Morris Fire Question.......

[Jake68111]

For anyone who might give me some insight:

I'm using a PSR-800 in Grundy County and have the entire county (every freq in the RR Database) programmed into the scanner.

When Morris Fire is dispatched to a accident or a fire and you hear "Go to RED." or "Going to RED.", I'm assuming that this is a seperate freq from the dispatching freq. When they call this out, and again, I assume they change channels on thier radios, I hear very little traffic.

Now the question is, should I be hearing traffic on a certain freq? What freq? And why does traffic on the incident almost become non-existant once they switch over to "RED"?

Trying to figure out if I'm missing something here or if I'm receiving everything I should be......

Thanks in advance for any info!!!!

Jake

 

[AC9BX]

This has been asked many times. "Red" is Fireground Red. There are several fireground frequencies, identified by color, red, white, green, etc. These are low power unit to unit frequencies. You need to be in close proximity or have a very good/high antenna to hear them. You can find these listed with Statewide frequencies.

www.state.il.us/iema/SCIP/SCIP.pdf

You may also find this useful

http://www.grundy911.org/Region54/Illinois SCIP/

 

[Awesomeman92]

Fireground Red is the most widely used MABAS Fireground channel used around Chicago/Northern IL, definitely worth programming in and scanning regularly.

Also, if you don't have it in already, also program IFERN (154.265, PL 210.7). Almost all requests for mutual aid will go through a MABAS division (Grundy is part of Division 15) and will be toned out on that channel.

 

[Jake68111]

Hey, thanks for the information.

After double checking, I do have both of those freqs programmed. They must be VERY low power because I can't recall a time when I've ever heard anything on those freqs. In my opinion, its to bad it is setup that way to where you almost have to be "on the scene" to follow along.

Thanks again for your input. I understand now!

Jake

 

[FFPM571]

Its not bad... Maybe for the scanner listener. the power on FG red is limited because its is for on scene communications. If threre are mulitple fires in a smaller area and all the FG's are used they dont talk over another incident

 

[N9JIG]

FG Red (153.830) is usually portables only although many agencies also have it in mobiles. The whole idea is to have a short range freq that might be used at multiple scenes and not interfer with each other.

You can view a complete list of fireground and mutual aid channels in the CARMA Mutual AId Profile at CARMA Profiles

 

[Jake68111]

FFPM571 and N9JIG:

Both of you bring up good points but one would have to think that the power wouldn't be so much of an issue if there are multiple Fireground channels / "colors".

If dispatch knew that one incident was taking place on RED, couldn't another incident, similar in nature, utilize another Fireground channel or are the specific "colors" allocated for specific incidents?

I'm trying to jump outside of the box to understand but PD's have tactical channels AND dispatch channels and both run high power.

 

[N9JIG]

Most fire operations are in a smaller, confined area such as a house, a crash scene or factory while police operations are often more spread out. In addition, FD's use the Incident Command system (which was derived from traditional fireground operations) where a team leader (Incident Commander) is usually the only person who communicates with dispatchers from a scene, the IC then contacts personnel at the scene. Complicated scenes may have multiple Sectors reporting to the IC and each Sector may be assigned separate Fireground channels.

Police tend to be much more individualistic in communications, dispatchers communicate directly with each unit most of the time. During extended operations like surveillances the operation may use low power tactical channels between each unit but they still often communicate with dispatchers and need wide area communications.

Police have not really embraced the Incident Command system as much as fire personnel have. While effective ICS requires training in order to use it effectively and it is much more in tune with the way FD's operate. FD's have historically used one variation or another of ICS for decades, police haven't.

When I switched to the dark side and swapped my bunker gear for a gun belt it was a bit of a culture shock, especially for communications. I was much more used to speaking to Command rather than the dispatcher...

 

[Jake68111]

N9JIG,

Thanks for the explanation! That does make a lot more sense to me now.

Classsssss dismissed!

Thanks everyone!

Jake