I just took a look at the communications section on the NIFC site. I was able to find programming guides for the current radios approved with the exception of the Bendix-King. All have the capability of using DCS/DPL. Prior to your post I had not heard about federal agencies, at least the wildland fire/federal natural resource community using it. I'm not sure what the advantage is, but the disadvantage would be the extra programming needed for someone coming in from out of the area. As far as I can tell you can't switch from NAC to CTCSS to DCS without entering new numbers and that requires entering the program mode on the radio. Having an additional bank with DCS programmed in reduces the number of banks that a radio utilizing all CTCSS would have.
It is interesting to see the channel plans for various wildland agencies around the country. Most fill up 14 out of 16 banks and leave the last two for cloning on incidents. Now if a DCS capable bank is added something has to be given up to accomplish this. I could be wrong and the radio is able to switch from one squelch type to another. However, I wonder how the 16 standard NWCG tones works on the other modes (DCS and NAC) There is a list, maybe only used in California where the standard 16 tones originated, of 16 NAC codes corresponding with the CTCSS. Now we need to be on the lookout for a DCS 16 standard tone list.
I'm still puzzled with the perceived need to use DCS. Thanks for the heads up on this.
