Scanning Middlesex County, New Jersey

For all the municipalities or groups listed above, there is a table of the frequencies and a brief description of how they are used. The first field is the channel name and/or usage, the second column is the radio frequency, the third column is the type (R=repeater, B=base, M=mobile), and the fourth column is the squelch or modulation type (CSq = carrier squelch). A two-digit number in the last field represents an LTR LCN; any known associated talkgroups will be listed further down in the same table.

It is intended for all public safety (police/fire/EMS/OEM) and government (roads dept/building dept/schools) channels to be listed here, plus most business repeaters and other channels which may be of particular interest. Many business channels have intentionally been omitted because researching and processing them all would be impractical. If you are searching for one not listed, try the FCC database or check if they are using an undentified talkgroup on one of the SMRs. If you are searching for additional tactical channels used by a business which has repeaters shown, try the master frequency lists. If you find or know of anything which is not listed here, please e-mail them to the author so that others may benefit.

Businesses should be listed under the municipality they are principally located in. County-wide busineses like utilities may be listed under the County Other section or with the municipality in which the main transmitter is located.

Standard and regional channels have been omitted from this page for brevity and can be found on the General Mercer/ Middlesex/ Somerset County Channels page.

Good sources of additional information are:
• Middlesex County official site.
• Frequency Lists (located at this site, includes more license data, excludes narratives).
• Central-New-Jersey-Scanning Yahoo Group.
• RadioReference.com, particularly for trunked radio system information but increasingly for conventional data too.

Middlesex County Trunked Radio System

In 2010 I purged and rebuilt my talkgroup list for this system, to get rid of bad data which snuck in years ago and/or talkgroups which have been removed from the system. All system talkgroups listed now have received anough hits on my logging software at different times of this year to convince me that they are valid and not flukes or bad decoding. Uncertainty in the talkgroup use or modulation type would be because it is impossible to scan and thus identify, or it is used very rarely and is chiefly known to exist only because of affiliations.

Middlesex County operates a mixed-mode EDACS-Wideband trunked radio system on the 800 MHz band. Simulcast repeater sites are located: East Brunswick, Monroe, New Brunswick, Rutgers/ Piscataway, Sayreville, South Brunswick, and Woodbridge. The digital modulation is not APCO P-25 compliant, you will not be able to decode the digital transmissions using any consumer-marketed radio scanners available now (and there will likely never be a scanner which will).

Law enforcement and emergency services on the system, such as the prosecutor and sheriff and OEM, are now almost 100% digital. The transition from Aegis to Provoice, and the transition of remaining units from analog to digital, occurred late in 2005 and early in 2006. Other agencies and services, like the roads and transportation departments, remain analog and monitorable with many scanners.

Refer to the System Maps section for an Excel workbook with all the latest talkgroup and system information, including TGIDs in true AFS, Uniden AFS and decimal. Look for the tabs in the workbook, all identified or strongly suspected talkgroups are listed under the various County sections of this page but there are some questionable ones which are only included in the workbook.

Middlesex County Law Enforcement / County-wide Police

The primary channel for inter-department police communications is the UHF "Police Hotline", which is also patched into an analog talkgroup. Most police dispatch agencies have the input to the UHF repeater and tests are performed each day at 0100 and 1100 hours.

The corrections facilities on Route 130 in North Brunswick switched from analog to P-25 encrypted communications on the same frequencies. There is no scanner capable of receiving P-25 encrypted communications, P-25-capable scanners are only capable of receiving unencrypted P-25 signals.

While most of these talkgroups are noted as digital, there is occasionally analog traffic on them. Most frequently it is one of the Sheriff dispatch consoles which transmit in analog even as all other units are using digital. Other times it might be a radio which is incapable of digital or is set to analog, so if there is space in your scanner's memory it may be worth programming all these in. The Sheriff Bulletin Patch talkgroup has patched into the following talkgroups for announcements: 305, 306, 308, 309, 310, 311, 312, 313, 316, 317, 1057.

Refer to the General Channels page for more information on state-wide and nation-wide interoperability channels.

Middlesex County-wide Fire & EMS & OEM

Unfortunately there is no centralized dispatch for Middlesex County emergency services as you find in some other counties.

County uses their old VHF-Hi operations repeater for its own paging but has finally moved most ops over to the trunked system. The UHF repeater is now used for fire mutual aid coordination, and the old 800 MHz DOT channel has been relicensed and reassigned to OEM use; note the PL is not confirmed. The HazMat teams now usually use a talkgroup for their on-scene ops.

