Bill's Nova Scotia Radio Site

HISTORICAL PAGE

This page describes or depicts a service or system that is no longer in use but  it is known that a VERY few repeaters still function in 2011, more than ten years after their replacement with the 800 MHz system!    For a number of years it was surmised that the system was being kept on-line as a back-up; however it is clear now that this system is abandoned, and any repeaters still operable are only that way due to not being physically disconnected.  On the chart below status is mentioned however for any that are shown as not functioning it can be assumed that they are dead forever.   Those shown as active may have succumbed since last information was received.    it is thought however that the RCMP retains the "ownership" of the frequencies involved; some of which seem to be national assignments.

NOVA SCOTIA RCMP (H Division) VHF NETWORK
A component of the NSIMRS
Last updated November 22, 2011

© 2010, MARITIMES SCANNING SITE, all rights reserved

This system was a lodger component of the NS Integrated Mobile Radio System, which has largely been replaced by the 800 MHz NS Trunked Mobile Radio System.  This system is denoted as a lodger system in that most of its repeaters were collocated with the provincial government grid repeaters on their towers but they were not under the control of the province nor were they linked in the same way.   The provincial grids had linking that was user-operated so that a user in Yarmouth could dial up the repeater at the other end of the province without using an operator.   In the RCMP system a user wishing to communicate outside his own area had to call the communications centre (dispatch centre) for the local region and request a patch to the distant repeater.   The 10-code nomenclature was 10-61 to request a link, and 10-63 to end the link.   This was done even between adjacent repeaters where it was possible that the user could actually switch his radio over to the not-too-distant repeater and communicate directly.   This practice was discouraged as it would mean that the member was not on the channel for his own area, whereas with a patch he was still on his own area repeater as well as on the distant one.

Frequencies and channel numbers reflect the situation just prior to the force moving to the NSTMRS 800 MHz trunk system.    This is the set of frequencies in use throughout the 80's and 90's.  Prior to that time there were only 9 frequencies:   7 repeaters and two simplex (155.67 and 155.46).  The 7 repeater frequencies were as shown below as channels 1 to 7 except that channel 5 was 155.405 and Channel 6 was 155.39 [which do not conform to the North American VHF band plan as they are both offset from the legitimate frequency of 155.40] however in the 80's Channels 5 and 6 changed to those shown.  In addition the channels were essentially doubled by the addition of Channel 10 on a frequency far removed from the basic 155 series, and by the doubling of most existing frequencies by adding two separate tones.   In fact it is possible that prior to this time that there was no tone squelch employed.   It was quite common in "lifts" to hear American services coming in on the repeaters, and to have for example Kentville area RCMP units on hilltops keying up the Sackville area repeater on the same channel (at that time).

At one time there were four dispatch centres or telecommunications centres for the NS RCMP (often referred to as "telecoms"), each with its own call sign.  These were Halifax (XJE416), Yarmouth (???961), Truro (XJE82) and a fourth centre in Sydney.  Since the 1980's these dwindled away, first when the establishment of the Cape Breton Regional Police took away RCMP service in that area, then the Yarmouth centre was closed, and finally when the Halifax Regional Municipality began to be dispatched by the Halifax Regional Police, all provincial RCMP dispatch was consolidated in Truro.  It is possible that one or more of the closed centres may still exist for backup. Telecoms generally identify themselves by the numerical part of the call sign only.  I have never heard a local detachment office use its official call sign.  In most cases each detachment had its own frequency under supervision of its telecoms centre, and this continues with the trunk system, except that in some cases several offices are now on one talk group instead of one frequency.

On the old VHF system, a unit wishing to contact the dispatch centre (telecoms centre) would send a tone that would alert the dispatcher which repeater was involved. The dispatcher would reply by naming the repeater, rather than the particular unit or the detachment in the area.  For example if a Chester car called for the dispatcher, the dispatcher replied by saying something like "Sherwood - 416", as Sherwood was the location of the repeater for the Chester and Lunenburg area.  There were no data bursts identifying the calling unit to the dispatcher.  As far as everyday operations were concerned, the detachments communicated locally on the local repeater and were not allowed to switch over to a nearby repeater without permission.  Members received assignments (complaints) on occasion from the local detachment office but more often from the telecoms centre.  This was because when people call for help (emergency or otherwise) their call more than likely was routed to the telecoms centre, rather than the local offices, which are often unmanned.   Each case or incident is called a "complaint".    In the RCMP system at the time the dispatcher sending out a complaint to a detachment with multiple cars would not actually assign the task, but rather announce it and then one or more of the local members would accept it, as opposed to the urban police practice of specifically directing an assignment to a particular member or unit.   This difference accounts for the fact that the civilian members at the telecoms centre were never actually referred to as dispatchers, but rather as operators.

The following list is thought to be substantially complete, but there may have been others.  Further research may yield those.   Repeaters know to still be operative are indicated by a Y in the final column but that does not mean that the others are not, unless they have an N showing.

For those interested in the distribution or frequency coordination aspect of the system, it does seem odd that Kejimkujik and NRC which are fairly close would be on the same frequency, just a different tone.   Also regarding frequencies, it may be interesting to note that several of these output frequencies, including some identical pairs, were and are used in New Brunswick.    In fact some pairs were used at one time virtually across Canada, for example Channels 1, 2 and 8.

Information on the following chart comes from a wide variety of contributors over the past decade, and unfortunately I no longer remember who contributed what, but it should be substantially correct, if perhaps to some extent incomplete.

RCMP Simplex ("Local')  155.67  (Channel 8)
RCMP Drug/GIS Simplex ("Clear")  155.46  (Channel 9)

* Status is as known or surmised in the year shown.  Y for known to be operational, as of year noted.  N indicates that in the year noted it was thought to be no longer operational, or temporarily inoperative.  Status may have changed since that time.    ? indicates information is questionable.

** Note that the existence, location and tone of Wilkins Lake is unconfirmed and tentative
*** This repeater pair later was used at Halifax A/P for security services (not specifically RCMP)
RE Willow Hill:  It has been reported that this repeater, still operational in 2009, may now lack tone access so that strictly speaking it is no longer Channel 6 or 16, but rather a completely open repeater; however in the past it was Channel 16 so I will list it as such.

Note that the channel numbers vary with the output frequencies and the CTCSS tone.