the BLAH-G

BUMPER STICKERS - SORRY, NO 800 STUFF HERE

"IF YOU CAN'T FEED EM, DON'T BREED EM!"
Constipated People Don't Give A Crap.
If You Can Read This, I've Lost My Trailer.
Horn Broken... Watch For Finger.
The Earth Is Full - Go Home.
I Have The Body Of A God - Buddha.
So Many Pedestrians - So Little Time.
Cleverly Disguised As A Responsible Adult.
If We Quit Voting, Will They All Go Away?
Eat Right, Exercise, Die Anyway.
Illiterate? Write For Help.
Honk If Anything Falls Off.
If 800 Megahertz, wouldn't 900 Megahertz More ?
Cover Me, I'm Changing Lanes.
He Who Hesitates Not Only Is Lost, But is Miles From The Next Exit.
I Refuse To Have A Battle Of Wits With An Unarmed Person.
You! Out Of The Gene Pool - Now!
I Do Whatever My Rice Krispies Tell Me To.
Fight Crime: Shoot Back!
(Seen Upside Down On A Jeep) If You Can Read This, Please Flip Me Back Over...
Stop Lights Timed For 35 mph - Also Are Timed For 70 mph
Guys: No Shirt, No Service Gals: No Shirt, No Charge
If Walking Is So Good For You, Then Why Does My Mailman Look Like Jabba The Hut?
Ax Me About Ebonics.
Body By Nautilus; Brain By Mattel
Boldly Going Nowhere.
Caution - Driver Legally Blonde.
Heart Attacks: God's RevengeFor Eating His Animal Friends
Honk If You've Never Seen An Uzi Fired From A Car Window.
How Many Roads Must A Man Travel Down Before He Admits He is Lost?
GROW YOUR OWN DOPE -- PLANT A MAN.
All Men Are Animals; Some Just Make Better Pets.
And Lastly:
"POLITICIANS & DIAPERS BOTH NEED TO BE CHANGED, AND FOR THE SAME REASON

Decoded,
K3SAM

Good Afternoondle Dudedle and Dudettedles !

I hope you are sitting back in your easy chair surrounded by air conditioning as this heat wave continues in Westmoreland County (WC) PA. The thunderstorms we had go through WC last night were awesome. This Booger happened to be out in the boogy-mobile when all of a sudden I was driving a boat up Ligonier Street instead of a car ! A very close lightning strike almost took me out as I was getting out of the car ready to come into the booger cave. The lightning strike took out an IC Chip in my head but it was fairly easy to replace with one that looked like it, I hope it’s the right one.

The GMan and I immediately got on Yahoo’s Chat and he reported lightning strikes all around him in New Kensington and during our chat I was knocked off line 3 times ! That might be normal for dial up customers but not for cable modem.

One good thing that came out of the storm was that between the GMan and I we managed to write down a lot more radio identification numbers and text tagged them into our PRO96COM program. I’ll make that updated file available for ALL sometime today or tomorrow. Keep checking my file download area ( http://downloads.k3sam.com ) for the new file. It’s name will be K3SAM_062905.zip. You can always tell the date it was posted by the numbers in the file name. The file is FREE, the download is FREE.

MUSIC

I am SO SORRY ! The song BAD BOYZ WC that is NOW ON THE WEB for all to hear does NOT include any reference to FRICK AND FRACK !

How did I miss that ? That was pointed out to me late last night in an email, and I don’t think that person wants to be identified so I will keep it that way for now.

Damn, I invented Frick and Frack… oh well, might their be a BadBoyz2WC someday ? I believe it was my secrecy with this project that lead to that error and possibly others. Actually it wasn’t an error, just an oversight. I do have good people around me that would have been willing to offer help, not in the production but in the planning. Scotty J., master of all good things up high and GMan, master of all things optic could have both provided me with better pre-release planning.

If you are a bit confused as to what I am talking about, the song Bad Boys by the Inner Circle ( TV Show Cops, you know ) was used to make a song about the Westmoreland County’s Finest using their actual RADIO TRANSMISSIONS. Most of the cities, boroughs and townships are included in this song and who knows, your voice may be in there too if you are a cop or dispatcher ! The song is called BadBoyzWC and it is in .mp3 format on my website.

Just go to my WC 800 Mhz Website and click on the light bar. That’s where the song is.

AMBULANCE SERVICE

I received an email from Jack Edmundson , the Supervisor of LifeStat EMS in Saltsburg, Pa. who advises me their Paramedic Response Unit - Medic 990 was placed into service a short time ago. They are Medic Station 90, and have Medics 90 through 97 in the Saltsburg Area which INCLUDES BOTH Westmoreland and Indiana Counties.

This information is not listed in on my website as I had no knowledge of their existence. Yes, even this Booger has his flaws but HEY GUYS and GALS, I only know what you tell me so you have to keep the information flowing. news@k3sam.com Remember that !

Jack says that Westmoreland County Dispatches LifeStat on Frequency 155.160 Mhz and Indiana County Dispatches them on 155.220 Mhz.

800 Mhz Radios are all INSTALLED and ready to go, says Jack. Activation of Station 90 on 800 Mhz is scheduled for late this week or sometime next week so when you hear them being dispatched you will know who they are.

That also leads me to believe that the next BIG change over for other services will take place at the same time. 911 dispatchers have been pretty quiet about this next change over, come on guys… slide me an email ! The more I know, the more EVERYONE knows (we paid for the system, right ?).

