Interesting Live Feed with Pro96Com Screen Visual

Here is an interesting live scanner feed that is using Pro96Com software for a screen visual. This feed is from Westmoreland County in the State of Pennslyania. Head on over to www.gmans.net and click on the "LIVE FEED PAGE" on the left menu (or direct link to the page at http://www.gmans.net/live_audio-video_scanner_feed_page.htm). The screen visual is displaying live talk group, radio ID and radio description along with the radio system audio.

Audio Logs from Lake Erie Ice Rescue

I have posted a series of Audio Log files from this weekend's ice rescue operations on the western basin of Lake Erie. There is a link to the files in the Selected Activity Library (http://nwohio-liveservices.dyndns.org/audiologs.html) on the Audio Logs page.

The files contain selected audio communications from Jerusalem Twp and the mutual aid provided by Oregon, Toledo, and Washington Twp. Ottawa County, the United States Coast Guard and numerous other agencies also participated significantly in the rescue operations.

The morning of Saturday, February 7th, 2009 saw warm temperatures and a strong southwest wind that pushed hundreds of ice fishers out into the lake on an 8 mile long ice flow (or floe). A large 100 yard wide crack developed from Davis Besse and west to Maumee Bay. (The Lake Erie MODIS Ice Coverage Satellite Imagery actually shows a pretty good visual.) Most of the rescue operations were conducted off of the Crane Creek, Metzger Marsh and Magee Marsh areas in Lucas and Ottawa County.

The VHF Marine channel file contains communications between the USCG Rescue Helicopters "65xx" and the C-130 "2005" (based out of Elizabeth City NC), as well as Sector Detroit, Station Toledo, and Lucas County. The Oregon Ops 5-2 talk group from the Lucas County P25 county wide digital radio system was the primary Interop and Incident Command channel for Jerusalem Twp FD, and I have included some additional agency specific communications.

Direct Links:
02/07/2009 - Lake Erie Ice Rescue - VHF Marine Ch 23 (8.2 MB)
02/07/2009 - Lake Erie Ice Rescue - Oregon Ops 5-2 (9.4 MB)
02/07/2009 - Lake Erie Ice Rescue - Toledo FD Ch 7 (2.0 MB)
02/07/2009 - Lake Erie Ice Rescue - Oregon FD Ops (1.9 MB)
02/07/2009 - Lake Erie Ice Rescue - Jerusalem Twp FD Ops (4.5 MB)
02/07/2009 - Lake Erie Ice Rescue - Washington Twp FD Ops (7.0 MB)

The feed archive over at Scan America has plenty of the communications as well (search between 11AM and 2PM on 02/07/09):
http://lucas.oh.scanamerica.us/modules.php?name=FeedArchive

Significant Ice Rescue Operations in Progress on Western Lake Erie

Significant ice rescue operations are in progress on the western basin on Lake Erie. Jerusalem Twp FD (Lucas County) is the lead agency, with Oregon FD, Toledo FD, Washington Twp FD assiting as well as agencies from Ottawa County. There are reports of upwards of 150-500 people trapped on ice flows. A significant 100 yard wide crack from Davis Besse plant west to Maumee Bay has developed. Staging and command posts are at the Metzger Marsh and Crane Creek State Park areas. A USCG helicopter from Air Station Detroit is overhead, ProMedica Air 1 helicopter is also enroute. Live feed scanner activity is on www.ScanAmerica.us (Lucas County, Ohio Live Police, Fire, and EMS Scanners).

Live Scanner "Mini Console" Page is Back

Folks who had visited the NW Ohio Live Scanner page in the past may have remembered the "Mini Console" page with multiple embedded live streams all on one page. Well the "Mini Console" page is back. The Mini Console page features all three of my NW Ohio live streams from ScanAmerica embedded on one page. This page allows folks to listen to the NW Ohio Digital & MARCS feed, NW Ohio Fire / Emergency Analog feed, and Toledo and Lucas County Fire & EMS Digital feed all at the same time.

The Live Scanner Mini Console is designed for use with Windows Media Player. Each feed is 16 Kbps so a decent connection is needed to listen to all feeds at the same time. You may need to adjust your web browser settings to accept more than two downloads at the same time. Individual feeds can be muted and volume levels custom mixed to your needs. Stereo balancing provides pseudo surround sound and distributes the audio from each feed from the left to the right speakers. In Windows Media Player, the "Visualization" / "Bars and Waves" / "Fire Storm" provides for a good graphical activity indicator.

Audio Log from Oregon FD Barn Fire

I have posted an Audio Log file from this morning's barn fire in Oregon Ohio. There is a link to the file in the Selected Activity Library (http://nwohio-liveservices.dyndns.org/audiologs.html) on the Audio Logs page.

This file contains 25 minutes of fire ground audio from the Oregon Fire Department operations starting at 12:36 AM and through 9:19 AM on the morning of Friday, January 2nd, 2009. Firefighters from Oregon FD Station 1 and Station 3 battled the barn fire blaze that occurred at the 7100 block of Corduroy Road in the City of Oregon.