Section B10 of the NJ Forest Fire Service uses the regular state DEP channels (see General Channels) for official communications and a talk-around channel for informal and small-scale response communications. B10 is expected to switch those communications to a repeater soon, if they haven't already.

Two 'buff network' channels are listed, one somewhat amateurish GMRS channel which may have disappeared a while back, and one private repeater. Both are located in or around South River, and both are not officially related to the county but may be of interest to scanning enthousiasts.

Refer to individual municipalities for specific fire and EMS channels. All in-county Advanced Life Support (ALS=paramedics) is dispatched by MedCentral with paging on JEMS 1 and operations on F-5. Medics usually get physician control by phone, but do occassionally use the med channels in duplex mode (with PL=186.2). Most medic units can communicate directly with the dispatch center they are responding into on the local channel or talkgroup.

Basic Life Support (BLS=ordinary ambulances) often use JEMS 2 to contact hospital emergency departments with in-bound patient reports. All the JEMS are used as coordination channels. JEMS 4 technically has a transmit PL of 131.8, but MedCentral units did and may still emit a PL of 103.5 on it.

Middlesex County Other Services

Nearly all county services now operate on the trunked system in analog mode. A list of talkgroups is below; for system information and frequencies, see the trunked radio system section.

The utilities authority seems to chiefly operate on their VHF-Hi simplex channel and, possibly, cell phones. Two analog talkgroups were also used during Hurricane Irene.

Carteret Borough

Carteret Borough's Police Department is self-dispatched on a UHF repeater. A new repeater has been heard to have traffic with speech inversion; it is probably an alternate or secure channel for the PD. With the license modification adding the second repeater, a simplex channel was also added.

The Carteret Fire Department is paged on low-band and operates on a UHF repeater.

The Carteret First Aid Squad is paged and communicates on 155.220, but with a different tone than MedCentral and Perth Amboy. The CFD has been providing daytime EMS coverage for the borough.

Carteret OEM uses a UHF repeater for their ordinary operations, and presumably has access to all the borough's other channels as well.

Cranbury Township

Cranbury Township's Police Department is dispatched by Hightstown Borough. F-1 is Hightstown's repeater, with a different input PL than the repeater ordinarily used by Cranbury PD.

Cranbury Fire, Station 48, is the only user of their UHF repeater, which is used for paging, dispatch, and operations / talk-around. Initial paging is usually done by Hightstown and follow-on dispatch is usually performed by Mercer County on this channel.

Cranbury First Aid, Squad 48, moved its dispatch channel to a new high-band repeater around July or August of 2007. It appears that this is used for all communications, including paging and dispatch, and that the old channel is no longer in regular use by this squad. Additional information on the Cranbury squad is also available on the Cranbury.org web site.

Dunellen Borough

Dunellen Borough's Police Department is self-dispatched on a VHF-High repeater. A second police channel is apparently for mutual aid to North Plainfield Borough (Somerset County; the repeater is NP's).

East Brunswick Township

East Brunswick Township operates a Motorola Type II UHF trunked radio system consisting of six repeater pairs in the 500 MHz area. This system has been in use since about 1998, and seems to be used by all township services plus all South River Borough services (since late 2000), Milltown Borough fire (since 2003), and Spotswood Fire and EMS (since 2005). A comprehensive listing of talkgroups is below; the base frequency is 500.300, the offset is 380, and the step is 12.5.

The East Brunswick Police Department is entirely on the trunked system.

The old Emergency Services (ES) repeater is being maintained as a backup to the trunked system. For a period of time it was used by MedRescue 2, and (at that time) it appeared that EB dispatch always monitored this channel. More recently MR2 has been operating on the trunked system.

The East Brunswick Fire Department is comprised of the following districts and companies:

1. District One, Old Bridge Volunteer Fire Company, 7## Units;
2. District Two, East Brunswick Independent Fire Company, 8## Units;
3. District Three, Brookview Volunteer Fire Company, 9## Units.

All are paged to calls in their individual primary territories on 33.82/156.7 with a taped rebroadcast immediately following on 33.72/156.7. Units generally communicate on the Fire Dispatch talkgroup, with one talkgroup per district also intended for operations and one "private" talkgroup per district. Conventional radios may be used for fireground operations on 453.1375 (simplex). The 33.72/CSq channel rebroadcasts all the above fire talkgroups and conventional channels, but not the thre districts' "private" channels or the conventional fireground channel.

