Share
How does P2000 work?
The network was set up to call up personnel and equipment from the emergency services such as fire brigade, rescue brigade, ambulance, police, Red Cross, KNRM and DARES in the event of an incident. The system uses 'paging' and therefore has a very high reliability. The system is aimed at being able to send large amounts of messages in a short time. The system is fully redundant and continues to function in the event of network and power failure. Various tests have shown that overloading of the system is very unlikely and the capacity is more than sufficient to handle the biggest disasters. P2000 is a digital system that has replaced the old analog system. In contrast to C2000, the system is not encrypted, so that the messages are received and read by everyone. The P2000 system uses the frequency 169,650 MHz.
Messages on P2000
The messages are similar to text messages and consist of a number of parts that can differ per service and region. Typically, messages contain:
- Type of incident
- Location
- Priority
- Alarmed units
- Upscaling
An example of a report: PRIO 1 Automatic Smoke detection: Hotel / cafe De Wildeman: Schulpen: 6 8531 HR: Lemmer 13-3231 18-02-09 11:23 Here the fire brigade of Lemmer is sent by tanker sprayer 13-3231 to the mentioned hotel on the Schulpen for an OMS (Public Reporting System) report with priority 1. For the fire brigade, priority 1 means that the vehicle and its entire crew must be on site as soon as possible. and may act as a priority vehicle. An OMS report arises from the fire alarm system present in the building that transmits the report via a special connection to the control room, referred to in AC terms as fire service terms.
Cap codes in the alarm receiver
The P2000 pager responds when it receives a message with the capcode programmed in memory. Several (usually 16) capcodes can be programmed in a pager's memory. A capcode is roughly similar to a phone number or IP address and identifies the intended recipient. However, the difference is that multiple recipients can have the same number, they "listen" to messages with a specific capcode. The design of the system is that the necessary units or persons can be alerted without too many people being called. An example of a list of capcodes of a fire station of the fire brigade in the city of Groningen:
- 0400271 Corps Groningen-Sontweg (TAS 01-1832) TAS = Tank car sprayer
- 0400272 Corps Groningen-Sontweg (TAS 01-1831)
- 0400273 Corps Groningen-Sontweg (TAS 01-1834)
- 0400274 Corps Groningen-Sontweg (TAS 01-1833)
- 0400275 Corps Groningen-Sontweg (SB 01-1850) SB = Foam extinguishing vehicle
- 0400277 Corps Groningen-Sontweg (HW 01-1851) HW = Aerial platform
Another way of capcode classification, which is used by many corps in the Netherlands:
- 0611263 Zwartewaterland-Genemuiden (Commanders)
- 0611265 Zwartewaterland-Genemuiden (Marquee barracks)
- 0611266 Zwartewaterland-Genemuiden (Extinguishing group 1)
- 0611267 Zwartewaterland-Genemuiden (Extinguishing group 2)
- 0611290 Zwartewaterland-Genemuiden (Monitor code)
Where can I find capcodes?
Almost every fire department in the Netherlands uses P2000 for alarms. Ambulance services do not always use P2000. For example, you cannot receive ambulance notifications in the safety regions of Groningen and Friesland. Do you want to know which codes are commonly used in your place of residence? Go to https://112alarm.net and enter your city on the right. You can program these capcodes in your alarm receiver. These are also the notifications you can receive in your place.