Direct Link: 01/02/2009 - Ohio, Lucas County, Oregon FD - Barn Fire (11.5 MB)

See the following articles from WTOL "Oregon barn fire kills animals, damages house" ( http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=9606529) and "Oregon farmer talks of deadly fire" (http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=9608592) for more information.

Interesting Internet Integrated Services

Here are a couple of interesting Internet integrated services that I have stumbled upon over the past few weeks.
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The first interesting service comes courtesy of the Laclede County Office of Emergency Management (http://www.lacledeoem.net/) in the State of Missouri. They are providing a "Live Radio Console Feed" stream of their dispatch console system from their Emergency Operations Center. Windows Media Encoder is being used to provide access to a ZETRON Console screen view and related audio:

http://broadcast.lacledeoem.net/

See the following Radio Reference thread for additional discussion:

http://www.radioreference.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75442
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The second interesting service comes courtesy of the Lebanon County Emergency Management Agency (http://www.lebanonema.org/) in the State of Pennsylvania. They are providing an ongoing real time log of decoded Lebanon County dispatch pages. A data slicer monitors the POCSAG paging radio transmissions off the air:

http://lebanonema.org/pager/html/monitor.html

See the following thread on their site for additional details and information:

http://www.lebanonema.org/lema/Radio+Project/277.aspx
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Jeff KC8NNO

About NW Ohio Live Services: "Live Scanner"

This is the first entry of a series of seven blog entries that will provide additional details surrounding all the elements at NW Ohio Live Services (http://nwohio-liveservices.dyndns.org/).

Today's topic is the "Live Scanner" component (http://nwohio-liveservices.dyndns.org/livescanner.html). This is the flagship element of the site, and the original inspiration for all Internet integration activities at NW Ohio Live Services.

The Live Scanner features local public safety radio system audio content from the NW Ohio area with a focus on Greater Toledo and Lucas County Ohio. The Live Scanner is designed to provide individuals with insight into the digital interoperable public safety radio system content that is active in the NW Ohio area with the primary goal of allowing those individuals to make an informed decision regarding the purchase their own digital scanning radio receiver.

The scanner itself is scanning activity on the Lucas County Public Safety system (http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=4239) and the State of Ohio MARCS (http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=901) Toledo tower site. Most dispatch and operational talk groups on both of those systems are enabled on the scanner. There are a handful of non-dispatch, non-operational activity that have been excluded: correctional activity, court security, records channels, medical channels, and encrypted channels, etc. Folks wanting more information regarding the above systems should follow the above links. Also visit the Live Scanner page for links to all of the current brands and models of digital scanning radio receivers that will work with Lucas County and Ohio MARCS.

The Live Scanner is powered by the GRECOM PSR-500 Digital Triple Trunking Handheld Scanner (http://www.greamerica.com/PSR-500.html). This is their first breakthrough handheld model from GRE's latest independent development and manufacturing efforts (GRE also develops and supplies Radio Shack branded equipment). This particular model features many innovative functions: Intuitive "Object Oriented" User Interface Design, Powerful and Flexible Scan List Functionality, Flexible Free-Form Memory Organization, Exclusive ALERT LED, Trunking Control Data Output, Radio ID Information, and more.

The scanner is connected to a computer running StarrSoft Win500 (http://www.starrsoft.com/software/win500/default.asp) software for the screen capture visual and Windows Media Encoder 9 Server (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/default.mspx) for the streaming media functionality. The Live Scanner is currently limited to twelve connections, as all users are directly connected to the server and my personal website bandwidth is limited. Folks can visit the Scan America website for an audio only equivalent of this feed that offers virtually unlimited connections ("NW Ohio Digital & MARCS" at http://lucas.oh.scanamerica.us/index.php). Feel free to visit their site for this feed and additional live scanner feeds.

This wraps up the futher look at the details surrounding the Live Scanner. Stay tuned for the next topic which will cover the Live Weather element in more detail.

(About NW Ohio Live Services - Blog Entry 1 of 7)

2008 NW Ohio Live Services

Stay tuned . . .

An upcoming series of blog entries will highlight additional details surrounding the unique content of all elements at NW Ohio Live Services (http://nwohio-liveservices.dyndns.org/). The NW Ohio Live Services web site is an experimental test bed for radio, electronic, computer and Internet integration activities. As a technology buff, communications enthusiast, and ham radio operator--I enjoy connecting the world around us via computer technology and the Internet. This Electronic Interface to the World is designed to be a hobbyist showcase.

Stay tuned right here every few days for more information about each element. The "Live Scanner"--the flag ship element--will be the first element to be covered in additional detail.

Jeff KC8NNO

NW Ohio Live Services

The NW Ohio Live Scanner site is now NW Ohio Live Services: http://nwohio-liveservices.dyndns.org/