The East Brunswick Rescue Squad (6## units) is paged and operates internally on a VHF-Hi repeater. Rigs still communicate with dispatch mostly on the trunked system, but the VHF channels are to be used for scene operations and most communication between rigs on different calls. TransMed (paid daytime BLS) operates on the EMS Dispatch talkgroup, and is hailed there rather than paged.

East Brunswick's municipal services operate exclusively on the trunked system. The school system operates mostly on conventional, but has used one talkgroup for roll-call.

Edison Township

Edison Township utilizes a Motorola Type 2 UHF mixed-mode trunked radio system; system voice is analog and P-25 digital clear and P-25 digital encrypted. Refer to RadioReference.com for the latest talkgroup and system information. Two configurations are required to trunk this system: Base1=470.0000, Offset1=380, Spacing1=12.5; Base2=477.0000, Offset2=600, Step2=12.5.

With the possible exception of a few conventional backup/tactical channels, rarely used if at all, the Police Department operates entirely on the trunked system. Generally speaking, the police talkgroups are digital encrypted and can not be properly decoded by any scanner.

The Fire Department is paged on their old UHF dispatch channel, which also carries a multicast of select fire talkgroups. Most subsequent activity is on the trunked system, though they maintained ability on a UHF simplex channel for fireground and tactical operations. Generally speaking, the fire talkgroups are digital and require an APCO digital-compliant scanner to be decoded.

Edison EMS, including Edison First Aid Squad #1, Edison First Aid Squad #2, and Clara Barton First Aid Squad, are all paged on the old police dispatch channel, which also carries a multicast of select EMS talkgroups. Most subsequent activity is on the trunked system, though they may still have ability on some of the old conventional channels; the old EMS Dispatch frequency has been rolled into the trunked system. Generally speaking, the EMS talkgroups are digital and require an APCO digital-capable scanner to be decoded.

It is believed that all Edison Township services, such as public works and municipal departments, operate exclusively on the trunked system.

Edison schools have two district-wide repeaters, and one repeater each for the high schools. Every other school uses one or both of the low-power, simplex channels; DCS codes vary by school.

Helmetta Borough

Helmetta Borough contracts with Spotswood Borough for dispatch services. An old East Brunswick Sentinal article outlines the arrangement.

The Helmetta Police Department is dispatched on the same old VHF-High channel; it is unknown whether they intend to migrate up to the relatively new Spotswood PD UHF channel.

The Helmetta Fire Department has recently moved their operations from low-band to UHF. Paging remains on low-band, but with a different PL. The old alternate channel should now (or soon) have retransmission of pages plus multicast of the UHF operations channel.

EMS for Helmetta is provided by Spotswood.

Highland Park Borough

Highland Park Borough's Police Department is self-dispatched on a UHF repeater.

The Highland Park Fire Department is paged on low-band and operates on a UHF repeater.

The Highland Park First Aid Squad is paged and operates on a UHF repeater.

DPW also uses the same repeater as fire and EMS.

Jamesburg Borough

Jamesburg Borough's Police Department is self-dispatched on a digital talkgroup on the county's trunked system. It is assumed this is a permanent move for narrowbanding and/or interoperability and/or economical reasons. This switch may render the UHF channels unnecessary, or maybe they will be for fire and EMS.

The Jamesburg Fire Department is paged on the VHF repeater and chiefly operates on 155.610. The other listed channels may be used for fireground or tactical.

The Jamesburg First Aid and Rescue Squad is paged & dispatched on the VHF repeater.

Metuchen Borough

Metuchen Borough's Police Department moved their primary dispatch to a UHF repeater in the middle of November, 2005.

The Metuchen Fire Department operates on a UHF repeater, with a low-power channel for fireground and tactical usage. It seems that they have designated the other tactical channel they licensed as a town-wide common channel.

The Metuchen First Aid Squad is now alerted and operates on a UHF repeater. The old low-band paging channel has been abandoned and the old high-band repeater (formerly PD & EMS dispatch) is now used by select municipal services.

It is presumed that Metuchen OEM uses the police, fire, and EMS channels for their communications, rather than the older high-band channels which would not be interoperable with the current public safety channels.

Metuchen DPW continues to operate on their high-band channel, and uses the high-band repeater to call the police dispatcher. The transportation department operates on the former (VHF) police repeater.

