Does Cal Fire have too many DISPATCH radio channels?
That is the basic (vague) question. Let me take a first stab at answering.
County - agency - freq - number of stations dispatched
Colusa - county - 154.37 - approx 15 local and/or county stations
Colusa - CDF - 151,34 shared with Napa CDF etc - 2 CDF stations
Fresno - county - 154.445 - 16 stations
Fresno - CDF - 151.385 & 151.16 - 9 CDF stations .... (6/14/2022 ... radio reference database shows 154.445 as the cdf dispatch channel now with 151.385 and 151.16 and ?153.89? used as command channels]
Humboldt - county - 154.07 - approx 30 stations
Humboldt - CDF - 151.25 - 9 CDF stations
Lassen - county - 154.445 - approx 20 stations
Lassen - CDF - 151.25 - approx 6 CDF stations
Madera - CDF - 151.?? - ? CDF stations ....... ??????????????????????? maybe no local / county channel come to think of it
Mendocino - county - 153.95 - approx 40 stations
Mendocino - CDF - 151.385 - 11 CDF stations
Merced - county - 154.40 - 20 stations
Merced - CDF - 151.46 & 151.1525 shared (with CDF in other county) - 1 CDF station
Monteery - county overlay - multi freqs - approx 20 stations
Monterey - CDF - 151.25 east & 151.3325 west - 10 CDF stations
Napa - county - 154.415 - 20 local stations
Napa - CDF - 151.34 shared with Yolo CDF etc - 5 CDF stations
Nevada - county - 153.965 - 30 local stations
Nevada - CDF - 151.325 shared - 4 CDF stations
Owens Valley - CDF - 151.25 - ?2? CDF stations ????????????????????? vs mono county ?
Placer - county - 154.355 west - approx 20 local stations
Placer - county - 154.13 east - approx ?20? local stations
Placer - CDF - 151.325 shared - 25 stations (CDF and local)
San Mateo - local - multi freqs - approx 50 stations
San Mateo - CDF - 151.37 (shared with Santa Cruz CDF) - approx 5 CDF stations
Santa Cruz - county - 154.325 - 30 stations
Santa Cruz - CDF - 151.37 shared - 7 CDF stations
SLO - county - 154.385 - approx 15 sta - ??? ... ( also used as a local dispatcher to dispatcher mutual aid channel 6/14/2022 ]
SLO - CDF - 151.325 - approx 5 sta - ???
Santa Clara - county FD - partial area - multi freqs
Santa Clara - CDF - 151.445 - ?16? CDF sta & maybe 5 VFC
Shasta - county - 154.43 - now a tac channel ? ... (seems to be correct 6/14/2022]
Shasta - CDF - 151.16 - 10 CDF sta and maybe 30 local sta
Siskiyou - CDF - 151.?? - ?? CDF stations ????????????????????????????????????????
Sonoma - county - 154.31 - ? 60 stations
Sonoma - CDF - 151.46 - 8 CDF stations
Tehama - CDF - 151.?? - ? CDF stations ...... ???????????????????????????????????????????
Tulare - county - 154.01 - approx 30 stations
Tulare - CDF - 151.19 - 8 CDF stations
Tuolumne - CDF - 151.?? - ? CDF stations ???????????????????????????????
Yolo - county - 154.445 - 15 stations
Yolo - CDF - 151.34 shared with Napa CDF etc - 1 CDF station
Yuba - county - 155.985 & 154.25 - 21 stations
Yuba - CDF - 151.325 shared with Nevada CDF and Placer CDF - 3 CDF stations
At first blush we can see that sometimes there is a wide difference between the number of stations on the county channel, and the number of stations on the CDF channel. In those cases - I suspect that all dispatch could be done on 1 channel - and the other channel could become a tac or command channel.
On the other hand - if CDF aircraft are using the CDF channels - maybe they put a heavy comms load on the channel.
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updated june 14 2022