The
Tasmania Fire Service is unique in Australia, in that the 'rural' and
'urban' brigades are the one entity, the Tasmanian Fire Service. As
such there is no division between those brigades in the metropolitan
and country areas. All brigades use the same VHF radio system.
Volunteer personnel form the bulk of fire fighting brigades in the
country, and volunteers support the regular fire fighters in the
metropolitan areas. The only 'retained' fire fighter stations are
Hobart, Launceston, Devonport and Burnie.
In
the past the TFS channels have sometimes used for special events,
such as Targa Tasmania, although this does not seem to happen
anymore. As
more people have and use UHF CB’s, the TFS has developed a policy
in which at a fire UHF CB channel 12 will be used as a fire ground
chat channel between TFS vehicles also for landholders to get help
and communicate, UHF CB channel 13 may be used for specific
communications in emergency's also, where the TFS radios on VHF may
not be helpful, e.g. a landholder stuck and wanting specific advice
or similar.
Frequency Channel
Numbers Area covered or use
76.0375 F35 Major
Incident 5 - simplex
76.4875 F34 Major
Incident 4 - simplex
77.0000 F33 Major
Incident 3 – simplex
77.5875 F37 Major
Incident Repeater2
77.7500 F36 Major
Incident Repeater1
78.0375 F38 Portable
Repeater
78.0625 F9
& F30 Devonport & Hobart secondary
78.3375 Nil
allocated Tasman Peninsula area
78.5250 F11
& F24 Northern Midlands & far North East region
78.5625 F5,
F18 & F25 Mersey Valley, Flinders Island & Southern Midlands
78.6500 F16
& F23 Tamar Valley / North-east & South-East Region
78.6875 Nil
allocated Mole Creek / Deloraine area
78.8875 F1
& F20 North West region & South-East region & training
79.0375 F8,
F19 & F29 Burnie, Launceston & Hobart (Main urban frequency)
79.1375 T3 Dover
area
79.5000 Nil
allocated Bothwell area
79.5625 F2,
F10 & F28 King Island, Northern region & South-East region
79.6000 F6,
F14 & F26 West Coast, Esk Valley, Midlands & South-East
region
79.6125 F7,
F15 & F27 West Coast, Esk Valley / East coast & far Southern
79.6500 F4,
F13 & F21 Far North-West region, Far North-East & Southern
East
79.6625 F3,
F12 & F22 North West, North East, East Coast and Flinders Island
79.8375 F32 Major
Incident 2 - simplex
79.9375 F31 Major
Incident 1 – simplex
(All
the above channels are repeaterised (except where noted as simplex),
but operators can select low power simplex for car to car operations,
base will not hear these simplex operations)
The
TFS also has other channels programmed into their radios that operate
on the Forestry and other timber producing companies and State
Emergency Service frequencies.
In
particular instances Ambulance, heavy industry, councils and a few
miscellaneous channels are programmed in to some radios should the
need arise to liaise with other services.
Other
frequencies:
The
TFS have in recent years installed “on truck” repeaters in the
400MHz UHF band, these are used to allow crews to talk to each other
and back to the truck which then links in to the main VHF channels as
above. These frequencies are well worth having programmed in.
411.18750 TFS
UHF SIMPLEX
411.61250 TFS
UHF SIMPLEX
412.36250 TFS
UHF SIMPLEX
415.46250 TFS
UHF SIMPLEX
415.47500 TFS
UHF SIMPLEX
415.48750 TFS
UHF SIMPLEX
415.51250 TFS
UHF SIMPLEX
415.53750 TFS
UHF SIMPLEX
Call
signs:
The
base is always referred to as 'FireComm', and has its radio room
centralised in Hobart.
