Database submission change - El PasoCty/CO Springs

Received the following submission, looking for some clarification or suggestions from local users:

4947 1353 D C9OrangeFlgt El Paso County Orange - C9 Flight Interop

I suggest this talk group be renamed "Pikes Peak Mutual Aid" or something of that sort. Based on these last major fires, this talk group has been used for coordinating mutual aid resources from both Colorado Springs and the El Paso Fire Departments.

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That TG is used for a lot of different events, not just fire. CSPD and EPSO even uses it for fairs, festivals, funeral escorts and lots of different things.

I would say just drop the "Flight" part. I have no idea where that came from.

But it is an El Paso County interop Command channel similar to the others.

They use C7 the same way.


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So a long time ago when CS and El Paso County switched to the first P25 800 trunked system way before the state system was even a dream, there were a couple analog simplex frequencies included in the radios to help with mutual aid. Brown, Orange, and I think it was Amber if I remember right. Anyway, Orange was used primarily to coordinate with Flight for Life helicopters (Since their helicopters are orange and yellow it was easy to remember). That is probably where the "flight" got added in. Also the C9 was the position on the fire and police radio's it was in. Zone C channel 9. Anyway, on the new system it is used as just an interop talkgroup as far as I know.

Thanks for the info! Nice to find someone who knows the origins.

They probably referred to them as either/or, or both for a while. Now hardly anyone knows the color origins.

The old "Flight" command TG has not been used to coordinate with FFL or Memorial Star in recent years.

Come to think of it, I have never heard any channel in El Paso County being referred to by a color (names listed in RadioReference as Blue, Ruby, Brown, Orange, Grey, etc) any longer except for the main fire dispatch channel "EPSO Red".

Somehow EPSO Red kept its color name. Probably because the old fire chiefs kept the name in play.

The El Paso County "Command Channels" C2 through C9 should probably be called as they do when the radio shop is testing them and what the radio users call them, which is C2 through C9.

The only one I know that is used almost exclusively for a specific purpose is C8 and that is for other fire agencies to coordinate as they come to Colo Springs Airort to help with airport emergencies and is used for that exclusively.

C9, TGID 4947, was used last night by CSFD to communicate with Memorial Star during a High Angle Rescue call.

radio said:

C9, TGID 4947, was used last night by CSFD to communicate with Memorial Star during a High Angle Rescue call.

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Yep, that was CSFD's "Pulpit Rock" rescue of a USAFA cadet climbing with his girlfriend when he fell more than 50 feet and broke some bones. Interesting they used that channel since it used to be called the "Flight" channel. Great catch.

AFA cadet suffers traumatic injuries after fall at Pulpit Rock

Starting today (Sept 14th) CSFD will be using it for transportation and hospitality for firefighter families visiting the Firefighter Memorial in Colo Springs until the Memorial Observance on the 17th and probably a short while afterward.

IAFF Main

Sounds like they called Memorial Star to the scene before CSFD even got the guy ready to fly.

So Memorial Star had to shut down completely and wait so as not to run out of fuel.

This is from the CSFD channel:
http://radiocapture.com/audio/2016/09/14/05/7/12587/139774992.mp3

And CSFD asked Memo Star to talk with them on Command-4 and Memo Star on their channel said to tell them they don't have CSFD Command-4 so they can either talk to them on STAC-D or C9 so CSFD got permission to use C9 for it. So C9 is still used for "Flight".

It's not unusual for them to shut down if there is waiting time til the patient is ready to be loaded.

That was only the second time I have heard a Medevac was sent to a CSFD call. Medevacs are routinely dispatched out in the county and on Pikes Peak.

I agree. That is probably why city doesn't have STAC-D in their radios (or they don't know where it is in their radio).

They took off for the mission with an hour of fuel. Sounds like they had a long waiting time.

Yes they do have some radio issues. They ended up flying the victim to Memorial Central, which is not far from the scene.