Rural Fire Dispatch?

[IcomIcR20]

Hello all,

I have noticed that for a few Alabama counties (i.e. Bullock and Crenshaw), the database lists a "Fire Dispatch" frequency and a "Rural Fire Dispatch" frequency. I am not all that familiar with these counties, so I was curious as to what the difference between the two frequencies are? Which departments utilize one frequency versus the other?

Any insight would be appreciated!

 

[MiCon]

I'm not familiar with that locale, but based on my knowledge of similar RR listings, here's how it works:

The 'Fire dispatch' listing is for communities that are close together (urban) and can be served by one transmitter.
The 'Rural Fire Disp' listing is for communities that are farther out from the main transmitter and thusly need to be served by separate transmitters for each rural area. There may be one, or many, different frequencies listed for rural dispatch, it would depend on how large the rural area is.

 

[IcomIcR20]

Thanks! That does seem like a reasonable explanation. I will have to do some monitoring and see if I can determine if that is indeed the case for these counties.

 

[Avery93]

In these two instances, "Rural Fire" probably refers to the Alabama Forestry Commission "Rural Community Fire Protection" program (RCFP). In the 80s and 90s, AFC built out a UHF radio system in many rural counties to be used by volunteer fire departments who could not afford their own systems. The licenses and in most cases equipment are owned by AFC.

Generally each participating county received one frequency pair and enough repeater sites to ensure good mobile radio coverage in the county. Any additional frequencies or repeaters are likely owned by a county or city entity and are used to fill in areas not covered by the RCFP system, or they may be used by a city department.

 

[IcomIcR20]

This is precisely the information I was looking for. Thanks! That would indeed make sense as I have noticed that the licensee for these repeaters is AFC.