Units
are initially referred to by their originating station name, and a
two digit number which indicates their type:
1-1.0 Sedans
/ station wagons
1.1-2.0 Urban
heavy pumper, 4 person cabin. (In main city stations)
2.1-3.0 Urban
medium pumper, 4 person cabin
3.1-4.0 4WD
heavy tanker, (some new 3.xP are now active with a 4 person cabin)
4.1-5.0 4WD
medium tanker
5.1-6.0 4WD
light tanker
6.1-7.0 Metropolitan
appliances - Simon Snorkel & Teleboom
7.1-8.0 4WD
dual cab utility
8.1-9.0 Rescue,
HazMat & miscellaneous
9.1-9.9 SES
Rescue vehicles
Division
Vehicles:
Vehicles
attached to commission divisions, that fit the above descriptions
will also be numbered according to this system. Vehicles at the
training division then become “training 2-1” and “training 2-2”
Personnel:
Commission
officers, and senior brigade personnel, both career and volunteer,
are referred to as their own personal call sign this is because they
sometimes shift between vehicles at large vegetation fires, or may be
using a portable radio. Examples of these are below:
Position Call
sign example
Chief
Officer Commission 1
State
manager, Engineering Services Engineering Services 1
State
manager, Communications Division Communications 1
Regional
Officer (e.g. South) Southern 1
Group
Officer (e.g. Derwent) Derwent 1
Brigade
Chief (e.g. Hobart) Hobart 1
Second
Officer (e.g. Kingston) Kingston 2
District
Officer, (e.g. Hobart Operations) Hobart 2
District
Officer, (e.g. East Coast) East Coast 1
Base
station Call sign example
State-wide
Dispatch Office Firecom
Regional
Control Room (e.g. North) Northern Base
Group
Headquarters (e.g. Derwent) Derwent Group
Brigade
Station, (e.g. Glenorchy) Glenorchy Station
Aircraft:
Air
Services Australia have allocated standard call signs for use by
aircraft operated by authorities, for fire fighting purposes. The
first prefix “7” identifies the Tasmanian based aircraft. The
second allocates the type, and the third is the typical “issue
number”
Aircraft Call
sign example
General
fire support aircraft Firebird 701, 702 etc.
General
fire support aircraft (crew insertion) Helitack 711, 712 etc.
Fire
bombing aircraft (Fixed and rotary) Bomber 721, 722 etc.
Co-ordination
of fire bombing aircraft Birddog 741, 742 etc.
Intelligence
(Fire) gathering aircraft Fire spotter 751, 752 etc.
Remote
sensing fire operations aircraft Fire scan 761, 762 etc.
Pro-Words
The
Tasmania Fire Service uses a formal style of communicating, but it is
good to note that all pro-words used by the fire service are not
“implied” as such, and are understandable to the layman. The only
pro-words worth knowing are the vehicle
movements.
These are:
Pro
Word Meaning
Mobile/Responding en
route to an incident
Arrived
- Establishing *
control First vehicle on scene (
*
=
nearest landmark or street)
Arrived
Second, third etc. appliance arrived on scene
Closing
Down Closing down the incident control
In
service Vehicle in service, able to respond to other incidents
Returning Returning
to their respective station
Stationed In
service, and stationed at their respective station
Other
call signs:
F.I
- followed by a number: Fire Investigations
CommTech
- Communications technicians
Portable
followed by a number - Handheld radio which originates from an
appliance of the same number i.e. Launceston 1.1 & portable 1.1
are the same crew.
Code
orange/3 - Normal road conditions
Code
red/1 - Lights and sirens.
Upon
arrival to the fire scene, the senior officer will assume the call
sign of the street name or locality appended with ‘control’; for
example "Brisbane Street control" or "Kmart control"
or “Queechy high school control”
All
messages are passed without codes in plain English, and are quite
descriptive which makes listening to the fire service easy.
Tasmanian
Ambulance Service
The
Tasmanian Ambulance Service (TAS) is the government run ambulance
service covering all of Tasmania. The frequencies below are
'repeaterised', except where noted. In areas where the network does
not reach, such as the west coast and far north east and far north
west, the ambulance will share the local fire service frequencies,
only using different CTCSS tones.
77.1250 Car
to car simplex state wide. (Not logged in a few years)
Southern
Tasmania
77.2375 Hobart
city simplex
78.2500 Mt
Wedge
78.4125 Mt
Rumney (Hobart area)
78.9125 Mt
Faulkner (Hobart & southern Tasmania)
78.9250 Herringback
(Huonville & surrounding areas)
78.8625 Mt
Koonya (Tasman Peninsula area)
78.8500 Bradys
Sugarloaf (southern central plateau)
79.0875 Mt
Hobbs (southern Tasmania)
Northern
Tasmania
78.7750 Millers
Bluff (Northern Midlands)
78.6250 Mt
Barrow (Launceston & North East Tasmania)
78.7000 Mt
Dismal (Tamar valley & Launceston)
79.0625 West
Launceston (shared with Fire Service)
78.8250 Dazzler
Range (central north Tasmania)
78.4875 Flinders
Island
North
West Tasmania
78.3750 Kelcy
Tier (Devonport)
78.2500 Sullocks
Hill (Penguin / Ulverstone)
78.5125 Montumana
(Rocky Cape area)
78.9125 Companion
Hill (Hampshire area)
79.3125 Round
Hill (Burnie)
79.3500 Mt
Claude (Kentish area)
Other
frequencies:
The
Tasmanian Ambulance Service have in recent years installed “on
truck” repeaters in the 400MHz UHF band, these are used to allow
crews to talk to each other and back to the truck which then links in
to the main VHF channels as above.
