curious about level of radio traffic

[littlejohn]

Is it standard for SES units travelling to an incident to give detailed progress reports?

ie, units seem to be calling base as they pass through each town on the way to and from incidents.

The base quotes the time whenever someone calls it too. Handy I spose if you don't have a clock in the vehicle, but what's the practical reason for doing so?

[uniden]

Also how do the callsigns work. (Unit name)no.?? the first two numbers signify the station and whats with the third number. I am talking about the callsigns not the mfs pager codes..

[RescueHazmat]

Is it standard for SES units travelling to an incident to give detailed progress reports?

ie, units seem to be calling base as they pass through each town on the way to and from incidents.

The base quotes the time whenever someone calls it too. Handy I spose if you don't have a clock in the vehicle, but what's the practical reason for doing so?

Time quoting can be for a few different reasons.. Some agencies do this as the radio traffic is recorded, yet data ie. time, of the transmission is not.. So it depends on the reasoning but there are a few possibilities.

[Mike]

Each unit is allocated a group of 10 numbes ie. 331 - 340. The unit then allocates these numbers as they see fit. Some have the give the unit a number, some start vehicles at the bottom - other at the top, or maybe even allocated to a person.

There are currently moves to impliment a more standardised callsign arrangement.
ie. unit manager = {unit name} 1
team leader = {unit name} 5 etc etc

[bajdas]

A hangover from the old VHF radio system, each SES vehicle has a unique three digit number. For example Prospect SES use 442 and 441 for their vehicles and Metro South SES have 331, 332, 333, etc.

Unlike CFS, the vehicle numbers have no relevance to what the vehicle is or its capability. But it makes for short radio transmissions and minimal confusion at a multi-unit incident.

As Mike stated, to avoid a persons name being transmitted each officer has a number allocated. Some Units use this often, some do not. For example, State2 is a certain person.

If you are using a GRN handheld radio, then it is allocated the callsign of the vehicle the crew are associated with then Alpha, Bravo, etc. So Prospect SES were using 442 alpha and 442 charlie at the Glendie Greek festival display on the weekend.

The use of broadcasting time by some SES Units is a local Unit operational requirement. Some SES Units have voice recorders on the LHQ base radios, so maybe if they state the date/time of the call during the radio transmission then this is recorded. It is also a quick way for Unit officers to keep track of the response times and how long between radio welfare checks. I am not absolutely sure of the reason because we do not do this in out SES Unit.

I hope this helps.

[bajdas]

Is it standard for SES units travelling to an incident to give detailed progress reports?

ie, units seem to be calling base as they pass through each town on the way to and from incidents.

The base quotes the time whenever someone calls it too. Handy I spose if you don't have a clock in the vehicle, but what's the practical reason for doing so?

It is being encouraged that SES Local Headquarters contact their vehicles/people every 15 minutes for welfare checks.

This ensures that the crew are OK and officers can obtain progress of the crews via SITREPS. The progress is also recorded accurately then in the radio/operations log.

Thus if the worst happened and a SES vehicle has an accident, then a search of 30 kilometres road is quicker than a few 100 kilometres of road to find the crew.

Especially important during a search where SES crew are kilometers away from their vehicles in the bush. Also helps determine the GRN black spots in a search area.

If crews have UHF CB radios for local crew communication, then they use their own radio protocol.

[Robert-Robert34]

Is it standard for SES units travelling to an incident to give detailed progress reports?

ie, units seem to be calling base as they pass through each town on the way to and from incidents.

The base quotes the time whenever someone calls it too. Handy I spose if you don't have a clock in the vehicle, but what's the practical reason for doing so?

It is being encouraged that SES Local Headquarters contact their vehicles/people every 15 minutes for welfare checks.

This ensures that the crew are OK and officers can obtain progress of the crews via SITREPS. The progress is also recorded accurately then in the radio/operations log.

Thus if the worst happened and a SES vehicle has an accident, then a search of 30 kilometres road is quicker than a few 100 kilometres of road to find the crew.

Especially important during a search where SES crew are kilometers away from their vehicles in the bush. Also helps determine the GRN black spots in a search area.

If crews have UHF CB radios for local crew communication, then they use their own radio protocol.

When there are GRN black spots thats where UHF CB or HF comes in handy 

[littlejohn]

Thanks bajdas!

[bajdas]

When there are GRN black spots thats where UHF CB or HF comes in handy 

SES don't have VHF radio. Some SES Units have Marine radio and HF radios are disappearing.

Majority of the time if the GRN radio is in a blackspot, mobile telephones are used has a secondary communication medium. Our crew sheets (like CFS T-Cards) list everyones mobile telephone on them.

Senior staff are now being issued with portable satellite telephones instead of HF radio.

UHF CB's are now in the newer SES vehicles and they are used for short distance "line of sight" transmission. For example, from each end of a search line to the team leader, from the casualaty to the team leader or from the roof to the team leader.

