Actions

Alberta (CA)

From The RadioReference Wiki

Template:Canada Collaboration

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.

Upcoming Province of Alberta Projects

Currently, there are two endeavors in the Province of Alberta that are relevant to the scanner community.

One is the AFRRCS or Alberta First Responders' Radio Communication System - a trunked network being designed and deployed to cover the entire province with integrated, interoperable communications for first responders and government agencies;

The other is the Alberta Health Services' ground ambulance merger/transition plan, scheduled to move all ground ambulance services to the responsibility of the government as of April 2009.


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

AFRRCS

ATCO Electric P25

Athabasca

Alberta Pacific Forest Industries - Grassland

Clearwater

Shell Canada - Caroline

Edmonton

Glentel Riverwind - Edmonton Glentel Stony Plain - Edmonton Westcan Wireless - Edmonton

Leduc

Prairie Mines Royalty - Genessee

Parkland

TransAlta - Highvale

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

Alberta Pacific Forest Industries - Grassland

This is an "unknown" trunk system in the province of Alberta. The SID for the depreciated system is 5552.

Sites

There is only one site. Its callsign is VBM475, and the name is specified in TAFL as 'Mill Boiler Tower'. The coordinates on record with the TAFL are N54.9188 W112.858056.

Frequencies

The frequencies for Site 1 are as follows:

853.46250 853.71250 853.96250 854.21250 854.46250 856.03750 856.28750 856.53750 856.78750 857.03750

Alberta First Responders' Radio Communication System

System Makeup & Composition

The AFRRCS network is a trunked radio system that will be constructed in the province of Alberta, Canada, between 2009 and 2012. As of this writing, bids are still open for the construction of the system, but many details are known already about the system's characteristics as defined by the provincial government entities responsible for the network, namely Service Alberta and the Office of the Solicitor General (the parent government agency of the Alberta Sheriffs).

The system will be an APCO Project-25 digital trunking system in the 700MHz band. The province mandates that the system must work with any/all P25 equipment and infrastructure, such that any customer agency that wishes to use the network can purchase their favorite P25-compliant equipment and be assured it will function.

The province is building this system to carry all the radio traffic of the various government agencies that currently use wireless/radio communications, as well as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), who provide municipal policing to the province; as well as any first responders (Fire, EMS, Police, etc.) that choose to join the network.

Construction of the tower sites, backhaul, and infrastructure will be handled entirely by the province and the winning contractor; all that a customer agency (such as a volunteer fire department) will need is to purchase the necessary equipment, such as portable and mobile radios, to enable them to connect to the network.

Timeline

The project is, as of this writing, in the bidding process of the Request for Proposal (RFP). This is expected to close on 2009 February 18 at 1400 MT, after which time the winning vendor(s) will be announced. It is expected that construction of the system will begin shortly thereafter; the province has estimated the final completion of the system build to be in 2012.

The province's expected build timeline involves constructing the system in 19 stages, one per each Census Division in the province. It is expected that as each section is built, it will come online, so there will be many users already on the system by as early as 3Q/4Q 2009, if not sooner.

ATCO Electric P25

This is an APCO Project-25 trunked radio system to be developed by/for the ATCO Electric company in northeastern/central Alberta. It is likely to be a VHF system. Raytheon is the major partner directing the 80-tower-site buildout.

Rumors state that a test site for this system has been put into service "100 km west of Edmonton", but nothing concrete has been provided to support this theory.

Online Scanners

Web/Wiki Pages