410.98750 AMBULANCE
UHF SIMPLEX
411.31250
AMBULANCE UHF SIMPLEX
411.76250 AMBULANCE
UHF SIMPLEX
413.70000 AMBULANCE
UHF SIMPLEX
The
ambulance service also has access to the fire service, council and
miscellaneous other channels.
Call
signs:
The
base is always referred to as 'T.A.S.' and has its radio room
centralised in Hobart.
Vehicles
are identified by a three digit number, with the first digit
indicating the type of vehicle:
100-399
- Administration vehicles
400-499
- Patient transport vans
500-599 -
Supervisors station wagons, carrying medical supplies, but unable to
do transports
600-699
- Rescue units
700-799
- 'Regular' ambulances
800-899
- 'Light' ambulances
900-999
- 4WD ambulances
MedEvac
1 - Air Ambulance
Codes
used:
A
& E - (Sounds like A.N.E) Accident and Emergency at the Hospital.
D.E.M
- Department Of Emergency Medicine. (Is replacing A&E above)
QV
- Queen Victoria Maternity Unit - Used for the arrival of newborns.
TNR
-Transport Not Required.
A
/ Alpha - Serious condition; life threatening. (Old CAT 1)
B
/ Bravo - Serious condition; not life threatening. (Old CAT 2)
C
/ Charlie - Patient dying unlikely to live.
D
/ Delta - Not urgent or low Priority. (Old CAT 3)
E
/ Echo - Patient deceased. (Old CAT 5)
Alert
41 – Police required
DOA
– Dead On Arrival
PFO
– Patient Fell Over.
The
TAS radio system is probably the least interesting to listen to,
since much of the communication about jobs is done before the
ambulance leaves the station, and selcalls are used to indicate the
status of the ambulance: proceeding to job; arriving at job; leaving
job for hospital; and lastly clear of hospital & clear to take
new jobs. There are other codes, but the above codes give you the
general idea.
St
John Ambulance
Existing
VHF allocation:
76.9125 St
John ambulance allocation simplex
This
new network is presently being installed across the state; however it
is not yet operational. It appears to be designed to support the
SJAs operations at major public events (shows, sporting events etc.)
The frequencies below are for reference only.
469.525
470.000
470.150
470.400
470.975
472.150
472.200
State
Emergency Service (SES)
The
SES is a volunteer based, Emergency Response agency, supported by a
small number of permanent staff members located statewide. The SES
utilizes the following channels in their Road Accident Rescue, Search
and Rescue, Storm Damage and General Response roles.
Frequency,
Channel Area / use
78.7125 81-83 Grass Tree Hill,
Snow Hill and Tyler’s Hill Repeater
77.675
84 Mt Maria & Bonneys Tier Repeater
79.7500 85 Mt
Koonya Repeater
78.9375 86 Bradys Sugarloaf Repeater
(Planned Repeater)
77.5250 87,90,91 Mt Arthur, Table
Cape and Mt Cleveland Repeater
79.2250
88 South Sister Repeater
(Planned Repeater)
78.1375 89
Mt Horror (Planned Repeater)
78.7125
92 Mount Read (Planned Repeater)
77.5250
94 Simplex Operations
79.0250 96 Police
SAR Repeater (Planned Portable Repeater)
78.4500
98 SES Portable Repeater
76.400
99 Disaster Liaison Channel
(Simplex Operations)
The
SES uses the standard VHF Tasmanian Emergency Services Radio Plan,
Which gives access to TAS Fire, TAS Ambulance, Forestry Tasmania,
Parks and Wildlife, Council and Private Forestry Company radio
channels.
SES can be heard on TFS channels when
attending Road Accident Rescue incidents (ie. "Unit Name 9.1"
9.2 9.3 etc" call signs) on Channel 98 or 99 during Search and
Rescue Operations and on their local repeater or simplex channel
during Storm Damage incidents and other SES activities. Some SES
staff members also have access to the Police EDACS system (Police
Call Groups, Romeo Call signs) for inter-agency communications if
required.
But
what about the Tasmania Police Service?
I
have purposely omitted the Tasmania Police Service channels for a few
very good reasons. The TAS Police use a sophisticated 800 MHz EDACS
trunking radio network. At the best of times is very difficult to
listen to and you will find that a considerable percentage of their
communications uses "Provoice" digital encrypted
transmissions.
The
only active VHF frequency is:
79.0250
- Police Search & Rescue portable repeater
The
Tasmania Police Service also have two VHF air band frequencies which
get very little use however, they may be handy to have, just in case:
119.1000 For
helicopter use
131.6000 For
helicopter use
A
final note:
Please
don't use this information to go 'chasing ambulances'. The
professionals of all emergency services have a job to do, and
wouldn't appreciate you getting in the way with your scanner. Use
your scanner sensibly, and stay well out of the way.
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