Charlotte FD Conference Channel

[andrewlikesfiretrucks]

I noticed this channel is encrypted, which makes sense that they'd use encrypted radio some of the time, I just can't figure out why the calls that get put there do. For example, earlier today I was listening to an incident with a boat that was very slowly taking water, all four passengers with life vests, when Alarm told them to go to the conference channel. Does anybody have any ideas why this might be?

 

[RaleighGuy]

Alarm told them to go to the conference channel. Does anybody have any ideas why this might be?

They may be discussing identifying information about a victim, or the boat, that they don't want to release. They might discuss staffing issues they don't want the media or public to know. Or, they might have been placing a lunch order and didn't want the first responders to get hungry.

 

[Tobydog]

CFD has encrypted this channel several years ago for operational purposes in various situations. Used by all the divisions of the department for various things

 

[RF-Burns]

Any boat related call will be on North Lakes if on Lake Norman or South Lakes if on Lake Wylie.

Alarm will often say "Command on Conference" if they have sensitive information to pass onto Command. Incident operations still stays on the working channel. No incident is ever worked on Conference. If they need an encrypted channel for operations they will move to K-Kilo or in the event of a riot the Special Ops channels that came out after the 2016 and 2018 or 19 riots in downtown.