Military vs public safety channel schemes

March 31 2014

Just thinking outloud

Military radio comms vs public safety radio comms

I think this is how the military / infantry is set up -

Squad - 5 soldiers - no radios - 1 squad leader with 1 radio on

Platoon Level Command Net

Platoon - comprised of 5 Squads - Platoon Leader has radios on Platoon

Level Command Net and Company Level Command Net

Company - comprised of 5 Platoons - Company Leader has radios on

Company Level Command Net and Battalion Level Command Net

Battalion - comprised of 5 Companies - Battalion leader has radios on

Battalion Level Command Net and Division Level Command Net

etc etc yadda yadda

To translate this to public safety - you might have -

Engine Company 1 - 3 FF + 1 Captain - all have radios on Engine

Company 1 Net - Captain also has radio on Battalion 1 Net

Battalion 1 - has 5 companys - Battalion Chief has radios on Battalion

1 Net and Division 1 Net

Division 1 has 5 battalions - Division Commander has radios on

Division 1 net and Citywide Net

Preinct 1 - 5 cops + 1 sergeant - all have radios on Precinct Net -

Sergeant has radios on Precinct Net and Area Net

Area 1 - has 5 Precincts - Area Commander has radios on Boro Net and Area Net

I think that the only FD that operates somewhat like this is LA County

FD where apparently the company officers carry both a UHF HT and a VHF

HT. Phoenix might be similar with some people carrying both VHF HTs

and 800 HTs.

You can see that most public safety agencies do not follow the

military scheme in that most public safety agencies just have 1

channel per area, and everyone uses that 1 channel. (Or maybe there is

1 area channel, and 1 shared FG or shared Tac channel)

FDs could operate like this at a highrise fire - recon channel - fire

attack channel - floor above channel - elevator channel - evacuation

channel - roof channel - helicopter channel - water supply channel -

logistics channel - etc etc etc etc

PDs could do the same thing with a large scale incident at a highrise.

Something tells me that no one has seriously looked at public safety

communications since 9/11. No one.