173.8875 FAA?

[chief21]

Wouldn't a proper callsign start with W, N, K, or A?

 

[dlwtrunked]

Wouldn't a proper callsign start with W, N, K, or A?

Federal stations almost never ID by an ITU callsign - nor are they required to.

 

[ecps92]

Federal stations almost never ID by an ITU callsign - nor are they required to.

YMMV but mine has shown a good many do use the NTIA assigned call signs

 

[dlwtrunked]

YMMV but mine has shown a good many do use the NTIA assigned call signs

I live in the Greater Washington DC area with many Federal stations of course and the only NTIA call signs I have seen used in many many years are those of NOAA weather.

 

[ecps92]

Wouldn't a proper callsign start with W, N, K, or A?

Correct, but some are functional names as well as other just use the number

KCB### is for the Boston Field Office
the RA's tended to only use the 8## w/o the KCB

Same for my nearest National Forest, all they use is the numbers
but from time-time our NPS sites do use the full call sign, especially on a BOLO

So we come back to YMMV, same as ENC vs CLR

I've found a Federal LE Agency repeater near-by that beacons
MANADNOCK - real location is Pack Monadnock in NH

​

 

[es93546]

Correct, but some are functional names as well as other just use the number

KCB### is for the Boston Field Office
the RA's tended to only use the 8## w/o the KCB

Same for my nearest National Forest, all they use is the numbers
but from time-time our NPS sites do use the full call sign, especially on a BOLO

So we come back to YMMV, same as ENC vs CLR

I've found a Federal LE Agency repeater near-by that beacons
MANADNOCK - real location is Pack Monadnock in NH

​

It has been my experience working in 4 states on 4 National Forests that dispatch nearly always ends their communications with stations and field personnel with their full NTIA call sign ("KMB670", "KKE720"). Same with the National Parks and BLM. California National Forests, for the most part, use a function name, personnel identifier system. So you have "Rec 21" (first person below recreation staff officer on ranger district #2), "Wildlife 3" (Wildlife staff officer on ranger district 3) and "Engineering 51" (heavy equipment operator assigned to the Forest Supervisor's Office that uses the number 5 as an identifier). This is a much easier system to use, especially when working a temporary assignment on another ranger district. The trouble with numbers is that different forests use different number for their functions. Example: 5 might be for the timber function on one forest and recreation on another forest. This makes it hard to work on other forests during a temporary assignment. Fire is standardized with "Chief," "Division," "Battalion," "Patrol," etc.

This standardization on radio protocols is strong in the western states and done in compliance with the Incident Command System. ICS is stronger down to the field level in the western states.

 

[rgchristy]

It's DMR in the clear SL 1 CC 1 TGID 100 RID 1