File created 17Jan01
From reading the online SOPs at the Phoenix FD website - we can be sure of a few things. Channel 1 is for dispatching. Some units (in suburban and rural areas) are paged on Channel 1. Sometimes, the operator on Channel 1 has to manually switch to the South mountain transmit site when paging a call.
We also know that they have Motorola Saber portable radios - 1 per onduty member. The radios have 24 channels divided into 2 banks - White Deck A and Blue Deck B - Deck A has Phoenix fire channels - Deck B has Phoenix PD + Mesa FD + Chandler FD + mutual aid FD radio channels.
Channel 1 is the home/primary channel. All units operate on Channel 1 unless they are told to go to another channel. Usually, when assigned to an incident, the rigs are told to switch to one of the TAC/response channels. A Tactical Channel radio operator is in contact with units on the TAC channels. Channel 3 is usually used whenever a helicopter LZ must be set up. (Apparently the channel selector knobs on the portable radios are used quite frequently all day long - or probably - the portables are just tuned to the most commonly used TAC channel for a particular unit).(Otherwise, on every call the portable radio gets switched from Ch 1 to the TAC channel and then back to Ch1 when the call is completed.)
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More info - 19Feb01 from the [email protected] Email list. Units are dispatched via Channel 1. A Tac Channel is assigned for each incident. Usually, 2 or 3 lesser incidents can be handled on a Tac Channel. Major incidents will remain on their Tac channel for the duration of the incident. A Tac Channel will be restricted if a full assignment (1 or 2 alarm incident) is using the channel. There is a fluid allotment process used here depending on the availability of unused channels and the number of incidents working on each Tac channel.
So lets say that a major fire breaks out in a downtown highrise. Units will be dispatched via Channel 1 and will usually be assigned to Channel 5. Units will remain on Channel 5 for the duration of the incident. Other subsequent incidents in the downtown area will be handled on other Tac channels.
Channel 2 is only used for violent incidents. Dispatchers will notify units in staging when the police have declared the scene to be secure for the FD to approach. Channel 3 is used for helicopter landing zones.
Overview - units assigned to a major fire incident only have to change radio channels once. They move from Ch1 to the Tac channel. (Channels 11 and 12 are also ?available for major incidents - Accountability and HazMat -- mobile to mobile only on Ch12)
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Radio Channel Lineup
All channels are simplex - the dispatchers transmit from mountains and skyscrapers on Channels 1 thru 11
A Deck / White Deck
Channel 1 - 154.19 - Dispatch
Channel 2 - 154.25
Channel 3 - 154.07
Channel 4 - 154.28 - Arizona Fire Mutual Aid
Channel 5 - 153.83 - Central TAC
Channel 6 - 154.31 - Northwest TAC
Channel 7 - 154.145 - East TAC (Tempe + ?)
Channel 8 - 153.77 - South TAC
Channel 9 - 155.67 - Northwest TAC (Avondale + ?)
Channel 10 - 151.37 - North TAC (Daisy Mtn + ?)
Channel 11 - 154.025 - Accountability
Channel 12 - 155.775 - HazMat - mobiles and portables only
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Blue Deck B
B1 - 154.43 - Chandler Fire Primary - ?repeater
B2 - 155.715 - Chandler Fire Tac2 - ?repeater
B3 - Rural Metro Tac 5 - ?154.40
B4 - Rural metro Tac 6 - ?154.385
B5 - ????????????
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Information from the FCC Website
Each Phoenix Fire Station has a multi channel 100 watt base station with ?8 channels.
KOA519 - 1/97FCC - 262.7290
Mount Suppoa - 12.9 kilometers south of Phoenix - 460.575 FB + FB2 ERP320/90W - FB350/100W on 77 83 025 07 145 19 25 28 31
620 North Washington St - ERP350/100W - 77 83 025 07 145 19 25 28 31
313 North 9th St - 77 83 07 145 19 25 28 31
10600 North 7th St - 151.37 FB 175ERP/35W - 460.575R FB + FB2 ERP320/90 - 460.625 same - FB ERP350/100W 155.67 + 77 83 025 07 145 19 25 28 31
701 West Carefree Highway - FB ERP350/100W - 151.37 + 83 07 19 25
3400 East Sky Harbor Boulevard - FB ERP70/40W - 83 19 25 28
misc - 465.575 + 465.625 - 1FX1 - ERP275/35W
misc - UHF temporary stations
mobiles - UHF - 460 + 465Mhz - 175 X 10W - VHF - 735 X35W - 151.37 + 77 83 025 07 145 19 25 28 31 + 155.67 + 155.775
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I need to check the FCC site more - look to see how many hipowered bases are on 155.67 and 153.83 and 154.145 + 154.025 + 151.37 + 77 + 07 + 145 + 25 + 28 + 31 (these would be "dispatcher's bases" versus the fire station bases - Peter S
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Feb 2001 info - from the [email protected] list - answers preceed questions usually - some day I will fix this info up pretty
Answer - Phoenix dispatches all calls on Ch1, then the responding units are assigned a tactical channel according to the area they are responding to. For example a high rise fire in downtown would be assigned Ch8.