The Metuchen High School licenses a handful of UHF channels for low-power mobile use.

Middlesex Borough

Middlesex Borough's Police Department is self-dispatched on a high-band repeater. Technically the frequency is licensed on the new band-split, but older scanners should be able to receive it okay on 156.050.

The Middlesex Fire Department is dispatched and operates on a high-band channel. Normal activity on low-band has ceased, but ability there may remain for mutual aid.

The Middlesex Rescue Squad is dispatched on the police channel.

Middlesex Borough OEM operates on a high-band repeater, sharing the frequency (but not PL) with Essex County and South Amboy, among others.

Milltown Borough

Milltown Borough's Police Department began using Old Bridge's former police repeater (same callsign, different location & PL) for their own dispatch in 2001. Along with it they licensed a couple more UHF frequencies for coordination with New Brunswick. There is reportedly an unlicensed tactical channel.

The Milltown Fire Department is paged on high-band and operates on East Brunswick's trunked system. A couple conventional fireground channels may be used for major incidents.

The Milltown Rescue Squad is paged and dispatched on the same high-band channel as the fire department. They have ability on EB's TRS, but apparently for coordinating with the FD. Pager tests are done at 2200 each day.

Monroe Township

Monroe Township utilizes an analog UHF Motorola Type II trunked radio system for all services. A comprehensive listing of talkgroups is below; the base frequency is 507.0125, the offset is 380, and the step is 25.0.

The Police Department operates entirely on the trunked system. Note: in early February 2009 Monroe PD switched dispatch to a new talkgroup using digital encryption.

The Monroe Fire Department is comprised of three companies: Station 51 (Monroe Township Volunteer Fire Company #1) is District 1; Station 57 (Applegarth Engine Company) is District 2; Station 23 (Central Monroe Volunteer Fire Company) is District 3. All three respond to their individual primary territories. Fire alerting is done on high-band and most operations are on the trunked system. There are three conventional tactical channels available, as well as numerous licensed channels for mutual aid to Mercer, Middlesex, and Monmouth Counties. Station 57 had a great page about their radio communications, it's unclear whether it will return.

Monroe Township EMS does not seem to be paged via radio. New dispatches go out over the EMS Dispatch talkgroup, and possibly via phone to the squadhouse.

The Municipal Utilities Authority operates on the trunked system. The school system has three known talkgroups for: school buses, disrict-wide maintenance, and high school operations.

City of New Brunswick

The City of New Brunswick's Police Department has two main repeater channels, and apparently a third low-power repeater possibly for headquarters or the courthouse.

The New Brunswick Fire Department is dispatched on a repeated VHF-high channel and has a simplex fireground channel. On 3/26/10 the NBFD was conducting coverage testing using one analog and one digital talkgroup on the county's system. The other talkgroups shown were accessed by the same radios used for this coverage testing.

New Brunswick's EMS is provided by RWJUH EMS, and is dispatched by MedCentral. The main frequencies are listed here; for more information and frequencies see County-wide Fire & EMS for specifics.

The Housing Authority's old channel expired and a new channel has been licensed, but activity has not yet been observed on it.

The Parking Authority has licensed and begun using their own channel. The channel they previously used (463.8750R/d712) was technically licensed to RWJUH; it is unknown whether NBPA still has use of this or RWJ reclaimed it.

North Brunswick Township

North Brunswick's Police Department's switch to new digital channels appeared to take place on 12/18/06. To date all observed traffic has been APCO P-25 clear (not encrypted).

The North Brunswick Fire Department is comprised of NB Volunteer Engine Company #1 (Georges Rd), NB Volunteer Engine Company #2 (Route 130), and NB Volunteer Fire/Ladder Company #3 (Cozzens Lane). They are all paged out together, for any call, and operate on a UHF repeater. They also use a UHF simplex fireground channel.

The North Brunswick First Aid and Rescue Squad is alerted by "North Brunswick Central" on JEMS 1. Two-way dispatch, formerly on the old police channel, is now on the new F-3.

DPW started using their new UHF channel (the old PD channel) in January of '07, however some units are still on low-band as well. DPW was apparently using 471.100/67.0 with mobiles (no repeater) in the fourth quarter of 2006, but it has not been heard since PD vacated 460.175 and EMS has switched to their new channel.

