Radio Communication s KING COUNTY FIRE TRAINING OFFICER’S ASSOCIATION Photo Courtesy of Brian Birmingham
Radio Communications
KING COUNTY FIRE TRAINING OFFICER’S ASSOCIATIONPhoto Courtesy of Brian Birmingham
King County System consists of 3 separate sub-systems.
Seattle, King County/Valley Com, Bellevue(EPSCA)
3 systems are controlled by 2 smartzone controller computers.
Computers are redundant, the backup controller is always ready to go in a case of failure
800 Mhz Radio Stats
28 transmitter sites in the county wide system
8 sites in the Valley Comm/King County system (Simulcast sites)
3 intelli-repeaters in the KC/VC simulcast system
800 Mhz Radio Stats cont.
Simulcast sites (KC/VC, Seattle, EPSCA)
Stand alone repeater sites Site trunking over 132
frequencies over 14,000 users over 500 Talkgroups
800 Mhz Radios
Radio Types
Repeater Sites
Regional Map
Site Trunking
Zone controlling computer failure All Talkgroups default to Fire 1 unless site trunk
Talkgroups are setup Renton Fire has fire 1-7 set up for site trunking
they are located at B bank positions 1-7. On the mobile radios RFD Admin is Site trunked and is located at position #27.
No EmerNo Emer button during site trunking No scanning during site trunking
800 Mhz Radio Basics Key the mike and wait for the 2 quick beeps prior
to speaking. This is the talk permit tone. No bedroom voices - speak loudly w/o yelling Microphones should be about 3”-5” from mouth,
¼” for Headsets! Take advantage of the carrier tail if possible to
avoid re-acquiring frequencies from the zone controllers
If transmitting near another radio, have the other radios volume turned way down, and or cover speaker. This will reduce feedback
Basics The radios are NOT waterproof - delicate
electronics inside are sensitive to moisture If you know you’re going anywhere near a flowing
sprinkler head, give your radio to someone who isn’t! (Repairs run around $1500.00 repair, new radios are $2500.00)
After the fire clean them up! (Damp rag, mild soap, toothbrush, toothpick)
Bonks, what causes them? Traffic is currently on the channel
- The system will not let you talk over another unit. After getting bonked, you can talk after the radio gives you 2 quick chirps. This means it’s OK to talk.
During heavy volumes of traffic, there may not be any frequency pairs available for use.
You may be out of the range of the repeaters- below grade, metal buildings, large concrete structures can all block your radio signal.
Try to get near openings, windows, or doors-even turn your body, @ 3watts, it doesn’t take much to block a signal
Bonks cont. If you are working in an area that has poor radio
operation. Consider and plan on using STATE OPS 1 or STATE OPS 4 for local communication.
Always have someone monitor the Fire dispatch talkgroup and relay info to and from Valley Comm to document events. This person would have to be outside the structure.
City Hall, Renton High, Valley Medical are all excellent examples of when to use this tactic.
Emergency Button
An EMER Button press will take you automatically to EMER Z3 talkgroupEMER Z3 talkgroup.
You will stay there until you reset the radio You obtain the highest priority for frequency
allocation (Now a priority 1, Normal is 3, Disp. is 2) Instead of a 1 second carrier tail there is a 1
minute carrier tail. You may also select the Emergency
Zone 3 talkgroup by switching to A15. Important
Emergency Button cont. Once on the EMER Z3 talkgroup, Advise dispatch
whether it’s an true emergency or an accidental push
If it’s a true emergency declare a MAYDAY, and give as much info as possible regarding your Emergency
If it’s and accidental press, advise dispatch of the accident while on EMER Z3, give radio number, and wait to hear Valley Comm confirm it. Then you can reset
Scanning How to: Advantages -monitor calls Limits / Drawbacks - scan
delays, uncertainty of the source of radio traffic
Fires - Turn it OFF!
