Cal Fire Replaces Command 5 (Per 2025 MACS 441-1)

[es93546]

Cal Fire has been without a Command 5 for a few years, when they grabbed the pair for a vehicle location system for all their apparatus. They used the newer Command 12 to cover the area Command 5 covered. Now, according to the 2025 FIRESCOPE Radio Communications Guidelines (MACS 441-1), Command 5 is reestablished with the frequency pair of 151.1375 output/159.3525 input. It is not intended to replace the old Command 5 in kind, rather it joins Command 11 as a portable repeater only. This is good as Cal Fire can't always depend on having their fixed command repeaters to cover all or portions of a large incident.

Other changes of note in the MACS document are 6 new VHF tactical frequencies for L.A. County's VHF communications system, a new VHF air to ground frequency for Orange County (154.8150), 9 new VHF frequencies for Ventura County FD, 10 changes to VHF channels for both the San Diego County and City Fire Departments, some tone changes for UCall and UTac frequencies and finally a whole slew of tone changes up in the 700/800 MHz range.

April 1st is the date I set to start looking for annual radio system change documents, although this MACS document is dated January 1. Put the bolded text above in a search and you will find the link to the referenced document.

 

[es93546]

So sorry, the above listing for the output frequency of Command 5 is in error. It should have read 151.3175 output/159.3525 input. Again, my apologies for the error.

 

[f40ph]

There's an ongoing debate about the national "tones" on the interop channels. Some say 156.7 analog, others say User transmit tone selectable. Seems like it goes one way for a few years then back.

 

[es93546]

For those of you who don't know, Commands 1 & 2 are used statewide, although not every place in the state has coverage. There are blind spots for each, even in the SRA. Commands 3, 4, 6, 7 -10 and 12 are assigned specific operations units. For example, Command 3 covers the San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego units. In past Cal Fire has not employed portable repeaters on fires to establish a system of interlinked command repeaters like the National Interagency Fire Center does on large federally managed fires. With the explosion in fire incident size use of permanently located repeaters often leaves blind spots in coverage.

Now, I'm not an expert on all matters related to Cal Fire. I have a rather limited exposure here in the eastern Sierra to Cal Fire operations due to the much lighter workload here than the agency has in most areas of the state. Given that, it is my guess that the portable repeaters are used to fill in blind spots in command permanent repeater coverage on large incidents. I've worked some very large federally managed incidents that had some large and complex communications systems employed. Portable repeaters are essential for command nets. Given limited frequency availability I would expect additional portable repeater frequencies being assigned in years to come. But, that is just my opinion, for what it is worth. There are both current and retired Cal Fire employee members here who might have a better view on this.

 

[es93546]

There's an ongoing debate about the national "tones" on the interop channels. Some say 156.7 analog, others say User transmit tone selectable. Seems like it goes one way for a few years then back.

The idea of pre-established tones is for everyone to be on the same page prior to the formation of an overhead team being established on scene. This, during the highly dynamic period of initial attack (some say chaotic). Pre-assigned tones bring about a little bit of order about the chaos. For example, most handhelds I used while working in the USFS's Region 5 had CALCORD in them. This channel was tone guarded with Tone 6 (156.7) and I knew that on an incident with a wide spread of agencies or in the case of needing an air to ground for a med evac I could go to CALCORD and that all of us had the same tone. In fact, on analog systems 156.7 is most often used for mutual aid frequencies.

EDIT: the challenge and the biggest reward in the field of incident response is to make order out of chaos. Standardized and pre-assigned tones greatly help in that effort.