Radio Services

 

Submitted by Communications Officer

 Captain Jack Fisher

 

County Notes:

The Town of Vernon Fire Department ( Station 41 ) is a part of the Tolland County 911 Mutual Aid system ( Station TN ) with the central dispatching center located on the Tolland Connecticut Green.  The TN Mutual Aid system currently consists of 15 Towns encompassing 23 organizations, and continues to grow.

 

The Tolland County Mutual Aid ( 911 Services ) is managed by a Board of Directors consisting of nine directors, elected by the County Chief’s and Municipal Representatives.  Currently there are two members of the Vernon Fire Department serving as Board Members one of which is also the Municipal Rep.

 

Town of Vernon Fire Department Notes:

The past several months were very busy for the communications division due to the FCC mandated narrow banding of radio frequencies.  All of Vernon’s radios were either converted or replaced, depending on age and compatibility to comply with the mandate.

 In addition, with the new replacements for three (3) older pieces of apparatus, two Engine Tanks (ET 141 & ET 541) along with one heavy duty Rescue  (Rescue 141) and upgrading all new and older apparatus with Radio/Intercom headset systems further improved the overall communications systems and safety of firefighters.

 

Over the past few years the departments member alerting system has been slowly expanding from the original Tone & Voice paging with the addition of Alpha Pagers & Cell Phone Texting.  Utilization of multiple systems provides the alternate backup alerting requirements.

 

The Town of Vernon Fire Department’s main operating frequencies are UHF 460.3875 with simulcasting on 33.48 low band.  Our primary Tone and Voice paging is 155.2275MHz.  There are many additional UHF and low band frequencies utilized when responding to mutual aid calls throughout the county.  Further information on the frequencies used throughout the County can be found on the Tolland County 911 web site www.tollandcounty911.org .  Real Time radio streaming for the Town of Vernon Fire and EMS, can be monitored at www.Broadcastify.com/listen/feed/25177 .  All of Tolland County live radio streaming, provided by the Tolland County Mutual Aid 911, can be heard at www.Broadcastify.com/listen/feed/15389/web.

 

The Town of Vernon’s main radio system is located at the Fox Hill Tower with alternate backup sites located at the Public Safety Building ( EOC Center ) and each of the departments other fire stations.  With the recent approval from the State of Connecticut, Office of Policy and Management, we have finally received much needed approval for financing the upgrade of the critical Fox Hill Radio Tower Site.  The Fox Hill upgrade was recently completed and has increased coverage and reliability for emergency communications throughout Vernon and surrounding areas.

 

All of our apparatus are equipped with both UHF and Low Band radios.  A few in-vehicle repeater systems are also used to assist with communications in fringe areas.

 

We constantly evaluate the latest in communications equipment to take advantage of state of the art technologies in conjunction with our mutual aid neighbors.

 

As of 7/1/20, most of Tolland County has ceased usage of it's low band 33.80MHz dispatch frequency.

 

 

Scanner Frequencies

 

• Vernon Police: 453.8125 P25
• Vernon Fire UHF: 460.3875
• Vernon Fire VHF Low-Band: 33.48
• Fire/EMS Dispatch VHF High-band: 155.2275
• Vernon Fire Police: 461.7875