The Board of Education operates a repeater for its district-wide services; buses use a PL of 74.4 and district-wide administration uses 100.0. Channels are confirmed for the high school (repeater) and Linwood Middle School (simplex); three other simplex channels are licensed and are assumed to be used by other schools with the same PL.

There is still one channel in the township's license, 506.4000, which has not been observed to have any traffic.

Old Bridge Township

Old Bridge Township utilizes an analog 800 MHz Motorola trunked radio system. It is believed that all township services, including the Police Department are now on this system, though the Municipal Utilities Authority may have remained conventional. Refer to RadioReference.com for the latest talkgroup and system information. Along with two repeater channels, what appear to be five tactical channels have been added to the original TRS license.

The Old Bridge Fire Department is comprised of the following companies: Cheesequake VFC; Laurence Harbor FC; Madison Park FC; and South Old Bridge FC. All are paged on low-band and all primary operations are on the trunked system. Some companies may switch to conventional channels for fireground operations.

Old Bridge EMS is provided by: Cheesequake VFAS; Laurence Harbor FAS; Madison Park FAS; Old Bridge EMS (Green & White); and Old Bridge FARS (Red & White). All are paged on the same low-band channel as the fire companies, and all operate on the trunked system.

City of Perth Amboy

The City of Perth Amboy's Police Department uses two repeaters and has a third talk-around channel that is an unofficial common frequency in that part of the county. An additional repeater is for the parking authority.

The Fire Department is paged on low-band and UHF, and operates on the UHF repeater and tactical channels.

The Perth Amboy First Aid Squad was alerted and operated on 155.22, with an alternate channel. Volunteer units were 93 and Rescue 95. A paid service operated 91 & 92 on the UHF repeater and identified as 'EMS'. In 2005 both the paid and volunteer services were wrapped into the fire department.

Piscataway Township

Effective 9/17/2010, some changes were made to Piscataway's trunked system FCC license which suggest some changes are not far off. First, narrowband digital emission types were added to all channels (very technically speaking, no analog emissions are currently permitted but that's probably an oversight). Second, three simulcast repeater sites were added at Baekeland Ave, Arbor Hose Co, and Busch Campus. This leads me to expect a switch-over to an all-digital P25 trunked system, though the timeline for that can not be determined from this data.

Piscataway Township uses an analog UHF Motorola Type II trunked radio system. Refer to RadioReference.com for the latest talkgroup and system information. The base is 500.2375, the offset is 380, and the step is 25.0.

The Police Department operates entirely on the trunked system.

The Piscataway Fire Department is comprised of the following companies: District 1 New Market Fire Company; District 2 Holmes Marshall Fire Company, Possumtown Fire Company, River Road Fire Company; District 3 Arbor Hose Company; District 4 North Stelton Fire Company. All of the fire companies are paged on high-band and operate chiefly on the trunked system, but some license conventional channels for fireground and mutual aid as well.

EMS is provided to Piscataway by: Arbor Rescue Squad, River Road Rescue Squad, and North Stelton Rescue Squad. All rescue squads are paged on the high-band channel and all operate on the trunked system. Incoming EMS mutual aid has been heard to call Piscataway on the EMS paging channel. RWJUH EMS has provided daytime EMS coverage using Ambulance 783 (primary) and others as needed, all those units are dispatched by MedCentral and may or may not also contact Piscataway directly for coordination.

Some school buses have been heard on 155.220/107.2, with the dispatcher identifying as "Piscataway Base." It is as yet unclear whether these are Piscataway Township buses or a private bus service located in Piscataway.

Plainsboro Township

Plainsboro Township's Police Department is self-dispatched on F-1. The unknown channel may be for police usage and may, based on the other channels, have a PL of 131.8. None of this has been confirmed yet.

The Plainsboro Fire Company, Station 49, is alerted and operates on F-2. Most of the time the township dispatch center receives the emergency call and pages the company out, at which point Mercer County central dispatch takes over on the same channel. Mercer does have the ability to dispatch St49 directly when necessary, usually for mutual aid. There is a VHF-High to UHF link for F-2, apparently for incoming mutual aid.

Plainsboro Rescue Squad (volunteer), Station 100, is paged and generally operates on F-2 but during concurrent fire/EMS operations, EMS usually moves to F-3. The squad operates three ambulances and a first responder / command SUV. From 0600-1800 M-F the squad's vehicles are operated by Plainsboro Township EMS staff, who are technically police department employees. Unlike the fire company, all EMS dispatch is by Plainsboro central. Plainsboro relies heavily upon PPPL's Ambulance 166 for EMS mutual aid.

