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The Washington Township Fire Department is dispatched by the West Morris Communications Network (WMCN) which was established in 1969 with a New Jersey State SLEPA grant, and originally provided regional dispatching for Washington Township, Mansfield Township and seven Hunterdon County towns (Lebanon, Tewksbury, Clinton Borough and Township, Readington, Califon, and High Bridge). In 1975 with the inception of the Hunterdon County 911 system, the seven Hunterdon towns left the system, and with the closing of the old Morris County Police Radio system, Chester Borough and Township joined it. In 1980, the system underwent a major improvement project consisting of a complete overhaul in technical design and equipment replacement. The beginning of 1984 saw the addition of Independence Township's emergency services to the system.

On September 15, 1992, 9-1-1 service became operational for the Morris County municipalities. Beginning in 1997, Warren County began 9-1-1 service and those towns left the system. In 1998, with the move to a new headquarters, the system once again underwent a major redesign and improvement process. Now equipped with state-of-the-art computer aided dispatch and mobile data terminals (MDT), WMCN presently provides emergency services dispatch and communication for Washington Township, Chester Borough, Chester Township and Mendham Township. The dispatch center is identified as "CONTROL" on all frequencies, and Firefighters are dispatched via voice alert and text pagers.

Dispatch and operational communications primarily utilize high band VHF frequencies. The three Washington Township Fire Companies are designated as "Company 1" or "Long Valley" (Formerly Station 36), "Company 2" or "Fairmount" (Formerly Station 34), and "Company 3" or "Schooley's Mountain" (Formerly Station 35). All apparatus are equipped with Motorola Spectra™  programmable radios and mostly GP300 or HT1000 series portables. The individual apparatus are numbered according to the Morris County NIMS plan which is shown in the example below. Fire radio operations utilize "Plain Language" for compliance with the National Incident Management System. The Station call sign is WQN-244 and the dispatch frequency is 154.325 MHz. 
Click here to hear a sample dispatch tone.

The radios are programmed according to the following configuration:

Channel 1	Tactical Repeater (response channel)
Channel 2	Fire Dispatch
Channel 3	Interior operations
Channel 4	Fireground operations
Channel 5	Pumper operations
Channel 6	Rescue Squad/MICU
Channel 7	Tactical Channel - simplex (w/o repeater)
Channel 8	SPEN 4 - Water operations
Channel 9	Police west (Long Valley) receive only
Channel 10	Police east (Chester/Mendham) receive only
Channel 11	Hunterdon County Tactical repeater
Channel 12	Warren County Tactical repeater
Channel 13-16	Customized per company (i.e. mutual aid, operations, etc.)

Most of the Township apparatus also have low band radios for mutual aid to Hunterdon and Warren Counties. In addition, all apparatus have UHF radios for the Morris County Interoperable Trunked Radio System (MIRS) for mutual aid communication throughout the County and Northern NJ region. Many SMFPA members also operate conventional UHF radios for response coordination and non-emergency communications.

For more information about the communications system, please contact us directly.
 

Washington Township

1, 2 or 3

1, 2, etc.

For example, the Schooleys Mountain International 4WD pumper is designated as 38-Engine 3-2 and the ladder truck is 38-Quint 3-9.

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