MARITIMES SCANNING SITE

FIRE DEPARTMENTS IN HANTS COUNTY, NOVA SCOTIA

Last updated January 24, 2010

Information on this page comes from various sources but notably Stephen, Nick and Richard

Click here for map showing station locations, from Stephen

The geographical area known as Hants County actually encompasses four municipalities:   the town of Hantsport, the town of Windsor, the rural municipality of West Hants, and the rural municipality of East Hants.      There is no overall municipal organization taking in all of Hants County.      Towns in Nova Scotia generally provide their own fire services directly while rural municipalities depend on volunteer departments who own and operate their own equipment.

It is most convenient to describe East and West Hants separately.   The two towns lie within the boundaries of West Hants and therefore will be dealt with in the West Hants section.

A. West Hants (plus the towns of Hantsport and Windsor)

This description is basic, with no information available on channel lineups in radios.   It is thought that, other than mutual aid arrangements, the four departments are separate in that there is as yet no integrated radio system as is now found in East Hants.    It is expected that these four departments would utilize 153.83 MHz for mutual aid.    Formerly extensive use was made of the Nova Scotia Fire Grid repeater at Willow Hill  (151.745 output, 154.07 input, 82.5 CTCSS); however the grid is no longer maintained by the provincial government and in fact this repeater may not be still operable, but listeners may wish to include it in their scanners.  

Dispatch for all four departments is via Valley Dispatch, on the frequencies listed.   

Further information is requested on this area.  Note that the Summerville and Brooklyn frequencies are included in the East Hants radios for dedicated mutual aid.

East Hants includes a rural and exurban area with no incorporated towns.    Much of the population is concentrated in the far eastern part of the municipality, near the boundary with Colchester County.   There is a significantly populated area remote from the rest of the municipality in the Mount Uniacke area.   That population area borders the Sackville area of HRM and on the north side, the Windsor area in West Hants.    Similarly there is another population centre at Enfield which is an area that straddles the Halifax/East Hants boundary just north of the Halifax airport. The Mount Uniacke and Enfield Fire Departments are separate from all system descriptions presented below and therefore are described first.

1. Mount Uniacke Fire Department and Enfield Fire Department

These departments do not lie adjacent to each other and have no mutual connection but they have similarities.  Both are dispatched by the HRM  IES dispatch centre located in Dartmouth on the HRFES VHF page system and for operations use the 800 MHz Nova Scotia Trunked Mobile Radio System (TMR).     

Mount Uniacke is paged on 154.415 MHz on a pager located in Middle Sackville.   There is apparently an echo transmitter on the same frequency located closer to Mount Uniacke.  This transmitter is not listed in TAFL but can be heard repeating the pages following a few seconds delay.

Enfield is paged on 154.28 MHz from a transmitter located in Shubenacadie.  

In going into operation both departments then switch to the R (rural bank) TMR channels of the Halifax Fire and Emergency Service and are in constant contact with the HRM dispatch centre.   Mt. Uniacke units are numbered in the 300 range.     Enfield units are usually referred to as "Enfield _______ " such as "Enfield Rescue".

It should be expected that both of these departments would retain VHF radios for use in mutual aid with the surrounding departments in Hants County.

2. East Hants Integrated System

This system went into operation in mid-November 2009.  It has evolved out of the former systems used in the eastern end of East Hants, and described for historical interest farther down the page.

East Hants Radio Channel Line-up 

* Channel numbers might not be utilized.

Re Private Dept Frequencies:  It is unclear what these might be as some of those in use up to now by depts in the past are now in the lineup above as Ops frequencies, so are unlikely to be also used as private frequencies.   Additionally it does appear from TAFL that some departments do not have private frequencies at all.

Apparatus Numbering System (East Hants only)

Several of the departments now use a standardized unit call sign system with a station prefix number followed by these suffix numbers listed below.   Thus, for example, the Elmsdale base radio has the call sign "200".  This appears to be the same system as used in the nearby Colchester system and perhaps is also in wider use in Nova Scotia.  It is not known if all departments shown actually conform to this plan.   Comments from listeners are requested.

There is  no indication that the more isolated department in Walton Shore is part of this system.  The Mount Uniacke department uses call-signs in the 300 range.  

HISTORICAL INFORMATION:  this is the system used in East Hants throughout most of the 2000's until November 2009.  These lists may provide clues regarding the "private" individual fire department frequencies mentioned in the new system as Chan

Coordinated East Hants system beginning in December 2003 and used by Lantz, Milford, Shubenacadie and Elmsdale.