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ME801

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In San Diego County CDF (cal fire) is on the county 800 MHz trunked Phase 2 digital system. Not sure why CDF is paying the user fees to be on the County 800 system when they are supposedly VHF statewide. Thankfully I'm not a taxpayer in CA.
 

KJ6ZNS

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In San Diego County CDF (cal fire) is on the county 800 MHz trunked Phase 2 digital system. Not sure why CDF is paying the user fees to be on the County 800 system when they are supposedly VHF statewide. Thankfully I'm not a taxpayer in CA.
CalFire has a contract with the San Diego County Fire Authority to provide fire/life safety services to the unincorporated areas of San Diego County. If CalFire is responding to a SDCFA incident, structure fire, medical call, traffic accident, they will use the county 800 Mhz system. If they are responding to a vegetation/wildland fire they will use the state VHF system. Radio use is dependent on the type of response and can switch from 800 Mhz to VHF, as determined by the ICP. BTW - the county also has a VHF system for vegetation/wildland fires. Check San Diego County Fire Authority for more information.
 

K6CDO

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In San Diego County CDF (cal fire) is on the county 800 MHz trunked Phase 2 digital system. Not sure why CDF is paying the user fees to be on the County 800 system when they are supposedly VHF statewide. Thankfully I'm not a taxpayer in CA.

CalFire San Diego Unit is a Mutual Aid user of the 800 system (as are Federal Fire resources in San Diego County), and has been since the early 2000s. RCS Mutual Aid users do not pay user fees.

The CalFire State Responsibility Area mission is dispatched and operates on the CalFire VHF network. As noted above, San Diego County contracts with CalFire to provide operations oversight (including Dispatch functions) of the San Diego County Fire Authority. The Monte Vista Interagency Emergency Communications Center (MVU) operates on the RCS, CalFire, USFS, BLM, and USFWS networks.
 

Paysonscanner

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My late hubby had some discussions with radio techs and comm unit people from the USFS, BLM, Cal Fire and others at some large fires he was at. He was a volunteer firefighter for our local fire district and sometimes staffed an engine sent for mutual aid. He also interfaced with CA radio techs at some electronic sites cause he was a county public works engineer. They all said kinda the same thing, that wildland fire was going to be sticking to VHF Hi for a very long time. The NIFC system is one reason, the ability of the band to cover wider areas in the mountains than the higher bands and already having interoperability for fire operations. I read that Orange County switches to VHF Hi when they start working wildland fires, in spite of their county wide 800 mhz system. They provide protection for the SRA land in Orange County for Cal Fire. Another reason is that much of rural America is on VHF high and most wildland fire ops are in rural areas, far from urban 700/800 systems.
 

zerg901

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Do the CalFire people in San Diego County all have to carry 2 portable radios? (VHF high and 700/800). Or do they all have dual band portable radios? Do the local government fire agencies, the tribal FDs, and the USFS firefighters also have to carry 2 portable radios or one multi band portable? I wont ask how many portables the military firefighters have to carry.
 

Paysonscanner

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Do the CalFire people in San Diego County all have to carry 2 portable radios? (VHF high and 700/800). Or do they all have dual band portable radios? Do the local government fire agencies, the tribal FDs, and the USFS firefighters also have to carry 2 portable radios or one multi band portable? I wont ask how many portables the military firefighters have to carry.

Late hubby said all the firefighters with radios on the wildland fire mutual aid situations he went to had agency provided VHF High handhelds. I think the 800 MHz radios are all mobiles for command use or mobile use in engines, etc. Maybe they are like Orange County, where Cal Fire pays the county for SRA protection. They have a 800/700 system and have for many years. When they get a wildfire they switch to VHF High.

Take a look at this plan and particularly the last page. Four counties participating in an agreement for the area that includes a part of each county. 3 of the 4 have the latest digital trunked and encrypted systems. However all have agreed to use VHF High for wildland fires in the area. Well, cancel that, the document is too long to post so I will try finding some other information.
 

Paysonscanner

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Ok, here are two items that show part of the SOLAR plan. SOLAR stands for San Bernardino, Orange, Los Angeles and Riverside Counties.

This is the frequency plan followed by a map of the area.

