New York City Fire Department - Radio System Information
FD - Radio System
To listen to live NYC FD radio traffic please go to http://www.thebravest.com (which started operating in July of 1999)
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Each boro has 1 repeaterized radio dispatch channel. In addition, there is one citywide coordination/spare channel. There is also one primary citywide fireground / portable radio channel. The dispatchers cannot receive nor transmit on the fireground radio channel. Two additional channels are available at 460Mhz for special uses.
Each fire company usually has portable radios for most of the on-duty firefighters. For subway and hirise fires it is commonly required for radio messages to be passed from portable radio to portable radio to portable radio. Chief officers typically stand at the front of the burning building and operate their own portable radio. It is expected that a move to radios at 480Mhz will occur sometime in the year 2000.
1999 - Each engine company has 3 portable radios. Each ladder company has 4 portable radios. Squad, Rescue, HazMat, and High Rise Command Post Engines have 1 portable radio for each onduty member.
Mobile data terminals are installed in all front line vehicles and are used to relay basic status signals to the dispatchers. The radios for these MDTs operate at 800Mhz and they have been used for the last ?4 years. The most basic status signals (10-4, 10-14, 10-20, 10-84) are sent via 1 key click. Other status signals, such as 10-8, 10-18, 10-19, 10-91, 10-92, are sent by 2 key click (2 button/toggle movements). Presently, all major calls are still announced via the boro channels and status reports are still transmitted verbally via these channels.
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Radio Info from www.fcc.gov/wtb on 8/19/99 by Peter Szerlag
all of the following are January 1995 FCC licenses for "New York, City of" - 3 base stations (FB) per frequency - 350 watts each on 154.19 + 154.25 + 154.37 + 154.40 + 154.43 - all sites are located within the City of New York
KEB523 - Radio Shop at Long Island City - 13 meters + 97 meters (bottom of the antenna is 13 meters above sea level) (top of the antenna is 97 meters above the bottom of the antenna (or above sea level???)
KEB524 - Packard Building at 32-04 Queens Boulevard in the County of Queens - 9m + 86m
KEB525 - Brooklyn Museum in Kings County (Brooklyn) - 44m + 52m
KEB526 - 83-96 Woodhaven Blvd in Queens County - 35m + 65M
KEB527 - (this is a April 1998 license) - 65 Slossen Ave on Staten Island / Richmond County - 60m + 80m
The following are some mobile (truck or portable) radio listings
KV2228 - 4/97FCC - 3,010 mobile radios - 110 watts / 220 watts ERP on 154.43 + 154.07 + 154.01 + 153.95 + 153.89 + 153.77 - there are also 3,010 portable radios licensed on 153.83 for 10 watts / 20 watts ERP (ERP is the Effective Radiated Power - if the portable radio produces 10 watts of power into an antenna that has a 2 decibel gain, then you get 20 watts of Effective Radiated Power).
KY8033 - 8/95FCC - 300 mobiles - 110 watts - 460.625 + 460.575 + 465.625 + 465.575 (these frequencies used to be used by the Fire Marshalls/Investigators)
the info above was added on 19 August 1999
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A Little More FDNY Comms Info
Date: Sat, Jul 31, 1999, 8:36am (EDT-3) To: zerg90@webtv.net (Peter Szerlag) One more item I forgot to mention: radios, chiefs, and chief's aides.
Message passing from radio to radio is an established procedure only at tunnel and subway operations. High-rise operations are covered by the cross-band repeater system using one of the seven battalion vehicles so equipped. Further, some buildings have one of two types of built-in radio systems, one a repeater using the same frequencies as the citywide system, the other a one or two channel simplex system using FD tactical channels.
Battalion chiefs' aides are now termed "battalion firefighters" to reflect their broader duties. They normally operate at the sides or rear of the firebuilding, providing the eyes for the BC incident commander. They may operate the command post at the front of the building if the chief is operating inside. They seldom go to car radios, and then only to transmit or receive a message from the borough dispatcher (as they keep their portable on the tactical channel in use at the scene). They are just too busy to sit in the car performing only radio duties. When the division chief and his aide respond, the aide (correct term) normally uses two portables, one on the borough frequency. Knowing your interest in tactical radio operation, you would appreciate the fact that their borough radios (Sabers) are still programed for only two watts, and getting through to the borough is often challenging. You often hear the dispatcher instructing a borough aide (or chief) to "use a mobile radio." I have suggested a programing change as well as a change of antennas!
You did get right to the heart of the matter! There is a problem when the dispatcher wants to pass a message to the BC or BnFF. The book solution is that the BnFF and Chief, primarily the former, are to listen for messages on a nearby apparatus radio, and to use one of those radios when they want to originate a message to the borough. It just doesn't work very well. You often hear repeated unaswered calls from the dispatchers. The problem tends to go away once the division chief and his aide get there, on an all-hands or above. That aide does use two portable radios, as I mentioned.
The number of messages dispatchers try to pass has dramatically increased since a disaster in the late 80s when several upper floor residents in a project building called to report major problems in their several apartments. The dispatchers simply advised the callers not to worry, the FD was on the scene, the dispatchers knowing the SOP was for the trucks to check the upper floors. It turned bad, and three people jumped from the next to top floor. Since then, the dispatchers try to pass every message from every caller.
No FD radio, mobile or portable, has scan programed. The BCs and DCs do have portable cell phones, but turn them on only when they want to originate a call -- so the dispatcher can't call them.
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July 30, 1999 - Additional Info - Upon notification of a major plane crash at JFK Airport by the Port Authority FD, the New York FD will send the following response (essentially a 2nd alarm on Queens box 269) - 7E, 5L, 2R, HM1, HM Tech Unit, 1 Foam Carrier with parent E, 1 Marine Unit (fire boat), 1 Tac Support Unit, the Field Comms Unit (school bus with lots of radios), 1 Firefighter Rehab Unit, 4 BC, 1 Division Chief, and the Citywide (On-Duty) Tour Commander. E308 brings their special hose truck and E/Sqd 270 operates as a HazMat Tech unit. The response to LaGuardia Airport crashes is essentially the same except that no hose wagon responds. Also keep in mind that the airports have their own Fire-Crash-Rescue units that are dispatched by the Port Authority Dispatch offices.
The ferry that used to run between Manhattan and Governors Island is no longer in operation so it is questionable as to how much time it would take for FDNY units to assist the US Coast Guard FD on the island.
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The Computer Aided Dispatch system uses procedures for assigning units to multiple alarm fires that are improvements upon the procedures that are inherent/utilized in the box alarm cards. This StarFire CAD system was implemented around 1976 and was based on some very interesting research by the Rand Corporation. See the book "Fire Department Deployment Analysis". One interesting question which they tackled was "If a busy fire station has two pumpers, should 1 or 2 pumpers be sent to a call considering that a second call will probably be received shortly after the first call".
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For a detailed guide to New York City Fire Dept operations, please look for the "Fire Department of New York - An Operational Reference" which can be purchased at FSP Books and Videos - detailed book info
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Also see scan-nyc@onelist.com - 11/99 FDNY just got new radio freqs at 480Mhz for a trunked radio system to be implemented within 1 year. (See Frank Raffa's Website for all the info).
8 February 2000 - per the FCC website - the emission designator for the new radio repeaters is 11K3F9W - 11K3 means that the bandwidth of each channel is 11.3KHz - F means that frequency modulation is used to modulate the main carrier - 9 means that the signal is a composite of digital and analog info - W means that voice + data + video info can be transmitted by the system