ScanningSide Button #1
Side button #2
Side button #3
PTT Button
Use this button to toggle through the scan options-(Priority,Non-priority,No scan)
Allows viewing and changing repeater sites. Push & Hold to change
This will allow you to go intodirect(Simplex) mode on conventionalrepeated talkgroups
Scanning
Battery, monitor, encryption, alert, scan, programming, direct
Scanning
Start button
Select Buttons
Scanning Indicator
Detail
Select the dot button below the item you want
Return
Select Button
Push & hold to view & program scan list
Toggle between scan options
Scroll thru scan listwhile in program mode
Delete fromscan list
Press & hold to enter a talkgroup #. Press againto return to Fire 1
Dimmer& Backlight
Communicating with other non-fire agencies
City Police - RENTON PS (B-14) City/County Jail - STATE OPS 3 (C-3) City/County Public Works - REN-CITY (A-14) King County Sheriff - PSOPS S1(B9), PSOPS S2(B10) WSP – MARS (B15), mobile radio (pos #12) Airlift – Usually State Ops1 (simplex, A16)
Mutual Aid Response (Zone One)
When enroute and prior to switching talkgroups, Advise Valley Comm your switching to an Eastside Talkgroup. Then advise Eastside Dispatch that you are responding. Ex; VALLEY Eng 16 responding
When dispatched determine talkgroup if not already advised. If you don’t have it on your portable, advise host agency that you need to be patched via the MA ZONE talkgroup.
Eastside units responding into Zone 3 will either have our talkgroups or be patched via MA ZONE 3. It will be seamless to Zone 1 responders
Emergency Operations Center
If the 800 crashes we will use VHF City frequency (154.100) on VHF radios.
We will also use State Ops Channels for short range communications. Portables (3 watts) will operate for a distance of about 3 blocks – line of site. Obstructions will reduce transmit distance.Mobile radios (35 watts) will transmit city wide.
We will also use civilian amateur radio
Batteries Brand new rating of 1500 milliamps hours 80% rating is the minimum allowed for use in Fire
Ops. Any battery below this rating must be taken OOS and sent to Sta.12, attn: M.Ketchum. A replacement battery will be sent.
Tri-analyze every 90 days minimum Guaranteed 1 year warranty. Renton Fire has
been getting over 3 years so far!
Batteries continued
•Mark the date of conditioning•Mark the final reading•Check the condition of the battery label and replace if needed•Copies of Battery template are here
Battery LabelsH:\communications\battery labels.doc
Simplex
AKA Direct or Walkie Talkie
Conventional repeated
Trunked repeated
Back
Return
Do not carry 2 radios!
You aren’t logged on to one of them and you short the station for recall radios
with the other.
Accessories
Remote Speaker Microphones - Don’t leave them on apparatus they will become lost!
Driver Headsets Earpieces Voicemitter mask amplifiers
Pagers Page gate should be installed in all
stations Software allows for easy maintenance No immediate plans to go to the Valley
Com paging system.
Pager#’s
Haz-Mat gear Familiarize yourself with this
equipment if you have not had a chance to
Radios Harness (radio) Adapter Headset MSA BA Mask
Recent 800 Mhz Radio Servicing Inventory of Valley Com system radios Replacement of a chip on the radio board to
hopefully eliminate Nextel Cellular interference Radio bench tested for tolerances Frequencies were aligned New templates were programmed (most of Z3 has
identical portable templates) We are still waiting to have one more upgrade
done to the radios. Motorola will be performing this upcoming servicing to improve repeater site selection.