Personal Note: I haven’t seen Jack in years however he and I used to go to Steeler Games and fly to VEGAS whenever we had the chance ! Oh wait, that wasn’t Jack ! In fact that wasn’t ME either. NEVER MIND.

Seriously, Jack is a friend from a long time ago when I owned a company in Derry (Derry Electronics, Inc. - Radio Menace ). He purchased several radios from me back then and I hope they all still work ! I wish him GREAT SUCCESS at SALTSBURG MEDIC STATION 90 !


PARK MAINTENANCE

This Booger was as asked recently where the park maintenance people are on the radio as they enjoy going to Mammoth Park and wanted to listen to them on their skinner when they were there.

First off I have to say hi to DAN, BRUNO, MATT, and PAUL at the different parks as they work their asses off everyday to keep those parks in tip top condition. I'm sure there are more workers but those are the ones I hear the most and can remember.

Unfortunately the old scanners will no longer pick these people up. They were all blessed with NEW RADIOS and those new radios are the 800 Mhz Trunked Motorola Portables that require a Radio Shack Pro-2096 or Pro-96 scanner (or uniden) to receive them. They can be heard talking all day long on the Park Maintenance Channel, Talkgroup (TG) 354.

UNDERSTANDING

Some people are still not understanding how this system works. Like “how can the Park Maintenance people talk on the same frequencies as the Allegheny Township Police but they don’t hear each other ? Isn’t it illegal for Park Maintenance to use a Police frequency ? “.

It is not illegal in this case for both to operate on the same frequency. The frequency is licensed to the COUNTY of WESTMORELAND, not an individual police, fire, ems or maintenance group. Anyone within the county approved for a radio can be on the system (I’m still waiting on my approval, shouldn’t be too much longer). The separation of the different services happens at the TALKGROUP LEVEL. Each TG is unique and you must have permission to be on TG. Besides, if you don’t have permission to be on a particular TG then your radio will not be programmed to use it.

Another explanation of Talkgroups is as follows.

The GROUP OF FREQUENCIES that this system operates on can be compared to MAIN STREET.

Each TALKGROUP can be compared to the DIFFERENT STREETS that break off of MAIN STREET.

Each RADIO within Westmoreland County can be compared to a CAR driving on MAINSTREET.

Got that so far ? If not, go back up and reread until you understand. That’s the key.

TALKGROUP 354 is Park Maintenance STREET, and only those RADIOS or CARS can go up that street, unless allowed by the Programming God.

TALKGROUP 64 is District 4 Police STREET, and only those RADIOS or CARS can go up that street, unless allowed by the Programming God.

TALKGROUP 70 is District 5 Police STREET, and only those RADIOS or CARS can go up that street, unless allowed by the Programming God.

Get the idea ? If no, you know… go back up and read.

The Programming God is one of / and a group of people. A radio is programmed to be allowed on certain talkgroups. Each radio is custom programmed for each service with their needed TG's.

Should they have a NEED to have access to another talkgroup on a full time basis, the chief representative from that organization would have to make a request to Joe, the 911 Coordinator who would then consult with Mark and Richard, the 911 Directors.

At that point those three could make the final decision or they may wish to consult with the system coordinators and directors before hand. If the request was approved then Staley Communications would be contacted to make the update. 911 has the ability to update their own radios, it would be up to them if they wanted to do them themselves.

IN ENGLISH ! Example, Derry Police wants to put the Washington Township Police Frequency in all of their cars. The Chief asks Joe, 911 Coordinator. Joe, Mark and Dick discuss it. They take the request to the Chief of Police, Washington Township. No problems anywhere ! It is approved. Derry takes all of their radios to 911 for reprogramming or Staley Communications goes to Derry to reprogram them. End result, Derry Police now have the Washington Township Police Talkgroup in their cars.

There is another way to do this, which is called FLASH PROGRAMMING where they do it over the air, but we won’t get into that now.

OTHER

Other thoughts today… No one has guessed who the original Frick and Frack from District 5 Police are. Some may think, but no one but the Booger Blah-g knows for sure. Email your thoughts, I’ll let you know if you are right by email and tell the world by Blah-gerville. webmaster@k3sam.com

NWTG – another thought. Why isn’t there a National Weather Talk Group used during severe weather conditions ? The amateur radio community has a direct connection into the NOAA Pittsburgh Emergency Operations Center (EOC) during such events, why can’t Westmoreland Police/Fire/EMS Radio ?

It wouldn’t take much, just supply the National Weather Command Center in Pittsburgh with a radio, place it on TALKGROUP 51 (County Wide TAC 15). That way any ambulance, police car or fire department in Westmoreland County could talk directly to the National Weather EOC and provide instant critical weather reports.

Smart… very Smart.

That’s it for then, time to food in face put and update some web pages.
If you live in Adamsburg or Jeannette, don’t let the boys in blue scare you. They sound really mean on the radio but sources tell me that they are super nice guys in person.

Look for the BUMPER STICKER BLAH-G to follow, just some AFTERNOOLE AMUSEMENT FOR YOU.

800 Mhz GUIDE FOR WESTMORELAND COUNTY

MASTER FREQUENCY LIST FOR WESTMORELAND COUNTY

JOIN OUR YAHOO USERS GROUP FOR WESTMORELAND CO SCANNER LISTENERS - WC911 ! EVERYONE IS WELCOME !!

Decoded,
K3SAM