"Orange 911"

[Chauffeur6]

Sounds like Orange County is going away from the "36-Control", "718" and "Central" monikers and going with a service-neutral "Orange 911" instead.

[sc8]

I just got the official notice from my ambulance corps about that yesterday, too.

I would like to know what the reasoning behind the changeover is. Is there any operational benefit to a service neutral name?

[Chauffeur6]

Well, one downside to it that springs to mind is, the dispatchers will no longer have the benefit of being able to easily ID what service is trying to call in. At least it was fairly obvious if it was an FD, EMS or PD unit calling with the separate monikers.

My best guess would be that "Orange 911" is an attempt to sound more professional and/or homogeneous. To be honest, I never did like "718" anyway, it seemed cheesy using the call sign #'s as the moniker. I haven't been listening to OC for very long, but a friend in Sloatsburg FD who has tells me they used to use "315" on fire before they went with "36-Control". Well, I grew up with "44-Control", so I'm used to it and prefer that on the fire radio over anything else. Not that my opinion matters in the least lol.

[Chauffeur6]

Some more info in this thread on The WatchDesk. Apparently it takes effect offically on October 1st.

Any Reason Why? - Firefighter Forums @ The WatchDesk

[sc8]

They say there doing it for "NIMS compliance". While this is a step in the right direction, I think they should probably focus on more substantive changes first. For example, getting all FD's on the same system, rather than the three (VHF, UHF, 800) they are on now, or finish linking the 800 MHZ radio towers. While I am not an expert, I believe those changes would help with IO in Orange County more than changing the call signs.

[captncarp]

Name change.......can be done now.
Tower links...........can be done soon.
Radio System all on one band...let alone on same frequency's............NOT IN OUR LIFETIME !!!!!