Alberta (CA)
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Alberta
Geography
The province of Alberta is in western Canada, stretching from the United States border at the 49th parallel to the Northwest Territories at the 60th, and from British Columbia to the west - with the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains forming part of the border, along with the 120th line of longitude - to Saskatchewan in the east, on the 110th line of longitude. The province is comprised of varying terrain from flat prairie to tall mountainous regions, forested regions, and canyons and coulees, making for difficult comms challenges.
Radio Networks
Currently, the province has several aged conventional repeater networks, supporting the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), who provide municipal policing for the province; various Government of Alberta services including Sustainable Resource Development officers (Conservation Officers, Fish & Wildlife Officers, etc.); Alberta Sheriffs (providing traffic enforcement, court and remand officials, and other non-municipal law enforcement duties); and so on. Many of these networks are beyond the end of their useful life, and are being maintained only as long as is necessary to bridge the gap until the province-wide 700MHz, APCO Project-25 trunked radio network (AFRRCS - Alberta First Responders' Radio Communication System) is built, scheduled to be started in 2009 with full system completion in 2012.
Future edits to this page will include Alberta Unknown Trunking Systems, a list of systems known in the TAFL but whose type and system flavor are not known; Useful Common Alberta Information, such as how to program scanner ABC for system XYZ; and Upcoming Province of Alberta Projects, which will describe what is known about the AFRRCS (mentioned above) and the upcoming (as of January 2009) Alberta Health Services merger/transition of ambulance services to the province.
Alberta Emergency Services Reference
This is a supplemental scanning reference for emergency services in Alberta.
Radio Codes
Most public safety organizations in Alberta use some combination of ten codes and supplementary status codes. APCO has defined a standard meaning for ten codes to provide interoperability between different departments and agencies. Most agencies in Alberta do not subscribe to the standard or have made significant changes.
Calgary Police Service
The Calgary Police use the first 9 ten codes in 2 different contexts. For example, when broadcast as "ten-one" it is in the general meaning, reception poor. When broadcast as "ten-zero-one" it is describing a response code, an injury accident.
General Codes
- 10-1 Reception poor
- 10-2 Reception clear
- 10-3 Stand by
- 10-4 Message received
- 10-5 Your location
- 10-6 Call by phone
- 10-7 Book out
- 10-8 Clear/resuming
- 10-9 Repeat message
Response Codes
- 10-01 Accident, injury
- 10-03 Accident, industrial
- 10-04 Alarm
- 10-05 Assault
- 10-06 Assault police constable
- 10-07 Attempted suicide
- 10-08 Break and enter (home)
- 10-09 Break and enter (shop)
- 10-10 Dog complaint
- 10-11 Domestic dispute
- 10-12 Drunk
- 10-13 Escort
- 10-14 Disturbance
- 10-15 Fire
- 10-16 Fraud
- 10-17 Indecent
- 10-18 Juveniles
- 10-19 Landlord - tenant dispute
- 10-20 Lost or found property
- 10-21 Mental
- 10-22 Missing person
- 10-23 Neighbor dispute
- 10-24 Noisy party
- 10-25 Parking complaint
- 10-26 Peeping tom
- 10-27 Property damage
- 10-28 Prowler
- 10-29 Purse snatcher
- 10-30 Robbery
- 10-31 Shoplifter
- 10-32 Sudden death
- 10-33 Suspicious person
- 10-34 Theft
- 10-35 Threats
- 10-36 Sexual assault
- 10-37 Collapse
- 10-38 Drugs
- 10-39 Noise complaint
- 10-40 Possible gunshot
- 10-41 Unwanted guest/patron
- 10-42 Nuisance telephone calls
- 10-43 Check on welfare
- 10-44 Abduction
- 10-45 Notification
- 10-67 Unauthorized listener
- X-99 Unknown problem/911 hangup
Person/Vehicle Record Checks
- 10-50 Subject negative
- 10-51 Subject has a record, not wanted
- 10-52 Subject possibly wanted
- 10-53 Subject wanted
- 10-54 Subject dangerous
- 10-55 Offensive weapon
- 10-56 Subject in observation catagory
- 10-57 Subject on parole, probation
- 10-58 Subject in charged catagory
- 10-59 Refused F.A.C. (firearm cert.)