Solar Frequency Plan.JPG
 

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  • 2015 SOLAR DPA Map.pdf
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K6CDO

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Do the CalFire people in San Diego County all have to carry 2 portable radios? (VHF high and 700/800). Or do they all have dual band portable radios? Do the local government fire agencies, the tribal FDs, and the USFS firefighters also have to carry 2 portable radios or one multi band portable? I wont ask how many portables the military firefighters have to carry.

The County Fire Authority and CalFire personnel have radios in each band available to them. Cleveland NF and other Fed fire agencies dispatched by the Monte Vista Interagency Emergency Command Center have 800 MHz mobiles available.
 

952Media

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The SOLAR plan is now specific to Orange County only. With the advent of radios with multiple groups, each area now has its own frequency load. The current CAL FIRE radio load has 55 groups, with ORU being Group 32.
 

Paysonscanner

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The SOLAR plan is now specific to Orange County only. With the advent of radios with multiple groups, each area now has its own frequency load. The current CAL FIRE radio load has 55 groups, with ORU being Group 32.

I think you are saying each of the radios with multiple groups are on VHF High only or do you mean there is patching from one band to another on 700/800 MHz? I don't think you are talking about dual band 800/VHF High radios, or are you?

I appreciate the update on the SOLAR plan and its current use, however I'm not sure how soon I will be again travel in Southern California. My late husband's parents and some uncles/aunts were from there, but my husband is now gone and so are his parents, uncles and aunts. I do like to keep up on every bit of information about natural resources agencies though, I guess that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, even though I'm a woman. I spend time keeping up on the medical field as that was my education and career, but following the little nitch of natural resource agency radio systems is a fun distraction.
 

952Media

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I think you are saying each of the radios with multiple groups are on VHF High only or do you mean there is patching from one band to another on 700/800 MHz? I don't think you are talking about dual band 800/VHF High radios, or are you?

I appreciate the update on the SOLAR plan and its current use, however I'm not sure how soon I will be again travel in Southern California. My late husband's parents and some uncles/aunts were from there, but my husband is now gone and so are his parents, uncles and aunts. I do like to keep up on every bit of information about natural resources agencies though, I guess that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, even though I'm a woman. I spend time keeping up on the medical field as that was my education and career, but following the little nitch of natural resource agency radio systems is a fun distraction.

There are some Units that do have multi-band radios, but nothing is patched back and forth. The newest radio load is strictly on the VHF side.
 

Markb

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The SOLAR plan is now specific to Orange County only.

Sorry, but that's not quite correct. The KNG load shows "ORC - Orange Co (SOLAR)" for the group description in the 2018 plan. The SOLAR plan is still very much alive and in use within the SOLAR mutual threat zone (MTZ). It has been used many times this season, as recently as a few weeks ago, in fact.
The SOLAR plan was originally designed to be able to have more than enough channels available to handle multiple IA incidents within the SOLAR area as well as the surrounding jurisdictions. Orange County will be assigned frequencies from within the SOLAR plan if they have a wildland incident, but it is still the SOLAR plan.
For example, if there is a fire on state land somewhere in San Bernardino outside of the SOLAR area and they were assigned CDF Command 2, that channel would no longer be available in the SOLAR plan, but there are several other command channels to choose from. South Ops actually makes every attempt to keep CDF Command 3 Tone 5 (Strawberry Peak) available for SOLAR incidents in Western Riverside and San Bernardino counties because that is the only command channel that provides decent coverage to that area, which includes the eastern end of the Santa Ana Canyon along the 91 freeway. Anything west of the OC line would typically be on FIRE OC or a CDF command.


With the advent of radios with multiple groups, each area now has its own frequency load. The current CAL FIRE radio load has 55 groups, with ORU being Group 32.
Radios have had multiple groups for as long as I have been in the Fire Service. It's probably more related to the 4,000 channel capacity!
:cool:.

Also, not to nitpick, but ORU is not really used anymore. Even though Orange County is a contract county, they go by ORC. ORU may still be used by bean counters or other admin folks, but not by FIRESCOPE or any other operational entity.
 

Scannerboy32

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If Calfire not going to digital why is King radio website selling digital p25 scanners?

 

KK6ZTE

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Those aren't scanners, those are two way radios.

Federal govt requires approved radios for use by cooperators on Forest Service incidents and they are only approving new P25 radios.
 
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