SLCo SAR Favorites List

[aesoprrp]

Hey folks, long-time lurker here. Need some utah-specific guidance.

I use my BCD436hp daily, listening mostly to SLC & SL County traffic. I've only ever randomly caught SAR team traffic on the "Unified East Wasatch" talkgroup (UPD East in the UCA system), but today I decided to make a Utah SAR-Specific favorites list.

From what I can gather from various past threads and bits of info, Salt Lake County Search & Rescue uses the UCA talkgroup "Unified Police Tactical 1" channel, but most other counties (in this case: Tooele, Utah, Weber, Summit, Wasatch) all have their own "Search & Rescue" talkgroup as well.

Is this correct? My favorites list in the BCD436 will consist of all the Utah sites, but I'm using Location Based scanning. I just want to make sure I have the correct talkgroups also programmed.

Are there any other frequencies you would recommend to have on a SAR-specific favorites list? Maybe the Utah AirMed talkgroups? Thanks for your help!

 

[KD7DDC]

For the Salt Lake County area, I typically get SAR Ops on UPD Tac 1 as you have stated. I also have LZ 1 & LZ 2 which are used for heli ops. Unified Fire will normally be on one of the response TGs and sometimes VECC FD 5. I have heard them use "National SAR" a few times for on-scene short-range tactical.

 

[aesoprrp]

For the Salt Lake County area, I typically get SAR Ops on UPD Tac 1 as you have stated. I also have LZ 1 & LZ 2 which are used for heli ops. Unified Fire will normally be on one of the response TGs and sometimes VECC FD 5. I have heard them use "National SAR" a few times for on-scene short-range tactical.

Ok, great! Thanks for the info, that is helpful. Do you have any idea whether the initial call-out goes through the Tac 1 channel for Salt Lake County? Perhaps it is unique from call-out to call-out. I would imagine that the SAR team members probably have pagers as well.

 

[KD7DDC]

Ok, great! Thanks for the info, that is helpful. Do you have any idea whether the initial call-out goes through the Tac 1 channel for Salt Lake County? Perhaps it is unique from call-out to call-out. I would imagine that the SAR team members probably have pagers as well.

Generally, the initial dispatch is on UPD and/or UFD through regular dispatch channels. Depending on details they may have a SAR page sent right away or wait to get on the scene and evaluate the situation. One issue with trying to only get SAR is there really isn't a dedicated TG at all. Tac 1 gets used for all types of incidents (mostly all high priority though) and there isn't a specific SAR dispatch so you have to just use "scanner ears" to pick out what you want. I have a priority scan list that I always have running that includes; UPD Tac 1, LZ 1 & 2, VECC FD 5 & 11 as those are used most often when something serious is going on.

 

[aesoprrp]

Generally, the initial dispatch is on UPD and/or UFD through regular dispatch channels. Depending on details they may have a SAR page sent right away or wait to get on the scene and evaluate the situation. One issue with trying to only get SAR is there really isn't a dedicated TG at all. Tac 1 gets used for all types of incidents (mostly all high priority though) and there isn't a specific SAR dispatch so you have to just use "scanner ears" to pick out what you want. I have a priority scan list that I always have running that includes; UPD Tac 1, LZ 1 & 2, VECC FD 5 & 11 as those are used most often when something serious is going on.

Right on, thanks again. I'll set it up like that and see how it goes. My favorites lists are pretty vague right now - one for SLC Public Safety channels (garbage collection guys are surprisingly talkative), one for UCA emergency channels, and a couple others for amateur radio. Setting up this SAR list is the first time I've tried to get specific with Departments & Sites, so I appreciate the guidance.