Maine guidance regarding CONOPs channels and Region Nets
[I think that the map is wrong - I think that Ossipee is in Waterboro
in York County - not way up by Spruce in Oxford County - there is a
huge hole in York County without the Waterboro site]
As I read thru that document - it appears that the Region Nets are
always monitored by a Maine State Police dispatcher - it also appears
that the Region Nets that are listed as "Patch" are also always
monitored by a Maine State Police dispatcher and also carry MSP audio
on a 24/7 basis - apparently it is a one way patch - from MSP to
Region Net but NOT from Region Net to MSP - they also use VCALL 10 as
the hailing channel at an incident - maybe Maine State Police
dispatchers also monitor that channel 24/7
They have a plan in place that requires that the local agency call
Maine EMA via telephone to request activation of the CONOPs plan -
this causes a teletype message to be sent out - but not much else
One big glitch with this system is that some of the CONOPs channels
are probably heavily used for day to day ops. 154.31 is used for FD
paging and ops in Washington County. 155.16 might still be a Sheriff
tac channel in York County. 155.16 is probably heavily used by SAR and
Ski Patrol groups. 154.71 and 154.695 and 155.475 might be heavily
used by police departments and sheriff departments.
They could simplify things greatly by ensuring that MSP dispatchers
monitor VCALL 10 24/7 - and make it general knowledge that VCALL 10
will be the hailing channel for any "disasters" - with "disasters"
being defined as any emergency that overwhelms the local day to day
radio channels. (I think this is the general nationwide concept behind
VCALL 10)
Most counties in Maine have countywide channels to supplement the
local channels. The CONOPs channels could be viewed as the "state
mutual aid channels" or the "disaster mutual aid channels". (The
fallback channels after the local and county channels have been
overwhelmed.)
Lets says there was a bus crash. With 1 to 10 victims - the day to day
channels can probably suffice. For 10 or more victims - it would be
nice to be able to use the CONOPs channels as extra onscene channels -
and to use the Region Nets and VCALL 10 as extra "command" (scene to
Dispatch Office) nets
Of course if all of the FDs had all of the VFIRE channels - there
would never be any need for them to use the CONOPs channels.
Especially if they also had all of the VTAC channels. Between the
VFIRE and VTAC channels they would have approximately 12 common tac
channels in every FD radio in Maine.
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