This is an interesting topic. When I started with the Forest Service in 1973 in Arizona the dispatcher was simply called "Dispatcher". When I transferred to California in 1981 the dispatcher was called by the Forest name. Example if you were driving to a work assignment or fire, crossing several National Forest boundaries or within range of their radio systems and needed to call, you just dialed in their frequency and called "Plumas, INF (or Inyo) Rec (or Recreation) 21, I'm on scene of a non-inury TC on State 89, 3 miles north of Greenville, one vehicle blocking the northbount lane, request CHP repond to my location, no Forest Service vehicles involved". If you then proceeded up the road to the Lassen National Forest you would call "Lassen, INF Rec 21, notify John Doe I'm running late due to a public assist on the Plumas, ETA to the S.O. (National Forest Supervsor's Office) now 1630". On your own Forest you would say something like "Inyo, Rec 21, in quarters". Most National Forests in California use a functional name in their callsgins such as "Resources 2", "Wildlife 11", or "Timber 36". The first digit is the Ranger District number, and the second is the rank within that function on that District. Fire uses the conventional "Engine", "Patrol", "Dozer", "Divsion", "Battalion" and others that are familiar to most of us. The INF is the three letter ICS identifier for the Inyo National Forest. If a Lassen unit were traveling through the Inyo National Forest they would identify with "LNF" or "Lassen".
When the Forest Service began establishing dispatch centers with other agencies, especially state agencies, the dispatch center's callsign usually changed to the name of the town the center is in. So in the case of the Lassen National Forest, whose dispatcher is co-located with the BLM Northern Calif. District, Lassen National Park,and the CDF Lassen-Modoc Operational Unit, and provides dispatching for the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge, the center is called "Susanville".
National Park Service dispatch centers can have a variety of names with a three number identifier beginning with the letter seven being a common one. Nation-wide all licenses begin with the number seven. Example KMC 735 for Sequoia-Kings National Parks (administered as one unit) and KMC 719 for Yosemite National Park. Yosemite's dispatcher was known for quite some time as "719", however, for several years now Yosemite's dispatcher has been known as "Yosemite" following the convention used by the Forest Service in California where those Forests don't have their center colocated with CDF. As for Sequoia-Kings National Park, their dispatcher is known as "735 dispatch" as 735 refers to the entire park headquarters and "735 India" refers to the information front desk of the visitors center and "735 Fox" refers to the fire office and their dispatcher among several more. Before Death Valley began using the services of the Federal Interagency dispatch center in San Bernardino, which is located at the Supervisor's Office of the San Bernardino National Forest in San Bernardino, California, the dispatcher was known as "785". This is still the call for the Park Superindentent's headquarters, but it no longer provides dispatching services.
The dispatcher for the Eldorado National Forest, the Lake Tahoe Basin Mangement Unit of the Forest Service, and the Amador-Eldorado Unit of CDF is located in the town of Camino, so the call sign for all three entities is "Camino". The dispatch center for the Cleveland National Forest, although co-located with the Monte Vista Unit of CDF, is still known as "Cleveland" instead of "Monte Vista" just to keep you guessing. As with all co-located or interagency dispatch centers with the USFS, BLM, and CDF the originator of the person's paycheck does not affect whose radio console they work, depending on the situation.
The California Departments of Fish and Game and Parks and Recreation (State Parks) used to have a very fragmented dispatching situation with county sheriffs offices and individual parks or district offices providing dispatching. They are now well along to consolidating that with a northern, central, and southern dispatch center. They have the abbreviations NORCOM, CENCOM, and SURCOM, but only the southern center uses the name "SURCOM" on the air, with the others answer to "Northern" and "Central".
In much of California the dispatch center for the county sheriff is simply the name of the county. Example "Alpine, Alpine 3 10-28 on Adam Boy Charles 123". This is the smallest county in the state, in terms of population, so it only dispatches and answers 911 on one shift. Evenings and graveyards it switches the 911 answering point and radio system to Douglas County, Nevada, where the dispatcher is known as "Douglas". In some counties it is the county followed by a number such as "Mono 1" where I live because there was another dispatch center for the south end of the county (prior to 911 and the county having only one 911 answering point) at the south county Sheriff's substation, which was called "Mono 2". Partly because the Inyo National Forest was already using the call "Inyo" the Inyo County Sheriff uses "Control" or "Control 1". In the city of Bishop the CHP, Bishop PD, and a substation of the Inyo County Sheriff compete for the call sign "Bishop". So the CHP is "Bishop", the PD is "Bishop 2", and the substation is "Bishop 4" with three being the downtown Bishop Fire Station.
For the CHP the call is always the city in which the communications center is located. There are about 25 or 26 of those statewide for 58 counties. In the large metro areas these are co-located with Caltrans (State Transportation Department) in a Traffic Management Center.
I have always thought the name of the entity to be the best call for a dispatch center. If you are traveling to an incident by vehicle, or are a pilot flying to one, it is easy to use. For example, if you are traveling across northern Arizona and need to call the Mohave County Sheriff, you simply key the mike and say "Mohave". As you continue east through the Kaibab National Forest you say "Kaibab" (pronounced "Ki bab"). When you get to area of your incident on the south rim of the Grand Canyon in Grand Canyon National Park you just say "Grand Canyon". With hundreds of channels in radios and the increasing amount of interagency work being done this seems to make sense.