Talkgroups Portables
Red denotes - NO EMER BUTTONNO EMER BUTTON
EMER WILL NOT WORK ON THESE TALKGROUPS!EMER WILL NOT WORK ON THESE TALKGROUPS!Pos "A" Bank "B" Bank "C" Bank
1 FIRE-1 FIRE1 * STATEOPS-1
2 FIRE-2 FIRE2 * STATEOPS-4
3 FIRE-3 FIRE3 * STATEOPS-3
4 FIRE-4 FIRE4 * ICALL
5 FIRE-5 FIRE5 * ITAC-1
6 FIRE-6 FIRE6 * ITAC-2
7 FIRE-7 FIRE7 * ITAC-3
8 OPS 1 VCC PS ITAC-4
9 OPS 2 PSOPS S1 MA ZONE 1
10 OPS 3 PSOPS S2 MA ZONE-3
11 Z3 ADMIN IMS S MA ZONE-5
12 BEL FTAC1 IMS ALL MA POOL 1
13 BEL FTAC2 CITY MA POOL 2
14 BEL FTAC3 PUB SFTY MA POSFD
15 EMER Z-3 MARS MA PC 1
16 STATE OPS1 RFD ADMN MA PC 2
TalkgroupsMobiles
Pos TG Pos TG
33 BEL F-TAC 2 49 V COMMON
34 BEL F-TAC3 50 LOC GOV S
35 BEL F-TAC4 51 ALL GOV
36 BEL F-TAC 5 52 PSOPS N1
37 BEL F-TAC6 53 PSOPS N2
38 BEL F-TAC7 54 PSOPS S1
39 IMS S 55 PSOPS S2
40 IMS ALL 56 MA POOL1
41 VALLEY MC 57 MA POOL2
42 OVERLAKE MC 58 MA ZONE 1
43 HARBORVIEW MC 59 MA ZONE 3
44 AUBURN MC 60 MA ZONE 5
45 HIGHLINE MC 61 MA POSFD
46 ST FRANCIS MC 62 MA PC 1
47 TACOMA GH 63 MA PC 2
48 VCC PS 64 MA SNO 1
Pos TG
65 MA SNO 2
66 KCEOC COM
67 KCEOC OPS
68 KC EM 1
69 KC EM 3
70 KC EM 5
71 REGROUP8
72 STATE OPS 1
73 STATE OPS 4
74 STATE OPS 3
75 ICALL
76 ITAC-1
77 ITAC-2
78 ITAC-3
79 ITAC-4
Red denotes - NO EMER BUTTONNO EMER BUTTON
Pos TG Pos TG
1 FIRE -1 17 RFD PREV
2 FIRE -2 18 REN - PS
3 FIRE -3 19 REN - CITY
4 FIRE -4 20 FIRE1 ST
5 FIRE -5 21 FIRE2 ST
6 FIRE -6 22 FIRE3 ST
7 FIRE -7 23 FIRE4 ST
8 OPS - 1 24 FIRE5 ST
9 OPS - 2 25 FIRE6 ST
10 OPS - 3 26 FIRE7 ST
11 Z3 ADMIN 27 RFD ADMIN ST
12 MARS 28 REN POL PRI
13 POS FTAC1 29 REN POL TAC
14 POS FTAC2 30 BF DISP 1
15 Z3 EMER 31 BF DISP 2
16 RFD ADMIN 32 BEL F-TAC 1
TalkgroupsPOS TALKGROUP DESCRIPTION
1 FIRE -1 Normal Fire Dispatch,(Trunk Repeated), Monitored 2 FIRE –2 Working (Trunk Repeated) , Monitored, Single unit EMS 3 FIRE –3 Working (Trunk Repeated) , Monitored, Fires, Multiple Units 4 FIRE –4 Working (Trunk Repeated) , Monitored, Fires, Multiple Units 5 FIRE – 5 Working (Trunk Repeated) , Monitored, Fires, Multiple Units 6 FIRE – 6 Working (Trunk Repeated) , Monitored, Fires, Multiple Units 7 FIRE – 7 Working (Trunk Repeated) , Monitored, Fires, Multiple Units 8 OPS – 1 Tactical Operational (Trunk Repeated) , Monitored by request 9 OPS – 2 Tactical Operational (Trunk Repeated) , Monitored by request 10 OPS – 3 Tactical Operational (Trunk Repeated) , Monitored by request 11 Z3 ADMIN Zone 3 Fire agencies, for intra Zone coord. (Trunk Repeated) 12 MARS PD/ FIRE talkgroup, State Patrol can talk on this 13 POS FTAC1 Port of Seattle Ch#1 14 POS FTAC2 Port of Seattle Ch#2 15 EMER Z-3 Zone 3 Emergency (Trunk Repeated) , Monitored 16 RFD ADMIN Renton Fire Utility talkgroup 17 RFD PREV Renton Fire Prevention 18 REN – PS Renton Police and Fire talkgroup 19 REN-CITY Public works communications, or Fire and Police Comms.