See West Windsor (Mercer County) for all known West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District channels, including ops channels for schools which are located within Plainsboro Township.

NJSP's site in Plainsboro was upgraded in October of 2009 from a fill-in site to a full simulcast site on the Troop C area-wide cell. See RadioReference.com for all the details on this system (use Zone B11E Site 001).

PPPL is the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. It is affiliated with Princeton University and the United States Department of Energy, but is located in Plainsboro Township. It has its own public safety department (fire station 66, ambulance 166) which often responds as mutual aid off the PPPL campus to Plainsboro and Princeton. PPPL is often paged out by Plainsboro or Mercer Central on Plainsboro F-2; the PPPL communications center, identifying as "Forrestal," then pages out its staff simultaneously over Tac-1 & Tac-2 typically coming over LCN-03 & -11. Response and ops is usually on Tac-1. If you don't have an LTR-capable scanner then try monitoring 406.1875 conventionally, and for fire tone-out use 406.1875.

In 2009 PPPL apparently wholly switched from conventional to an LTR trunked system. For optimal scanning program the system as LTR trunked and include all the LCNs, then program all the TGIDs or only the ones you want to hear. If that is not possible then program the relevant frequencies conventionally -- TGIDs which start with 0-03 will usually be on the LTR-03 frequency, TGIDs which start with 0-07 will usually be on the LTR-07 frequency, etc. When scanning conventionally you can not block the LTR data burst which happens every six seconds or so, but that can be a useful indicator of whether you are within range of this relatively low-power system.

Rutgers University

This listing pertains to the New Brunswick- & Piscataway-area Rutgers University campuses and facilities, not Newark and Camden though there may be some similarities.

The Rutgers Police Department operates on two UHF repeaters.

Rutgers Emergency Services operate on two UHF repeaters.

It is likely that most Rutgers channels are now UHF, including miscellaneous low-power building operations channels, for interoperability purposes. The list here is certainly not complete and, as far as the low-power channels go, maybe not even accurate, but it should give hobbyists a place to begin searching for additional channels from. If you have any to submit, please e-mail the author.

Middlesex County has been activating their emergency management department for special events at Rutgers, including commencement and football games. Often the Rutgers Events channel is patched into the (tentatively-identified) LE Common digital talkgroup, and the Rutgers PD Tac repeater is patched into the Countywide analog talkgroup. It is possible that other channels or talkgroups, such as on Piscataway's system, are also patched in.

Sayreville Borough

Sayreville Borough uses an analog UHF Motorola Type II trunked radio system. Refer to RadioReference.com for the latest talkgroup and system information. The base is 499.125, the offset (for GRE) is 380, and the step is 12.5.

The Police Department operates entirely on the trunked system.

The Sayreville Fire Department is paged on high-band, with a multicast the fire dispatch talkgroup also going out on that channel.

EMS is provided to Sayreville by Sayreville Emergency Squad and Morgan First Aid Squad. The two squads are paged on the old dispatch repeater and operate on the trunked system. The EMS dispatch talkgroup is multicast on the paging channel. The former EMS dispatch repeater has probably been removed, since the input is now used for the fire alerting/multicast channel.

Note that the Route 35 bridges at Cheesequake Creek and the Raritan River use Marine 13 (156.65) and also have Marine 09 (156.45) and 16 (156.8).

City of South Amboy

The City of South Amboy's Police Department is dispatched on a simplex VHF-High channel.

The South Amboy Fire Department operates on talkgroup 6576 on Sayreville's trunked system and uses a simplex UHF channel for fireground communications.

The First Aid Squad will continue to be dispatched, for the time being at least, on the old VHF-High channel.

South Amboy Public Schools.

South Brunswick Township

South Brunswick Township operates an EDACS TRS for most services. Refer to the System Maps section for an Excel workbook with all the latest talkgroup and system information, or below for basic information on the talkgroups.

The Police Department operates on the trunked system and cell phones. For a while the police explorers were using the old UHF police channels in simplex mode, but this has probably stopped by now. South Brunswick used to run its own MDT system but has apparently switched to a commercial provider.

