Kern co fire

[E5911]

Couple questions:
When county fire units are dispatched, the dispatcher often refers to " company xx"
Are they referring to the engine and patrol running together?

Also, I hear page tones for some stations (55) and none for others. If I was guessing, ambulance notification or no good network for ip dispatch?

Last one. The feed sounds dirty. Is the rf interference with kern scanner or the fire dept radio system?

 

[Eng74]

Most of the stations in Kern County are on a ZTRON system that is done over the wide area network. BC’s, Cal City, hand crews and some others are always toned out. If a stations ZTRON system is not working the two tone quick call is used. If you a hearing Company XX that is for the company officer. Most of the Ambulance dispatching is done by Halls Ambulance, they also dispatch Delano and Liberty too. Our VHF system is pretty good. There are a few bad spots in the county, between Mojave and Rosamond is one, that is why they will patch Kern 21. It is probably the feed provider why it sounds dirty. I have never listened to the feed. I never think about it when Batt 6 or 3 go to Kern 4 since we can’t get it on the east side in Batt 1 and 7.

 

[E5911]

Yeah we use the same ztron here. Thanks for the info

 

[inigo88]

If you a hearing Company XX that is for the company officer.

Can you elaborate anymore on what the company officer is? I used to hear "company" used in lieu of engine for most dispatches and always assumed that was just KCFD terminology for "engine company."

I never totally figured out Hall Ambulance's channels either. What's in the database is pretty correct but out of date. I believe they acquired Kern Ambulance (source) which served western Kern county and has a dispatch frequency on 463.175 Mhz PL 103.5 on Grapevine Peak (KAL338). That frequency was still active and had the same dispatcher as the main Hall Ambulance dispatch channel, but was not a simulcast of it. Hall OCC also dispatches Liberty Ambulance though, so you hear the same dispatcher's voices on the lower kern, upper kern and ridgecrest channels as well.

I think what we have in the database is in the ballpark, but I wouldn't be surprised if the official channel names are different, or if there's a few extra we're missing.

 

[Eng74]

In the past if you heard Company XX it was the captain on the radio. So if if you hear Company XX will be IC that captain will be the IC. As far as Hall’s dispatching the database seems good. I think Halls just patched into the other companies frequencies. I know when Liberty made the switch it was kind of over night. I thought it was weird I was hearing Halls dispatch and was talking to a Captain from 77 who said he had called Liberty and they answered the phone Hall’s Ambulance. They had already had the phone transferring over to Bakersfield.

 

[PaulNDaOC]

In many areas company refers to the on call or vollies.

 

[Eng74]

There is no longer a Reserve Program in Kern County. The paid call changed to a reserve program and died off about 2008/09.