Curious what folks typically do when there is a multi agency situation with our fires..
I have all my scanners setup with all Agency channels based on fire/police etc in either systems, groups, banks, etc based on scanner brand/model.
What do folks typically do to get all the active channels for the multi agencies isolated during a fire?
I think a lot of it depends on the number and type of radios you have, and how your ears are set up!
That last thing is really important because I know some people who can listen to multiple conversations at once and understand them all, and others who can only hear one thing at a time. It's just how some people are wired, and how some people adapt over time.
For myself, I have multiple radios and some sdr dongles and all of them are fed through multiple USB dongle soundcards into an old program that is no longer available called RadioLog.
Radiolog is great because you can control the audio volume, mute different ones, or all but one, but most importantly, it will decode the MDC-1200 bursts for LAFD and LACoFD so I can see who is talking when they key their mic. I can also tag them with what they're doing on the incident to give myself better situational awareness, so if LAFD Truck 39 Captain becomes Roof Division, it'll show that on the screen when he keys up and talks and ID's as roof. If Bat 3 is Zulu Division... it'll show that.
I'm not a big "scanner" person... I tend to leave my radios on a single channel because I have enough radios to do that, and the SDR's help with that a lot because they can cover a lot of frequencies with just one tiny $30 usb. For example, 1 SDR will cover the entirety of LACoFD Blue channels.
The channels I listen to constantly are my local PD fed through an sdr and DSD+ so I can have a nice log and tag the unit id's, LAFD 5, 8, 9, and 11. LACoFD Blue 3, 4 and 12, Verdugo FD Dispatch, ANF dispatch, VFIRE21, CHP West Valley, CHP Blue, LASD Aero-SUD and SUD LTac, and the LAPD Metro/SWAT channels scanning on my 396xt.
The BIG one is VFIRE 21 during fire season for brush fire notifications as avascan522 mentioned!
When an incident happens, I always switch the radios to the communications plan of the incident, the COMPLAN. I prefer fireground traffic more, so I'll keep those channels louder, I won't bother with a staging channel, and the command channel I tend to keep low the more traffic migrates to other channels.
For example on a brush fire in the City of LA with no mutual aid:
Command 5, Tacs 12 & 13, and LA City Air to Ground
But it's important to remember that they'll also use channel 11 for chief to chief traffic, so I'll have a radio dedicated to that one as well, butthe one on 5 will be the softest after the initial size up and directions. A/G will be the radio that has the best reception for it.
LA County or Mutual Aid will always get a V command channel, plus VFIRE tacs that I usually can't pick up. But if there's a good enough air show, I'll definitely have one or two radios dedicated just for A/A and A/G.
With fires in the county, or big enough brush fires, I'll also have a radio dedicated to whatever LASD Tac or Mutual Aid tac Law Enforcement is working on to listen for evacs and closures. I've tried listening to City DOT and find it meh/useless.
But even with all of that going on, I still keep one radio always dedicated to VFIRE 21 in case of another new fire, one for CHP Blue for sig alerts and pursuits, and one for my local PD.