Q&A - calfire radio channels - cal fire frequencies

welcome to my Ed talk

Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) (California)
Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference (radioreference.com)

https://www.radioreference.com/db/aid/1008

1. what are command channels? command channels are repeater pairs that
are used for units responding to a specific incident to talk amongst
themselves and/or to a dispatcher - there is no paging on the command
channels

2. what are 'tactical' channels? tactical channels are short range
channels. only mobile and portable radios operating on the ground are
usually heard on the tactical channels

3. what are 'air to ground' channels? a/g channels are used by
aircraft and ground units to talk to each other. typically dispatchers
are not heard on these channels but they might have the ability to do
so

4. what are 'air tactics' channels? air tactics channels are used by
fixed wing aircraft to talk to each other (air tankers and command
ships / air attacks / lead planes / etc)

5. what are 'initial attack air to air' channels? these channels are
typically used by all responding aircraft going to a new fire. iirc
these channels are grouped by air attack base

6. what are 'air tanker base' channels? afaik these channels are used
for administrative type comms between aircraft and air tanker bases -
they might also be used as ramp channels - typical messages might
pertain to ETA to fire or ETA to base or need for replacement aircraft
or need for retardant reload etc

7. the 'local' nets - which are listed under North Region and South
Region - are used for dispatching and enroute messages - paging IS
done on the local nets - in fact afaik Cal Fire only does paging on
the local nets - ie Cal Fire does NOT do any paging on command nets,
air tactics nets, tactical nets, etc

8. In the South Region, Cal Fire does have some local nets that are
used as response / command nets - RRDB lists them as Fire Tac channels
- apparently Cal Fire does not use any of those channels for paging -
although it might be brilliant to put paging systems on those channels
to use as a hot backup to their local nets

To East Coast readers - you can see how there are huge difference
between East Coast operations and West Coast operations