Talkgroups20 FIRE 1 ST Site Trunked talkgroups for use when Zone CPU’s go down 21 FIRE 2 ST Site Trunked talkgroups for use when Zone CPU’s go down 22 FIRE 3 ST Site Trunked talkgroups for use when Zone CPU’s go down 23 FIRE 4 ST Site Trunked talkgroups for use when Zone CPU’s go down 24 FIRE 5 ST Site Trunked talkgroups for use when Zone CPU’s go down 25 FIRE 6 ST Site Trunked talkgroups for use when Zone CPU’s go down 26 FIRE 7 ST Site Trunked talkgroups for use when Zone CPU’s go down 27 RFD ADMIN ST Site Trunked talkgroups for use when Zone CPU’s go down 28 REN POL PRI Renton PD Primary Tac talkgroup 29 REN POL TAC Renton PD Tactical Talkgroup 30 BF DISP 1 Bellevue/ Eastside Dispatch (Outgoing) 31 BF DISP 2 Bellevue/ Eastside Dispatch (Incoming) 32 BEL FTAC1 Bellevue/ Eastside Working Incidents 33 BEL FTAC2 Bellevue/ Eastside Working Incidents 34 BEL FTAC3 Bellevue/ Eastside Working Incidents 35 BEL FTAC4 Bellevue/ Eastside Working Incidents 36 BEL FTAC5 Bellevue/ Eastside Working Incidents 37 BEL FTAC6 Bellevue/ Eastside Working Incidents 38 BEL FTAC7 Bellevue/ Eastside Working Incidents 39 IMS S Incident Management South 40 IMS ALL Incident Management All
Talkgroups41 VALLEY MC Hospital Communications(Trunk Repeated) 42 OVERLAKE MC Hospital Communications(Trunk Repeated) 43 HARBORVIEW MC Hospital Communications(Trunk Repeated) 44 AUBURN MC Hospital Communications(Trunk Repeated) 45 HIGHLINE MC Hospital Communications(Trunk Repeated) 46 ST FRANCIS MC Hospital Communications(Trunk Repeated) 47 TACOMA GH Hospital Communications(Trunk Repeated) 48 VCC PS Valley Com Public Safety Agencies(Trunk Repeated) 49 V COMMON All Valley Com Users (Trunk Repeated) 50 LOC GOV S Local Government Users S. of I-90 (Trunk Repeated) 51 ALL GOV Local Govt. users throughout King County 52 PSOPS N1 Public Safety users North of I-90 53 PSOPS N2 Public Safety users North of I-90 54 PSOPS S1 Public Safety users South of I-90 55 PSOPS S2 Public Safety users South of I-90 56 MA POOL1 Mutual Aid Pool – Extra shared MA Talkgroup 57 MA POOL2 Mutual Aid Pool – Extra shared MA Talkgroup 58 MA ZONE1 Mutual Aid Zone 1 – Eastside Agencies 59 MA ZONE3 Mutual Aid Zone 3 – Our own Mutual Aid Talkgroup ? 60 MA ZONE5 Mutual Aid Zone 5 – Seattle Zone Responses 61 MA POSFD Mutual Aid Port of Seattle Fire (See TG’s 13 and 14) 62 MA PC1 Mutual Aid Pierce County 63 MA PC2 Mutual Aid Pierce County 64 MA SNO1 Mutual Aid Snohomish County 65 MA SNO2 Mutual Aid Snohomish County
Talkgroups
66 KCEOC COM King County ECC Hailing Talkgroup – Will likely be moved to a EM Zone TG 67 KCEOC OPS King County ECC Operational Talkgroup 68 KC EM 1 King County ECC – Zone 1 69 KC EM 3 King County ECC – Zone 3 70 KC EM 5 King County ECC – Zone 5 71 REGROUP8 Dynamic regroup talkgroups – Over the Air programming 72 STATE OPS1 “Walkie Talkie” Simplex short range non-repeated radios channels 73 STATE OPS4 “Walkie Talkie” Simplex short range non-repeated radios channels 74 STATE OPS 3 “Walkie Talkie” Simplex short range non-repeated radios channels 75 ICALL International 800 MHz Calling channel (repeated, NOT – Trunk repeated) 76 ITAC 1 International 800 MHz Tactical Channel 77 ITAC 2 International 800 MHz Tactical Channel 78 ITAC 3 International 800 MHz Tactical Channel 79 ITAC 4 International 800 MHz Tactical Channel
Practice Question
Are you happy to be here today?
