HALIFAX REGIONAL MUNICIPALITY
800 MHz Trunk System

Last updated Oct 4, 2021

THIS PAGE IS HISTORICAL IN NATURE.  THE SYSTEM DESCRIBED NO LONGER EXISTS. 
NOTE THAT IN THIS ERA, DARTMOUTH AND BEDFORD WERE SEPARATE MUNICIPALITIES. BOTH OF THEM
USED 400 MHZ CONVENTIONAL RADIO FOR POLICE AND FIRE.


This was the first public safety trunked radio system in Nova Scotia.  I do not have the year it was put into service but it it did serve throughout the 90's.  When the Nova Scotia Trunked Mobile Radio System was put into service in the year 2000, the HRM Trunk continued on in service until 2006, when most of its users migrated to the NSTMRS.  

I have vague recollections from the time of my arrival in Halifax that Halifax Police used 150 MHz conventional frequencies, and subsequently moved to frequencies in the 140 MHz range, supposedly because most scanners in that era did not cover the frequencies between 136 and 144 MHz.   Some did however and therefore they continued to be heard.  Finally in the late 80's or early 90's this 800 MHz trunk system was put in place, the first trunk system in Atlantic Canada, and lasting until replaced by TMR1 in 2000.

This system began as the Halifax City Trunk, serving only the departments of the City of Halifax.  When the Halifax Regional Municipality was created in 1996, many users from the other amalgamating municipalities joined this system.  The Trunk served police, fire, works and at least some aspects of transit services.  It also was used by the Department of National Defence's Halifax area military police. 

The "Halifax City Trunk" was a Motorola hybrid SmartZone system with two repeater sites:  Geizers Hill and Downtown.  Each had its own set of 10 frequencies, with the lowest being 862.6375 MHz (at Geizers Hill).  The Downtown frequencies began at 862.7375 MHz.  

Geizers Hill Site Barrington Street Site Fleet Map
862.6375 862.7375 B0 S0
862.8875 862.9875 B1 S2
863.1375 863.2375 B2 S2
863.3875 863.4875 B3 S3
863.6375 863.7375 B4 S3
863.8875 863.9875 B5 S4
864.1375 864.2375 B6 S4
864.3875 864.4875 B7 S4
864.6375 864.7375 -
864.8875 control 864.9875 control -

B. OTHER Halifax City RADIO SERVICES from that era.

Information shown here will be moved at some point to a different page.
 Metro Transit:  Call Sign: XJN986    Bus inspectors and maintenance vehicles use the HRM 800 MHz trunk system (see above); however the buses themselves use a 400 MHz conventional system.  Buses are heard on occasion on the trunk but this is through a patch system allowing them to speak directly to the maintenance department.  The 400 MHz communication is mostly on the taxi format - the base transmits on one frequency and the mobile (bus) transmits on the other (higher) frequency of the pair.  Thus the drivers cannot hear each other.  The Access-a-Bus system on the other hand uses a repeater system, in which the base and mobile transmit on the high frequency to the repeater which transmits on the low frequency of the pair, and all listen on this frequency and therefore can hear each other.   Frequencies are as follows:

Base transmitter Mobile transmitter Usage
410.1125 415.1125 unknown use
411.0375 416.0375 This is the main dispatch channel
412.8875  417.8875 a data channel?
413.9875 418.9875 unknown use
410.1625 (rptr output) 415.1625 (mobile and control) Access-a-Bus

There is known to be an emergency frequency, which is likely one of those listed above.    It is also known that control can activate the microphone and transmitter in individual buses in order to monitor situations.   

There is an automatic position reporting system used for customer call-in re bus arrival times.  This may use UHF and may be the data channel listed above.  It appears to be "always on".

4. Municipal Works and Parks:   Works and Parks moved to the NS Trunk (800 MHz) in 2006.  For information on talkgroups see my list of talkgroups in the NS TMR section of this website. In 2007 the underground services (sewer) components of Municipal Works were reassigned to "Halifax Water" -- see below.   The following 400 MHz frequencies were formerly used by HRM Works and may yet be available for backup use, or for other HRM services.   An interesting point to be made is that these in turn were formerly the frequencies used by the HRM Police and Fire before they migrated to 800 MHz in the early 1990's or before.

411.2625 MHz (rptr out) - intended to be used by Technical and Underground Services (TUGS) for sewer maintenance, but currently also in use by other works users as mentioned below.  This frequency has been frequently heard with street operations in the Dartmouth area.

412.8125 and 412.8625 MHz (rptr outputs).  These are linked repeaters situated at Mt Edward and at Queens Square respectively, but thought to be out of service due to severe damage to the Mt. Edward tower by Hurricane Juan in the fall of 2003.   Services that normally would have used this system are thought to be using the TUGS frequency.  Please note that these are former police frequencies.

413.6875 (rptr output) - thought to be a leftover from the former town of Bedford system and used by works department and hired vehicles in the Bedford-Sackville area.   Heard often regarding snowplowing, including the sidewalk bobcats, and also street patching.

416.0125 (simplex) - Streets and Roads simplex

867.2500 MHz - this is listed in the TAFL for use by Streets and Roads, and may be the simplex frequency used by units that are otherwise utilizing the HRM trunk.

 

Housing Authority:  This information may be outdated.  The authority has or had a repeater on 452.3375 MHz.

Water Commission:  This semi-independent organization was in 2008 operating on several repeaters with outputs in the 143 MHz range.   In mid-2007 its operations were merged with those of the underground services (sewer services) of the Halifax Regional Municipality.  It is unknown at time of writing if the merged organization will use the 143 MHz frequencies or the 800 MHz trunked talkgroups of the sewer services.   The merged organization is called Halifax Water.