LAFD Radio History

Los Angeles City Fire Department Radio History

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General Timeline

1930s - maybe AM - maybe near 500 kc

1946 - 38.70 in San Pedro area - (previously LAFD used the LAPD radio system)

1947 - FM on 35.58

1947 - Coldwater Dispatch started operations, at Fire Sta 108, using callsign KMA706 on 33.90

1949 - FM on 33.90

1949 to ?1979? - several more 33 Mhz channels were added

late 1960s - low band portable radios were introduced

1965 - Watts Riots after action report mentions that 4 radio channels were used : Westlake + Coldwater + San Pedro + Command

late 60s early 70s - Valley Dispatch changed from 33.90 to 33.82

1972 ? - added 6 channels at 506 mhz

?1972? - "Digicom" status buttons were added in apparatus (?on low band?)

1981 - use 6 radio transmit sites and 8 radio receiver sites - Ch 7 to Ch 14 are on VHF Low Band - Ch 1 to Ch 6 are on UHF - Ch 1 is 506.3125 R with 509.3125 as input - HEAR 1 and HEAR 2 are on VHF high band and used for ambulance to hospital communications - UHF mobiles transmit at 40 watts - low band mobiles transmit at 60 watts - portable radios transmit at 2 or 4 watts depending on model

1985 123.175 AM for helicopters

1991 - moved to 18 channels at 800 Mhz - all onduty firefighters now have portable radios

? 1992? - (for a while some radio traffic from ?800? mhz was patched onto some lowband channels - I remember hearing patched traffic on 33.60 here in Massachusetts)

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Sources of Information

https://www.fireengineering.com/leadership/department-operations-speeded-by-2-way-fm-radiotelephone/#gref - 1947 - article in Fire Engineering Magazine - LAFD has 3 main radio sites with 250 watt FM radios - plus 60 FM 2 way mobile radios - frequency is 35.58

https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-FM-Magazine/FM-1949-07.pdf - 1949 - per FM TV Magazine - LAFD has radio licenses on 33.90

https://archive.is/Yff6s - 1991 - per LAFD radio document - 7 channels on 33 Mhz band - 2 channels on 155 Mhz band (HEAR 1 and HEAR 2 - ? 155.34 ? and ? 155.28 ? - maybe ambulances and hospitals only) - 6 channels on 506 Mhz band - moving to 18 channels at 800 Mhz in 1991/1992

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further info

https://sites.google.com/site/losangelescitycalifpubsafety/home/lafd/feb-4-2002-post-about-old-radio-channels - more misc info here - Marnell page at archive.org has 800 mhz channels from lafd website circa 2010 maybe

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1971-02-04/pdf/FR-1971-02-04.pdf - the FCC first made former TV channels available for land mobile use at 506 Mhz approx 1968 to 1972 - this narrows down the time range for when LAFD could have first started to use their UHF channels

the 1990 visiting fireman has low band and uhf band freqs for lafd - ch 1 - div 1 fg - 506.3125 - ch 2 - div 2 fg - 506.5375 - ch 3 - div 3 fg - 506.9125 - ch 4 - metro rescue amb - 507.1375 - ch 5 - special ops - 506.6375 - ch 6 - special ops - 506.0125 - ch 7 - metro fire ops - 33.70 - ch 8 - san fernando valley ops - 33.82 - ch 9 - special ops - 33.94 - ch 11 - command for chiefs - 33.60 - ch 12 - chiefs cars only - 33.56 - ch 13 - chiefs, car / car - 33.52

from 1979 "Visiting Fireman" - Los Angeles City FD radio channels

Ch 1 - 506.3125

Ch 2 - 506.5375

Ch 3 - 506.9125

Ch 4 - 507.1375

Ch 5 - 506.6375

Ch 6 - 507.0125

Ch 7 - Central / West / South - 33.70

Ch 9 - Valley - 33.90

Ch 11 - Command - 33.60