[sesroadcrashrescue]

we have uhf in our trucks and crusier how ever we were given 231-235 as our number range we use it as
231= RCR primary response
232= forward command bus before it was taken away (not used now)   
233= General rescue
234= used to be the crusier (not used now)
235= land cruser/forward command

who has heard about the new ses call signs comming out and what do you think???
i think its crap lets keep it simple                           

[Zippy]

care to share this news about new SES appliance numbering?

[piriejono]

Altho i havent seen the new callsign list i have been told that it will become simalar to cfs eg, pirie 21 2wd rescue pirie 22 2wd storm or say a pirie 41 4wd rescue, it may be different as i havent seen the new layout, Now as a unit member of pirie i know my units callsigns however i am also a member of the North Region operational support unit Comms team and at times we handle the dispatch and some comms for hole of region and we dont know what one truck to another truck does eg at booleroo centre they have 151 as there command car and 152 as there rescue at pirie we have 431 rescue 432 storm 433 command 434 Marine boat 435 quad bike so i feel that the new callsigns are a good thing least you will know by the callsign what the truck does.

Jono Taylor

[SA Firey]

care to share this news about new SES appliance numbering?

It is not new SES numbering each unit has a block of numbers eg Sturt has 201-205,Metro South 331-335 etc.These numbers have been around for years

[Benji]

care to share this news about new SES appliance numbering?

It is not new SES numbering each unit has a block of numbers eg Sturt has 201-205,Metro South 331-335 etc.These numbers have been around for years

While SES has used numbers before as SA Firey said, this is a new system that is coming out that will bring it more in line with the CFS/MFS callsign system.

It will be Unit Name followed by a two digit number based on what the appliance does. For example:
2wd cars that are not trucks or RCR are 2x
4wds that are not trucks or RCR are 4x
RCR trucks are 9x
logistics appliances like the flatbeds are 7x
general rescue trucks, which is anything but logistics or RCR are 3x

So with my unit we have Adelaide Hills 40 for our 4WD light rescue (341) and Adelaide Hills 30 for the truck (342).

Thats the basic idea of whats going on, its still at draft stage but they want to go live with it in September last I heard.

[sesroadcrashrescue]

may feeling is that it wont work cause in the draft it reads that 4wd cars eg land cruisers and 4wd trucks RCR or not with have the same call sign could it not be more simple for example

kapunda at the moment use 231 to 235 so why not drop the last digit to make it station 23

then use what the mfs already use so that a primary RCR truck will be for example

kapunda 2319
station name station number appliance type keep it the same accros the while state then cfs ses and mfs all know what is going on and who is around 

[Zippy]

how about give SES appliances callsigns like  "Strathalbyn Rescue" or "Kapunda Salvage"....comm's easy for everyone to remember hehe

a current practical use is in my own CFS/SES group...where the RCR resource is "Lobethal (Loby) Rescue", and Storm Damage Resource is "Onkaparinga (Onka) Salvage"

[sesroadcrashrescue]

thats a great idea however we have two trucks and a 4wd all ses trucks are "rescue" in ses rescue can me alot of things so how could we tell the diff between a RCR truck and a general rescue truck as kapunda has both

[Zippy]

Perhaps by the "dominatant" sorta rescue equipment stored on the appliance?

like  "Kapunda Roadcrash", "Rescue", "Mount", "Car-1"

[sesroadcrashrescue]

i like the use of "car-1" i belive that the idea of 4wds in the ses were for command roles in cfs the strike team leader is in car 1 or car 2 depending on the group size i do like your idea but i feel keeping the same accros the state is the best

[bajdas]

I understand that the new call sign system is to be the same on pager messages. This is to remove the numeric numbers that everyone is complaining about.

The push to limit the resources responded in a pager message to SES<3 or 2 alpha unit><2 digit vehicle>.

The same for CFS and MFS. eg CFS<3 or 2 alpha unit><2 digit vehicle>.

This in proposal/draft stage.

[Zippy]

In the MFS
4  is Heavy Rescue
19 is Rescue
23 is Salvage
25 is marine vessel
27 is lighting
37 is Utility
39 is Rescue Salvage

Perhaps somewhat having a system around these numbers

"Kapunda Alpha-39"

[SA Firey]

Well September is not far away so wait and see

[bajdas]

The other issue is that some of the old SES Unit names are proposed to change to reflect where the Unit exists, rather than older council names. Not sure how some of the metropolitan names will shorten to 3 alpha for paging yet.

This is quite large when you consider Unit constutions, letterheads, writing on Unit buildings, vehicles, websites, etc, etc.

[OldOne]

The other issue is that some of the old SES Unit names are proposed to change to reflect where the Unit exists, rather than older council names. Not sure how some of the metropolitan names will shorten to 3 alpha for paging yet.

The Identifier will use the standard 3 letter address group that has been used for message ID's for some 30+years with some minor updates like Sturt was HVY  and now will be STT.

AA

[Zippy]

How about less abbreviations lol...im beginning to agree with a Victoria counterpart that we use too many abbreviations.