The South Brunswick Fire Department is comprised of the following companies: Station 20 is Monmouth Junction Volunteer Fire Company (District 2); Station 21 is MJVFC sub-station on Georges Road; Station 22 is Kendall Park Volunteer Fire Company (District 1); Station 23 is KPVFC sub-station on Henderson Road; Station 24 is Kingston Volunteer Fire Company (District 3). 200-219 and 20-## are MJVFC units, 220-239 and 22-## are KPVFC units, and 240-259 and 24-## are KVFC units. The three companies have separate primary territories, are all paged on low-band, and all operate on the trunked system. Somerset County dispatches Kingston directly into its primary territory in Franklin Township, Kingston has a repeater which receives its pages on 154.310 and retransmits them on 45.36 (using a lower-power transmitter at the firehouse). Kingston will use Franklin's trunked system for calls in Somerset County but will still call out responding to South Brunswick dispatchers.

EMS is provided to South Brunswick by: Monmouth Junction First Aid Squad (A-5# and 58-## units), Kendall Park First Aid and Rescue Squad (A-6# and 68-## units), Kingston First Aid and Rescue Squad (A-7# and 78-## units), and South Brunswick EMS (A-58). SBEMS is a corporation formed by the three squads, which currently runs one paid crew from 0600-1800 M-F using one rig provided by each squad. South Brunswick pages the four agencies on the same low-band channel as the fire companies. Franklin also pages out Kendall Park and Kingston to calls in their primary territory in Franklin, using 45.36 with the PL. Coordination within the squad will be conducted on South Brunswick's system, but communication with dispatch will be on Franklin's EMS Dispatch channel.

The fire companies and, possibly, squads have access to a talkgroup which is patched into SPEN 4 as needed for MedEvac landings. The agency and fleet calls are also rarely used, but when they are used it is usually for something important or emergent.

WA2WSK is an amateur radio repeater that belongs to the South Brunswick Radio Club. The SB School District licenses several frequencies; one UHF repeater for buses and district-wide maintenance and one for the high school, and one that is probably for simplex security and operations at all schools (to date only confirmed for Brooks Crossing). The low-power SBHS Ops UHF repeater is permanently patched into the talkgroup; units at the school originate on both sides of the patch. The former PD SRO channel now seems to be a district-wide net for the school district; the S3 (Schools-3) channel usage is unknown.

A live scanner audio stream focusing on South Brunswick and including parts of some of its neighbors is available online; more details are provided after the link.

South Plainfield Borough

South Plainfield Borough's Police Department is self-dispatched; it began operating on digital talkgroups on the county's trunked system in 2010 but switched back to the old UHF channels in late 2010 after reported coverage difficulties. It is worth noting that no consumer scanner presently decodes the type of digital which this system uses, and it is doubtful there ever will be one.

The South Plainfield Fire Company is dispatched by the police department. Paging is on the old UHF, which is patched in to the analog dispatch talkgroup for incoming mutual aid and units which haven't transitioned over yet. Scene operations are generally conducted on Tac-2, which is also analog. It is believed that Tac-4 is digital. More of the SPFD talkgroups were digital when it first switched over but there were reported converage issues and subsequently radios were reprogrammed to use analog on them.

The South Plainfield Rescue Squad has not been confirmed on the trunked system; it may be following the lead of the police department, or it may now be 2-way on the VHF channel, which has recently been discovered to have a PL. Daytime EMS coverage is provided by Somerset Medical Center EMS, which is covered under the Somerset County page. SPRS pagers are tested daily at about 1800.

The South Plainfield OEM has an analog talkgroup on the county's system.

South River Borough

All South River Borough municipal services switched over to East Brunswick's Trunked Radio System in November 2000; see the East Brunswick section for more information.

The South River Police Department operates exclusively on the trunked system.

The South River Fire Department is comprised of three companies: SR Engine Company #1 (George Street; Ladder-Tower 1), Reliable Fire Company (George Street; yellow apparatus), and Summit Engine Company (Appleby Avenue; red apparatus). All three are dispatched to any fire call in the borough. Alerting is done on low-band, all routine operations are on the trunked system. Some or all of South River's fire talkgroups are multicast on a second low-band channel.

The South River Rescue Squad is paged on a VHF-Hi repeater, and that channel is used for response coordination by members. Rigs normally communicate with dispatch on the EB TRS. SRRS has a number of VHF channels available for operations, and since most or all members have VHF radios, these channels are used more than the EMS Tac talkgroup. Daytime coverage is provided by Transmed 3, who is paged on the squad channel and communicates with dispatch on Borough-wide.