- 10-60 Escaped
- 10-61 Charged no conviction
- 10-62 Member of gang
- 10-63 Attempted murder or murder
- 10-64 Sexual offence
- 10-65 Crime vehicle
- 10-66 Confidential info.- clear car
- 10-67 Failing to appear / Unauthorized listener
- 10-68 Kidnapping
- 10-69 Prostitution
- 10-70 Pointer person to stolen property
- 10-71 Pointer vehicle
- 10-72 On probation
- 10-73 Contagious disease
Traffic Response Codes
- 10-81 Abandoned vehicle
- 10-82 Careless (dangerous) driver
- 10-83 Impaired driver
- 10-84 Hit and run
- 10-85 Speeder
- 10-86 Stolen auto
- 10-87 Suspicious auto
- 10-88 Misc. traffic complaint
Alberta Health Services
Alberta Health Services is the arm of the Alberta provincial government responsible for health care. In terms of public safety, AHS is (soon to be) the operator of ambulance services for the province.
Background
Ambulance service in Alberta has historically been provided by municipalities as either a combination Fire/EMS agency or a 'third service' model. Several First Nations also provide their own ambulance services, which fall under federal guidelines and the Department of Indian Affairs.
Several times in the 2000s, the Government of Alberta made attempts at amalgamating existing ambulance services across the province into one entity, to be managed and governed by the province. In 2008, the declaration was made that this merger would take place on 2009 April 01.
Dispatch Services
Coupled with the merger (also described by the province as a 'transition' of services) of the ambulance agencies, is a project to consolidate dispatch services for EMS from over thirty dispatch centers across the province to a total of "nine or less", scheduled to be in place by January 2009 (target date missed). The term "nine or less" refers to having one dispatch center responsible for an entire health region, of which there are nine in the province; it is conceivable that one dispatch center may 'win' the bidding to dispatch more than one health region. As of February 2009, one or more dispatch centers are currently in contract negotiations to determine what areas they will dispatch for and when this will begin.
Communications
Currently, EMS services across the province use a myriad of all sorts of communications networks for dispatch and operations, including conventional UHF/VHF, various trunking systems, MotoTRBO, iDEN, VHF paired with satellite relay, and the Internet Radio Linking Protocol (IRLP), to name a few. It is suspected, but not confirmed, that the delay in deciding the dispatch agencies may contribute toward some sort of coincidental agreement or function with the AFRRCS provincial trunking network project.
Timeline
The date for dispatch services to be switched over to the new agencies has already passed without action. Members of the EMS and first responder community have expressed concern that the province will not be able to keep to its scheduled transition date of 2009 April 01. The most recent information available implies that the province will expect all existing EMS providers to contract their services to AHS for a period of no less than two (2) years, thus building in a de facto 'cushion' or delay.
Alberta Unknown Trunking Systems
Background
There are a number of trunk systems easily identifiable in the TAFL for which information such as system type/brand, trunking protocol, etc., are as-yet undetermined, mainly because no one in the province has yet to attempt to monitor these systems (or has not submitted what they know into the Radio Reference Database, aka RRDB). Because of these missing elements, these systems cannot be included in the RRDB. These systems will be listed below, so that their data is in an easily accessible place, for interested parties to use in helping to 'sleuth out' the missing details.
As systems' traits become identified to a point where they meet the criteria for being included in the RRDB, they will be moved there.
Systems
Systems have been arranged in this section by county.
Provincewide
Athabasca
Alberta Pacific Forest Industries - Grassland
Clearwater
Edmonton
Glentel Riverwind - Edmonton Glentel Stony Plain - Edmonton Westcan Wireless - Edmonton
Leduc
Prairie Mines Royalty - Genessee
Parkland
Peace
Quintel Communications - Peace River
Red Deer
Cellular 90 - Red Deer Glentel - Red Deer Shaw Cablesystems - Red Deer
Strathcona
BA Energy - Fort Saskatchewan Dow Chemical - Fort Saskatchewan Shaw Cablesystems - Fort Saskatchewan Sherritt International - Fort Saskatchewan
Sturgeon
Agrium - Redwater PCOSI (Petro Canada Oilsands Inc) - Redwater St. Albert Corporate Radio - St. Albert
Vermilion River
Shaw Cablesystems - Lloydminster
Wood Buffalo
Albian Sands Energy - Fort Mackay Cellular 90 - Fort McMurray Nexen - Long Lake/Anzac Suncor - Firebag Suncor - Fort McMurray Syncrude Canada - Mildred Lake Tridon Mobile Communications - Fort McMurray
Woodlands
Millar Western Forest Products - Whitecourt