Questions About Las Vegas NV FD Radios

[zerg901]

http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=669

Cool - each fire battalion has a separate dispatch channel

No mutual aid talkgroups listed - ???

No simplex talkaround freqs listed - ???

Most FDs also have a 'Firefighter Down' channel, and a 'Special Ops' channel. Do the fire portables automatically switch to the 'Firefighter Down' channel when the emergency button is pushed? What are the 'Special Ops' channels used for?

What are the 'Medical' channels used for? Responding to all EMS calls, or talking to private ambulances when necessary?

Peter Sz Boston Mass

 

[emtjohn]

I can answer some of your questions...3 of the 4 major fire departments in the Las Vegas Valley (Las Vegas Fire, Clark County Fire, North Las Vegas Fire) are dispatched by the Las Vegas Fire Rescue Fire Alarm Office and operate with an AVL guided auto aid system. The closest units go...period. It can be a simple medical aid in North Las Vegas, but if a Clark County unit is closest they are assigned. Units also switch to the dispatch channel of the are the call is in. In the above scenario the Clark County unit switches to the North Las Vegas Channel. If the call is for a fire in a building, a tac channel is assigned and all units switch to it for the duration. I am not aware if they even have the ability to go to "simplex." Henderson Fire and Boulder city fire each has there own dispatch and generally handles there own calls, but utilize the same radio system and could go to any of the other departments channels. Hence no need for specific mutual aid talk groups. Everyone can utilize everyone elses channels already. I'm not sure what the EMS tac channels are utilized for. The channels listed for AMR and Medicwest are so the fire crews can talk to their responding priviate ambulance without having to go through dispatch. The private ambulances are all equipped with a handheld 800 mhz radio but do not have access to the fire department talkgroups. The other channel in the EMS category are to the hospitals and utilized to give telematry calls by ambulances when transporting in a patient. I have no clue about the firefighter down or special ops channels.....

 

[zerg901]

emtjohn - thanks for the info. Based on your info I will guess that the 'Special Ops' talkgroups are used for hazardous materials incidents. There might be some rule or regulation that stresses the need for a dedicated channel at hazmat incidents. Peter sz

 

[Dick33]

The "FD's" do have a simplex channel in their radios also the national mul-aid repeter channels (1) I-call and (4) I-tac's they just don't use them.

 

[E5911]

las vegas nv radios

to understand why they operate as they do, you got to know the history. Many years ago 40 or so CCFD operated on one vhf frequency, and LVFD on one vhf, NLVand henderson and boulder city did thier own thing. About 1980 or so the city and county formed the alarm office at city fire and adopted 4 uhf repeated frequencies, one for each battalion. 4 areas 4 frequencies. When they migrated to 800, they kept the same format for the most part, NLV operated on CH4 and got thier own talkgroups for Batt 5. Henderson came on later Batt 8 and 9 the Boulder City just recently. There are many channels for each area, but for the most part they all operate onthier primary channel, mainly due to the fact that dispaching is handled via phone line, with a vhf back up and MDT limit the ammount of actual traffic on the air. Most active traffic is on working TAC channels because command and tactical traffic is generally handled on the same talkgroup.