Question - At 01:37 PM 2/17/01 -0500, you wrote: Maybe I should rephrase my question. What Channel does Phoenix use when they are fighting a major fire? Lets say that the fire is downtown. What Channel would they respond on, and what Channel would they fight the fire on? Would they be dispatched on Channel 1 - respond on Channel 5 - fight the fire on Channel 12? Or would they just stay on Channel 5 for the whole fire after being dispatched on Channel 1?
At 02:08 PM 2/17/01 -0500, you wrote: OK - thanks very much for the info. That makes sense.
Answer - If they are working a highrise fire downtown on Channel 8, then any subsequent calls in the downtown area would have to be assigned to a channel other than Channel 8.
They will usually work a couple of calls on the same channel if they aren't major incidents. They will usually keep a channel restricted for calls that are a 1st or 2nd alarm or more. It all depends on how much radio traffic they have and if there any other channels available.
Thanks very much - that clears up that question. When I was listening online to Phoenix earlier (via the Phoenix Central feed) I was able to catch 2 items of note (to me at least). The ?Air Evac Dispatcher was talking to "Air Evac 12 Medic". I guess that would be the portable radio used by the medic on the helo.
Answer - There are usually 3 people in the med helo's, the pilot, flight nurse, and the medic. They do carry portables for when they are out of the aircraft, but when they are on board they wear headsets.
Q - Also, there was a announcement on a couple of channels that "XXX Memorial was down for trauma" which I interpreted to mean that some hospital was closing its ER to trauma cases. In the Boston area you hear the same type of announcements - they just use slightly different wording - "MGH is on trauma divert".
Answer - Yes thats right, sometimes they will say "divert" or "bypass". Basically all the same thing.
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Your second and third notes (AE12 Medic and "down for trauma") are exactly correct.
Also, although Ch2 is used routinely for violent incidents, and Ch3 is used routinely for landing zones, these two channels have a couple of "special" uses also.
On occassion, if Ch3 has lots of heavy traffic on it (several large accident scenes in the city with multiple helicopters landing at various LZ's, all around the same time), Ch2 may be used as a back-up landing zone channel if yet another incident requests a helicopter. This is to keep congestion down on channels used for critical life-safety communications like safely landing a helicopter. This is rare, though.
Another use for Ch3 is for "tunnel calls". This refers to the tunnel I-10 runs through under a portion of downtown Phoenix. Although this portion of the city lies in Ch8's regular tactical channel area, there is no receiver for Ch8 inside the I-10 tunnel. Since often times you can't hear units a ways outside the tunnel while you are in the tunnel working a wreck or fire or whatever, Ch3 is used in the tunnel. In fact, both Ch3 and Ch2 have receivers inside the tunnel, so Alarm can hear units inside there just fine. And Ch8 can continue to be used for other downtown incidents outside the tunnel, without interferrence.
Also, regarding your question about "major fires". When an incident goes to a 2nd Alarm (about 10 engines and 5 ladders be assigned at that point, plus lots of special units) or greater, a "staging" channel is put in place. I'm a frequent Boston traveler myself and enjoy listening to Boston FD while I am there, but I am not sure if they use the "Level-2 staging" concept or not. Level-2 staging means that incoming units that do not currently have an assignment from Command, stage at a designated location a few blocks from the scene (usually a church parking lot or something like that). (Level-1 staging would mean they stage right at the scene itself). Level-2 staging keeps unneccessary congestion down at the scene. When this practice is done, 2nd Alarm (and above) units respond on Ch3 "Staging". A "staging officer" communicates on Ch3 with units incoming to staging, as well as with Command. This way, the units enroute to staging that don't even have an assignment yet, can communicate with the staging officer without interferring with fireground (interior) communications.
