ACA webite is Lancelin and the stirling ranges and i doubt it's either of them, i guess more likely a pinjarra site or somewhere near there.
78.1125Mhz is FRS Channel 56, which is for Outer Metro South (down to Harvey). It carries all traffic from the metro area. Looking at a map I have, the site is at Turner Hill which is just North of Dwellingup.

Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2005 6:02 am
by wayne
Thanks Fastlane,
I've always wondered why the ACMA website has never listed that site for that frequency for the last 10 years that i've been checking on it as i knew it was none of those given.
I will email them today and raise the question, it was the same a while ago for the GWN TV channel 3 that broadcasts from Mt Lennard was never listed for ages but is now there.
Makes you question how accurate the online databases are sometimes when you are able to cross check known frequencies and find the ACMA has data is missing.
Is there a way to use the ACMA to search for WA WIDE listed frequencies only ?

Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2005 7:54 pm
by Steve
Use the 'postcode range' search feature and use 6000 as the lower limit and 6999 as the upper limit.

I suggest using this in conjunction with the 'frequency range' search feature, otherwise you'll get a very big search return.

Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2005 8:16 pm
by wayne
Thanks steve,
Was aware of that, however there are frequencies like for example the Dept of Fisheries use 494.975 Mhz or 168.225 Mhz that cannot be found using any postcode search, when you bring the frequency up on it's own they are listed as Western Australia and are a simplex ( non repeater ) frequency.
If you enter any postcodes you will not get any results using the above freq's but if you leave the postcodes blank and just search the frequency on it's own, they come up.
I wanted to limit those search results to just western australia when doing a search but i don't think the data base allows that search option to find out how many other listing are western australia wide for a given freq.

Does anyone know what frequencies the Dept of Marine & Harbours use or whatever their name is now, maybe Dept of Planning & infrastructure - the dept that checks boat licenses and flare dates, life jackets etc.

Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2005 11:30 am
by dazla
Do you listen to the Fisheries officers, if you do is there much traffic?

Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2005 11:36 am
by wayne
I do have their frequencies in my scanner, but have'nt heard much of late then again i'm only listening randomly due to work and sporting commitments so there maybe times of the day the channels are more active than others ?
The fisheries frequencies i previously mentioned were just an example of the point i was trying to make in regards to the ACMA Online Database.