macs 441-1 = the document - some thoughts / questions

MACS 441-1 - recommended radio frequencies for california fire service

apparently these are just recommended channels - its not like the
federal contracts that we have seen that mandate 168.625 in the
aircraft - no radio channel = no pay

basically this document provides a list of 309 channels in a 400
channel radio - but only 1 mobile and 1 portable is requried on each
fire truck - not all tac channels are listed - probably not all
command channels are listed either - certainly not all dispatch
channels are listed - ie Sierra County and Yolo County and Glenn
County

what exactly is listed?

none of the usfs admin channels are listed - none of the yosemite
channels are listed - none of the shasta county tac channels are
listed - etc etc etc

so what exactly is listed?

there does seem to be at least 1 dispatch channel listed for every
nook and cranny of the state except Imperial County and Stanislaus
County and

Cal Fire serves in 36 of 58 counties - there is SRA in 56 of 58
counties - maybe just Imperial County and Sierra County dont have SRA
- or maybe Stanislaus County or Merced County dont have SRA - actually
it is San Francisco and Alameda County

so if you made up a list of all of the Cal Fire radio channels - and
all the 6 contract county FDs - and added freqs for San Fran and
Alameda - then you would have all 58 counties covered - in theory

but why dont they list all of the tac channels for Riverside County or
San Diego County ? maybe they dont have room for all of the channels

which leads to the next question - how are these 400 channel radios
being used? while in travle mode they have all 400 channels - when at
the scene - they get that 16 or 20 channels for the incident - and
wipe the other channels out of their radio - when they leave the
scene, they program the 309 channels back into the radio

is that how it works essentially?

(they also have most of the federal wildfire channels in this 309
channel load - but no police radio channels - and jsut 1 ema channel -
and just 1 dpw channel - no medevac channels - no school bus channels
- no railroad channels - no news media channels - etc)

the list of channels is basically alphabetical but USFS is out of order