My thinking, again just MY thinking. Could they be doing this in preparation for
CRIS?
So how I approach these unknowns is first to try and determine what problem they are trying to solve within their existing operational parameters. Starting off with a wild guess of preparation for CRIS would get us lost on many tangents. Instead I take the clues we have available, the list of counties, the knowledge of the fixed-infrastructure in those counties available for CalFire, the political/funding access of those counties (or lack there of), the knowledge of how Calfire radio currently operates and any weaknesses it may have, especially in those listed counties, how a VRS works, the freqs involved, etc. etc. And if you want to still entertain CRIS, let's bring in those known clues as well, any hint at all of CalFire on CRIS yet, any hint of CRIS in those counties at all?
Let's do this. (and this is just my opinion or insight to my thought process, at a 10,000ft elevation.)
Keeping things simple, we know what a VRS does. Fixed infrastructure is reasonable in bulk of those counties, but certainly not as dense as the rest of the state. Local and Command Nets are colocated for the most part, but I can see HT coverage in those units being sketchy inside buildings and needing better access into fixed assets. But devils advocate, what changed today vs the last 20+ years where they just now are deciding to solve that possible problem? At worst, coverage got better with addl command net density over the last 10-20yrs. Also knowing firefighters, if they go into an area they know has sketchy indoor coverage (while not on a call), they'll leave someone outside where they have reception. The rest of the team can go in and grab groceries etc. And in-building reception is a problem statewide, it's not particularly exaggerated in these counties, that I'm aware of.
Political/funding access. Those are the worst counties to "test or develop" a new technology out, due to the political and funding distance from HQ. So it's very likely whatever is going in is a known solution to a known problem that once installed, they're confident will solve the problem. There's little access to technical staffing and PSCO up there.
Calfire currently has zero VRS, at least up here, who knows with contract counties like SBA, VEN etc. We know a VRS extends mobile radio to handheld. We know at some incidents it's a solo engine and medic, at larger incidents/TC's it's multiple engines, so is there any intelligence like CHP's system where only one VRS is active in a group? It's one freq, so it needs to be protected somehow from being overwhelmed in one location. Operationally at a small incident or TC, the engine resource is close enough where the PA on the engine can alert the firefighter to radio traffic they might be missing on their HT. There is little to no risk of delayed radio traffic, if a FF can't get out on the HT, they simply walk back to the engine to get to ECC. (For law, that risk is much higher with attacks etc. where ability to transmit instantly is critical). That inconvenience and low risk doesn't
seem worthy of a technical investment like this.
Knowing CalFire has M150 mobiles and P150 portables, what operationally will change with a VRS? The P150 is a very capable radio, and FF's are training how to make it sing much more than typical law enforcement who either mash the PTT to talk or use it as a hammer, so it's not a lack of HT features. Will the HT do VRS 100% now, or will fire firefighter manually switch to VRS when needed? On a fire where the FF needs to be on the assigned tactical and monitoring air/ground, and where the officer-in-command/IC needs to monitor command net (fixed infra), tac and A/G (both simplex and geographically local to incident), does the radio tune to the VRS for the fixed infra channel in lieu of, or require a separate radio just for that, or...? So some interesting operational questions here to figure out. And Calfire moves its resources around statewide all the time. With major incidents in the area, 10 engines from San Diego County could be covering the local fire stations in Modoc County for initial attack. It's a very powerful dynamic force, and works well in California. But will San Diego resources have the VRS that is now supposedly required to operate safely or efficiently in Modoc?
Could this be tied to AVL instead? Where the AVL fixed-infra density may be minimal up there, and cell service alternate is also minimal, if this creates a sort of mesh of sorts where engines in a canyon can ping out to the VRS on an engine on the ridge that can hit the fixed-infra then I can see that being a problem they are trying to solve. Still needs some intelligence like CHP's setup I think, especially because the engine on the ridge might eventually drive out of coverage itself.
And finally CRIS. We have no inkling of Calfire on CRIS yet, with the closest hint being county stations in CZU using it as primary. Understanding operations, I'd expect the first actual Calfire presence on CRIS will be prevention and regional/state administration. They would need the encryption and/or range CRIS would provide. On top of that, there are no CRIS sites in those far reaches of the state yet. Southfork in Shasta is still in site mode only, not linked to the core yet. We also know CRIS original design is for mobile coverage only. Handheld coverage is a bonus. That might be changing in the Sac area if they have enough density coverage to support HT's with what appears to be the eventual move of CHP Valley Division onto CRIS.
So all that to say, best bet with the clues I have, is it's related to AVL, or there's a much larger gap in HT coverage of local net in those counties than I thought (and I've been in those counties and have not noticed any different HT coverage there than anywhere else).