Spotswood Borough

Spotswood Borough's Police Department is self-dispatched on a UHF repeater. Spotswood also provides dispatch services to Helmetta, so their units are heard on this channel as well.

The Spotswood Volunteer Fire Department is paged on low-band and operates chiefly on East Brunswick's trunked radio system. The fire talkgroup is reported to be multicast over the old fireground channel. Spotswood has licensed a UHF repeater on which they dispatch the Helmetta fire department.

The Spotswood First Aid Squad is still paged on high-band, but also operates on East Brunswick's TRS.

Spotswood DPW has begun testing their new UHF repeater (5/08/06).

Woodbridge Township

Woodbridge Township has constructed and is in the process of switching all users over to a P25 trunked system on the UHF-T band. Some old channels remain, some have been patched into talkgroups, and some have already been vacated in favor of a talkgroup(s). Changes will be too rapid to detail here until largely complete; for the time being you should continue scanning old channels and keep an eye on the database and discussions at RadioReference.com for the latest on the trunked system.

If your scanner can download tables from the control channel (GRE 500/600, RS 106/197, BCD396XT & 996) then you should only need to program the four control channels listed at left as P25 Auto (UHF). If your scanner requires tables be entered (RS 96/2096), program those four control channels and use the following tables: Base2=450.0000, Offset2=8192, Step2=12.5, ChLo2=8192, ChHi2=12287; Base3=470.0000, Offset3=12288, Step3=12.5, ChLo3=12288, ChHi3=16383; Base4=500.0000, Offset4=16384, Step4=12.5, ChLo4=16384, ChHi4=20479. If you have a BC296D then you will have trouble scanning the system; check out the discussion thread in the NJ forum on RadioReference.com.

Woodbridge is working with the FCC to find alternate frequencies to swap out for those in the 506-508 range, because of interference from digital TV. It is expected that the four control channels and the three custom tables will not change so the retuning should be transparent for scanner users. Check back here periodically though in case there are any significant changes. Only the control channels are listed in the table to the left, for brevity and because voice channels are still in flux.

Woodbridge Township's Police Department is self-dispatched and is currently split between trunked talkgroups and the old conventional channels, with cross-patches in place.

The Woodbridge Fire Department is comprised of the following districts/companies (with their old primary channels):

• District 1, Woodbridge Fire Company (F-1 & 5)
• District 2, Port Reading Fire Company (F-1 & 5)
• District 4, Keasbey Protection Fire Company #1 (F-1 & 6)
• District 5, Avenel Fire Company #1 (F-2 & 7)
• District 7, Fords Volunteer Fire Company (F-1 & 6)
• District 8, Hopelawn Engine Company #1 (F-1 & 6)
• District 9, Iselin Volunteer Fire Company #1 (F-2 & 8)
• District 10, Woodbridge Township HazMat Unit (disbanded, was F-11)
• District 11, Iselin Volunteer Fire Company (F-2 & 8)
• District 12, Colonia Volunteer Chemical Hook & Ladder Company (F-2 & 7)

Fire companies were paged on low-band but already have or are expected to soon switch to the UHF channel for paging. Additional information is available at a great (unofficial) page.

EMS is provided to Woodbridge by the following squads: Avenel/Colonia FAS, Colonia FAS, Port Reading FAS, and Woodbridge EMS. Avenel/Colonia, Colonia, and Port Reading are on 47.54; Woodbridge is paged on 33.82 with the fire companies; like the fire companies, EMS paging is expected to move to UHF soon if it hasn't already. As of mid-January 2011 the old EMS dispatch channel was still active though it is expected to be rolled into the trunked system channel pool eventually.

Middlesex-Area SMR Systems

This is a list of Specialized Mobile Radio (SMR) systems known of in Middlesex County. These are basically radio channels for rent, an alternative to Nextel (and there long before Nextel existed). Unless noted otherwise all use LTR trunking; TGIDs are not yet available.

It is possible that a business you are searching for is using an SMR based outside the limits of Middlesex County, and it is possible that some of the SMR sites listed here are part of a larger network for wider coverage. There are too many sites outside Middlesex to cover on this page; to learn more about a network, search the FCC database for other licenses under the same provider. There is information similar to this for Mercer and Somerset Counties on their respective pages.

Special thanks: sp48radio & others.

This page was created Tuesday 24 June 1997 and last modified Tuesday 25 October 2011.

http://www.jim-robbins.com/radio/middlesex.html