beeps

[Petey]

listening to the various channels I sometimes hear beeps.

I heard:

3 series of 3 beeps

or
1 series of 3 beeps followed by 2 series of 2

or very often
multiple series ( I think 5 ) of a lot of them


What do those beeps mean, are they opening somebody's channel or having a horn go ?

 

[FDNY150]

That is the radio station identifier. It sounds like old Morse code. I forget what the code is actually saying, though.

 

[Petey]

That is the radio station identifier. It sounds like old Morse code. I forget what the code is actually saying, though.

Yep FDNY150. Those are the beeps I meant.

Does anyone know what they say ? When or why it's used?

 

[TN46]

They are the FCC Licence number.  For instance Bronx/SI freq's licence # is KED962.  The beeps are the morse code for the #

 

[bklyndisp54]

We're mixing apples & oranges here. 

All the FD radio stations are using morse identifiers.

Separate and apart from that, there are other "mystery" beeps.  For example, two beeps followed by two more ( **    **)  shows up on Brooklyn a lot. 

In morse, that would be simply " I I".  Not a station ID.

 

[firekid52a]

The town I live in has that for there FD I was told it had to be done every 20 mins by law for paid depts....i think

 

[Bulldog]

The town I live in has that for there FD I was told it had to be done every 20 mins by law for paid depts....i think

I know the FCC does not have separate rules for paid and volunteer departments so that is definitely not true.  Station identifiers I'm not recorded 20 minute intervals in any case, they are only required at 30 minute intervals for stations that are manned and only after transmissions for stations that are normally unmanned.  Whether they use MC identifiers or voice identifiers depends on the department.