Portable Radio Designations

[cfdjesmith]

We are migrating to an 800mhz system in the department I work for, in that system each firefighter, officer, and driver will have a radio assigned to them while they are on duty. My question is how is the best way to designate these radios i.e. Number system (1,2,3,4) or A,B,C,D; preceded by their unit number. I thank you for your feedback in advance.

[hwoods]

Station Number 5, Engine(s) numbered 51, (if more, 52,53 Etc) Portables on E 51 are 511 Officer, 512 Driver, 513 F/F Position 1, and so on. We use "Talk-Around" or "B Mode" low power options to talk among ourselves and not hit the repeater (We're not on that @#%#$& 800 range, thank god)and, so far, all is well. Stay Safe....

[Vollie4life]

Something along the lines of hwoods reply.
If the truck was E-51,
Engineers radio would be Portable 51 or Engine 51
Officer ....51A
Firefighters 51B,C and so on

Trying to remember whose radio number in our department is difficult, 511 might be a firefighter and 623 may be a chief officer. Changing to radio numbers corresponding to the truck would be more generic and easier to use

[RyanEMVFD]

the ABCD method would work well. A being the engineer, B being the Officer in the front passenger seat, C being the back seat behind the engineer and D being the person behind the officer in the back seat. Of course those lucky depts that have vehicles that carry more then 4 people can have a large number or letter of people on board. Since our trucks only carry 2 people each we don't have a problem with the radios, this could mostly be due to the limited amount of handhelds that we have.

Whatever system you come up with stick with it.

[N2DFire]

I would steer clear of using any letter designations unless you plan on using the NATO Phonetic Alphabet or something similar.

Otherwise B & D sound too much alike over the radio (esp. in the heat of battle).

In the county I run in we base our radio numbers on personnel directly rather than apparatus or riding position. Our system assigns every person a number based on their Fire or EMS affiliation and their station number.

All Numbers begining with 2 are EMS and all numbers begining with 3 are Fire. Next comes the station number and then an agency specific number (Some agencies break the numbering up to identify rank or certification levels).

So for instance an EMS member from station 7 would have a number of 2-7-XXX and a Fire Member from Station 14 would be 3-14-XXX.

All Fire Chiefs and EMS Captains Simply use Rank & Station (i.e Captain 3, Chief 9, etc)

[blancety]

Shoot me an email, and I'll send you our SOP. Its similar to hwoods description. Numbers beat letters everyday.

Dave

EMAIL

[explr985]

Around here we use the ABCD. Like Engine 4a;4b etc.

[cozmosis]

In my department, we assign radio numbers based on senority rather than riding position or assignment. The senior man on the shift will be 510 followed by 511, 512, etc.

[BucksEng91]

...by riding position / assignment?

Hydrant Engine 91, Driver Engine 91, Engine 91 (for the officer), Irons Engine 91, etc.

I prefer "plain English" - too many numbers and letters forces you to memorize a set of codes that you could forget, or mistake. There's no mistaking who you're calling when you ask for "Driver Engine 65".

[FitzBFDT2]

I agree with one of the previous posters about using the phoenetic alphabet. It does away with similar sounding letters. Example's are:[list=1][*]Engine 7 Alpha[*]Engine 7 Bravo[*]Engine 7 Charlie[*]Engine 7 Delta[/list=1]

[mark440]

In the paid job, when we'er on the County-wide common channel, we use "Engine 61 from Firefighter 61" or something similar. When we are on our department freq we use names Captain Smith from FF Jones.

On the volunteer department we are assigned numbers countywide in relation to your station and rank.
My station is 40. We have Engine 40, Squad 40, Engine 41 etc.
Chief number is Fire 400
Capt's are 404 & 405
Lt's 406-409
FF's from 415-???


*Mark

[hwoods]

To avoid sounding like a world war II movie, we use a different set of alpha words than most of our neighbors. Adam, Baker, Charlie, David, Edward, Frank, George, Henry, Ida, John, King, Lincoln, Mary, Nancy, Ocean, Paul, Queen, Robert, Sam, Time, Union, Victor, William, Xray, Young, Zebra. Pretty plain and simple. Stay Safe....

[WTFD10]

I agree with Bucks, plain english is best Engine 1 Hydrant, Engine 1 Driver, etc.

My department uses a 3 digit number for officers. Officers numbers end in 0: 700 is the Chief, 710 is the first Assistant Chief, 740 is a Captain, etc.

Firefighters using the extra portables use "721 Portable 1", etc.

[SIGNAL99COM]

Here is a couple more ideas.

Engine 1 (6 man engine company)

Driver - "Engine 1 Chauffer"

Team 1
Officer - "Engine 1 Officer"
Firefighter 1 - "Portable 11"
Firefighter 2 - "Portable 12"

Team 2
Firefighter 3 - "Portable 13"
Firefighter 4 - "Portable 14"


Truck 2 (6 man truck company)

Driver - "Truck 2 Chauffer"
Officer - "Truck 2 Officer"

Team 1 - Vent
Firefighter 1 - "Portable 21"
Firefighter 2 - "Portable 22"

Team 2 - Seach
Firefighter 3 - "Portable 23"
Firefighter 4 - "Portable 24"