Yesterday morning there was a major structure fire in Cape Girardeau (two alarm) and they requested mutual aid from both Cape Girardeau county and Scott City. While I wasn't surprised to hear the Cape county trucks on the Cape City FD system, I was surprised to hear Scott City truck on it! During the incident, there were Cape city, Cape county and Scott City units all on the Cape FD repeater. There was a seperate incident that occured at the same time that a Cape county unit responed to that was on standby at one of the Cape stations. Dispatch did not tone out that call but just transmitted the call and requested confirmation from the unit.
Also, the on-scene commander had everyone switch to "Channel 16" at the fireground, but since I was at work and had limited equipment I was not able to determine what frequency channel 16 was.
I found it interesting that Scott City had capability on the Cape system as they are "technically" not licensed for that frequency. It does make sense that they do have that capability, but I would have thought that they would have possibly used the mutual aid frequency.
So, I surmised the following from the incident:
1. Scott City has the capability to directly utilize the Cape FD radio system directly from the trucks.
2. Fire tone out is directed to individual units and not the station where the unit is located.
3. There is the possiblity the the Cape FD has the capability to operate on at least 16 "channels".
Nothing really earth shaking, but interesting none the less.
Dennis
Also, the on-scene commander had everyone switch to "Channel 16" at the fireground, but since I was at work and had limited equipment I was not able to determine what frequency channel 16 was.
I found it interesting that Scott City had capability on the Cape system as they are "technically" not licensed for that frequency. It does make sense that they do have that capability, but I would have thought that they would have possibly used the mutual aid frequency.
So, I surmised the following from the incident:
1. Scott City has the capability to directly utilize the Cape FD radio system directly from the trucks.
2. Fire tone out is directed to individual units and not the station where the unit is located.
3. There is the possiblity the the Cape FD has the capability to operate on at least 16 "channels".
Nothing really earth shaking, but interesting none the less.
Dennis