Radio Congestion and Etiquette

I've had a few people ask that I write on this topic and how it affects dispatch as well as other fire/EMS units. As with most departments, you have your main dispatch channel that you receive calls from your 911 centers and then have tactical or "working channels". What is the most frustrating part from the dispatcher's point of view is the unnecessary radio chatter on the primary dispatch channel, especially when it is busy. We currently have 6 repeater towers to cover the northern part of our county. We do have the capability to transmit over someone talking but the person who is talking won't hear us because they're in transmit mode. How can we avoid this? Fire departments will have to have only one person acknowledge a page for the department. We don't keep track of each specific unit responding to the call. If you need to know how many personnel are responding to the call, switch over to your tactical channel and talk with each other and coordinate who is taking what equipment. You may then say our "working channel" is not a repeater. We have 3 fire tactical repeater channels (similar to the dispatch channel) that can be used for this and general fire ground communications. On the fire scene, only the Incident Commander should be monitoring the dispatch channel. All other communications can be switched over to "working channels" and/or State Wide fire channel. Another issue is radio checks. Fire/EMS units should be considerate in doing radio checks. Please listen to the channel prior to doing a radio check. If it's busy, can you perform radio checks on your "working channels" or hospital channel? All department members should be trained on radio communications and how your radios work. There is not enough training or it is over looked on properly training personnel, especially volunteer departments that have only a few calls a year. Spending 5 minutes every training session or meeting to cover radios will greatly help. Finally, a few last reminders. Remember to press the "talk button" for at least 5 seconds before you talk. This allows the radio to key up the tower and allow us to hear you and not cut off your identifier. Speak with the radio a few inches from your mouth and talk slowly and clearly. Talking fast won't make the transmission get to us any faster! Radio communications is a major factor on the fire ground and EMS scene, especially when it comes to calling for help - "maydays". Radio communications is a very important matter and shouldn't be taken lightly. Tours of your dispatch center will familiarize you with how they operate. Coming from the fire service and working in dispatch has sure opened my eyes!

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me!

Geoff Galaski
GalaskiG@co.st-louis.mn.us