Also, Ch11 and Ch12 are often used on large fire scenes for special purposes. For example, the Public Information Officer, Resource, Accountability, Safety, or other positions may use Ch11 and/or Ch12 for a more private channel to talk to Command and each other.
Needless to say, on these large fires, this means the Command Post (usually in, or moving to the Command Van by this time) needs several people helping out with the various radio channels, not a single Batallion Chief working the radios. That is a large part of the reason why so many Batallion Chiefs are assigned on multiple alarms. (The new dispatch for a "2nd Alarm Brush Fire" for example now gets <6> additional BC's, in addition to the <2> that would already be there from the 1st alarm).
So, on a major fire (using the downtown example), you could have: Ch8 - Primary Fireground (firefighting operations) + Ch3 - Staging (units not yet assigned) + Ch11 - Accountability & Safety + Ch12 - PIO / Other resources
Sorry for the "novel", hope it helps to understand some of the "exceptions".
�-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Saturday, February 17, 2001 12:09 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [ArizonaScanner] Phoenix FD - Use of Ch2 + 3?
���� OK - thanks very much for the info. That makes sense.
���� If they are working a highrise fire downtown on Channel 8, then any subsequent calls in the downtown area would have to be assigned to a channel other than Channel 8. Thanks very much - that clears up that question.
���� When I was listening online to Phoenix earlier (via the Phoenix Central feed) I was able to catch 2 items of note (to me at least).
���� The ?Air Evac Dispatcher was talking to "Air Evac 12 Medic". I guess that would be the portable radio used by the medic on the helo.
���� Also, there was a announcement on a couple of channels that "XXX Memorial was down for trauma" which I interpreted to mean that some hospital was closing its ER to trauma cases. In the Boston area you hear the same type of announcements - they just use slightly different wording - "MGH is on trauma divert". Have a good day - Peter S - Arlington MA
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As best I know, "every" (or nearly every) Phoenix fire station, and most of the suburban fire stations have <3> or more receivers located in them. Each has Fire Ch1 (Alarm), the areas primary tactical Channel, and the "back-up" secondary tactical channel for that area, which is simply a neighboring areas primary channel. For example, on the West side, Ch9 is use for SW Tactical, Ch6 is NW Tactical. So the stations out there have both 6 and 9. When a major fire occurs on the SW side and Ch9 is closed, traffic in both areas can safely use Ch6. The reverse is also true. Each of the tactical channel areas on the Phoenix FD system has an "alternate" tactical (on of its neighboring areas primary tactical).
Phoenix is fairly flat, but does have a good bit of funny little "bumps" (many call the Mountains, like Camelback Mountain, Squaw Peak, etc.) that pop up in the middle of the city. These can create issues for hearing communications in distant parts of the city, which is why there are so many remotes (just about every fire station) and transmitters.
And with regard to your weather comment... I'm currently wearing shorts and a T-shirt and on my way out the door for a bike ride on this beautiful sunny day, although I will have to dawn the sweaters and heavy jacket this weekend in Boston. :)
Hope others have found the discussion regarding Phoenix FD Ch2 and Ch3 helpful! Peter, feel free to email me privately if you'd like any more in-depth specifics on this topic and we'll free up others email boxes for now. :)
��-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Sunday, February 18, 2001 9:19 AM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [ArizonaScanner] Phoenix FD - Use of Ch2 + 3?
���� Dan - thanks a million for all the info. Of course now I have to wonder ����- how many receiver sites does Phoenix FD have on the various channels? And how many transmitter sites?
From looking at the FCC website, I think I saw that Phoenix FD has about 7 transmit sites for the dispatchers. Plus, each fire station is licensed for a base station. I am assuming that Phoenix is generally flat except for the downtown highrise district, and 1 north mountain, and 1 south mountain. So the dispatchers probably bounce between those 3 transmit sites (on Channel 1 at least).
���� I am guessing that Phoenix FD dispatchers can hear the portable radios from just about anywhere in the city. Maybe a few basements downtown might be a total dead spot.
Boston FD does not use the Level 1 and Level 2 staging - AFAIK. Some of the suburban FDs do mention Level 1 staging on the radio once and a while.
���� And yes - it is about 10 degrees outside today. Or at least it feels like 10 degrees. I feel sorry for you guys having to put up with those balmy 60s and 70s :-) - Peter S - Arlington MA
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File created - 20 January 2001
Updated - 19Feb01 - large fire channel usage