GBPC (Greater Boston Police Council) has developed and maintained the Boston Area Police Emergency Radio Network (BAPERN) system since the early 1970’s. This radio system was designed and built after a series of large scale incidents occurred in and around the Boston area, highlighting the inability of the interdepartmental police officers from communicating with each other on scene. These events led to a series of planning sessions and policy meetings in which it was determined that a new radio system was needed to improve interdepartmental police services.
Boston Area Police Emergency Radio
Network
By Gary Saffer of The Eastern Mass Scanner Guide
BAPERN was originally conceived in the early and mid seventies as a
system to allow police departments in the greater Boston area to be able
to communicate with each other while at the same time having discrete
local operating frequencies. As conceived, it would go beyond the
existing intercity system, which only allowed base stations to
communicate and would allow mobile and even portable radios from
different agencies to communicate directly via a system of district and
region wide repeaters. This would allow for joint operations to be
coordinated on one set of frequencies as opposed to a patchwork of
different bands and frequencies.
New BAPERN Channelization begins Mon., June 5th, 2006
Channel 1 - Local Main
Channel 2 - Local Secondary
Channel 3 - "Area-Wide 3" 470.7875/131.8 (same use as old BAPERN 3)
Channel 4 - "Area-Wide 4" 470.5625/131.8 (same use as old BAPERN 4)
Channel 5 - "North Tactical" 470.4875/131.8
Channel 6 - "South Tactical" 470.9125/131.8
Channel 7 - "West Tactical" 470.7375/131.8
Channel 8 - "Central Tactical" 470.9875/D654 (MetroBoston)
Channel 9 - "Northwest Tactical" 482.6875/146.2
In theory, there are supposed to be rollcalls on 'Area-Wide 3' each Monday AM, as well as one scheduled and one unscheduled rollcall on each of the District tactical channels each month.
© The Police Amateur Radio Team of Westford, MA - WB1GOF