A You Bet!
B Not a Chance
C Not sure Yet
D Where am I again?
E I have no idea of the right answer
1. Where is the EMER button located?
a) It’s the blue button on the sideb) It’s the middle dot button on frontc) It’s the orange button on top
2. How long after pressing the PTT button should you pause before speaking?
a) 5 secondsb) 1 secondc) 2 seconds
3. STATE OPS Simplex channels are a good place to communicate when
a) Coverage on the regional system is poor?b) Truec) False
4. To exit the EMERGENCY mode, you should?
a) Turn the Radio off, after confirming the event with dispatch on the EMER talkgroupb) Press the home button on frontc) Press the orange button a second time
5. The EMER button only works on ________ Talkgroups.
a) Repeated b) Trunked Repeatedc) Simplex
6. Simplex, or Direct communications means what?
a) Simple radio to radio transmissions (walkie talkie)b) Direct repeater to repeater transmissionsSatellite network communications
7. Site Trunking means that the _____ has gone down and I will need to switch to a Site Trunked Talkgroup. Ex; Fire 2 * on B Bank a) Zone Controllerb) Radarc) Satellite
8. How many Talkgroup banks does the MTS 2000 radio have in our department’s configuration?
a) 36b) 45c) 48
9. The difference between a Repeated and Trunked Repeated system is?
a) range of communicationsb) capacity of communicationsTrunked repeated uses pairs of frequencies
10. If my radio goes into Fail-soft or Site Trunking, I should.
a) hurl the radio as far as humanly possible!b) call B.C. Moeller and give him the what for!c) Switch to ST ( * )talkgroups on Bank “B”
11. During Site Trunking, My EMER button will work as normal?
a) Falseb) True
12. During Site Trunking, all Talkgroup Patches and Merges are lost?
a) Falseb) True
13. During Site Trunking, all Talkgroup Patches and Merges are lost?
a) Falseb) True
14. OPS 1, 2, and 3 talkgroups are only monitored when........?(not talking about recording)
a) There is traffic on them.b) There is a working incident going on.c) When Valley Com is requested to monitor
15. The 800 Mhz Motorola MTS 2000 II radios cost approximately?
a) $875.00 b) $1750.00 c) $2500.00
16. If my radio gives me a Bonk tone, I should?
a) wait a second and the radio will give me a di,di,dit talk permit toneb) replace my batteryc) feed it.
1. When transmitting over the 800mhz system, the best way to be heard is to?
a) speak closely and clearly into the microphoneb) breath heavily into the microphonec) key the PTT button about a half second before talkingd) both a and c
18. If my radio says “OUT OF RANGE” on the display.
a) I won’t be able to transmitb) I can only reach the guy next to mec) I’m probably out of King County or below grade in a building.d) both a and c
19. Once I’ve logged my radio on to the CAD, should I swap it with someone else’s radio under normal circumstances?
a) Yesb) No
20. If I have any questions concerning the 800 MHz radios I should?
a) Refer to 800 manual on the “H” driveb) Give the Training Division a callc) Get my screwdriver outd) Guesse) Any of the above except for c and d
21. A downed Firefighter should first attempt to call for help on normal talkgroups before resorting to the EMER activation. a) Trueb) False
22. When transmitting with the radio, it is best to separate yourself from other radios, and or turn the other radios volumes down to avoid feedback a) Trueb) False