the 100% directionless thread

GMCmedic said:
If I was drinking coffee, I probably would have choked on it.
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Glad I didn't kill the newly minted certified flight medic!
 
You guys have to wer your LZ? Oh yeah, desert... we just stand by, I'm in my gear looking good for the looky loos (while sweating my arse off hoping Rescue doesn't take their sweet time offloading the lost hiker or whatever) lol
(Truck in pump but idle, loops to deploy the hose pulled out but hose otherwise left in the bed... basically ready to pull hose or still drive off to wherever Air 1 did end up crashing.... hopefully never have to do anything more on LZ standby than just a turnout drill....)
 
Jim37F said:
You guys have to wer your LZ? Oh yeah, desert... we just stand by, I'm in my gear looking good for the looky loos (while sweating my arse off hoping Rescue doesn't take their sweet time offloading the lost hiker or whatever) lol
(Truck in pump but idle, loops to deploy the hose pulled out but hose otherwise left in the bed... basically ready to pull hose or still drive off to wherever Air 1 did end up crashing.... hopefully never have to do anything more on LZ standby than just a turnout drill....)
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It’s not required. Usually the fire department will wet down our LZs if they get there early enough and it is a dusty area. For us we will usually try it dry and if we get a brown out then we will ask if they are able to.

My last scene call we landed at our LZ before fire arrived.
 
DesertMedic66 said:
Usually the fire department will wet down our LZs if they get there early enough and it is a dusty area.
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Mainly we just don't want sand blowing in our faces
 
Lulz at fire bunking out and being ready to stretch. Here all they want is a ground contact on the radio at unimproved LZs. For most "house calls" though we just have them land at the station and then we drive them over and meet them, they'll land there with no nutthin.
 
I find it funny when we get dispatched to a controlled airport as LZ coordinator... makes no sense... on calcord like yup you're cleared to land... at the airport... that you already got clearance for...
 
CALEMT said:
I find it funny when we get dispatched to a controlled airport as LZ coordinator... makes no sense... on calcord like yup you're cleared to land... at the airport... that you already got clearance for...
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FWIW, I hate CALCORD. One more useless channel I have to switch to just cuz fire wants to give “wind directions” direct air-to-ground.

Just keep it on the primary rescue channel, nozzle(s). Nope! Wanna make awl technical...why?!...
 
Well to be fair (I can only speak for what we do) we wet down the LZ so we don't get blasted with dirt/ dust. Our primary or command channel doesn't really care... they only care about pt destination and approximate ETA. I guess it's for data or something (I'm just a ground pounder). Oh and god forbid you have to turn a dial to calcord or guard it ain't that hard and again for my area half the time the LZ isn't at the actual scene but a different/ safer location. Something pertinent for the flight crew to know where they're coming up on calcord.
 
Tigger said:
Lulz at fire bunking out and being ready to stretch. Here all they want is a ground contact on the radio at unimproved LZs. For most "house calls" though we just have them land at the station and then we drive them over and meet them, they'll land there with no nutthin.
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Apparently the white shirts are worried about the helicopter crashing on landing or takeoff. So the LZ engine is literally just there for crash response. Of course the last time we had a helo crash was back in 1995 and wasn't at the LZ but in the mountains...
CALEMT said:
Well to be fair (I can only speak for what we do) we wet down the LZ so we don't get blasted with dirt/ dust.
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We have this weird thing called "grass" our pilots like to land on, doesn't require pre wetting to avoid the dirt/dust. We actually have this other odd thing called "rain" that does that for us 🤣
 
VentMonkey said:
FWIW, I hate CALCORD. One more useless channel I have to switch to just cuz fire wants to give “wind directions” direct air-to-ground.

Just keep it on the primary rescue channel, nozzle(s). Nope! Wanna make awl technical...why?!...
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I actually love CalCord. It is one channel that all fire departments and ambulance companies are supposed to have programmed into their radio system. A lot of police and outside agencies also have it programmed.

If I’m in Kern county they may want me to use Kern 5 or Kern 27, if I am in San Bernardino they may want EMS 1, if I’m in Riverside they may want CalCord, if I’m in Imperial county they may want IC AirMed. It is much easier to just use CalCord. Since it’s line of site with no repeaters you don’t have to worry about a repeater being down or other radio traffic on the channel.
 
DesertMedic66 said:
I actually love CalCord. It is one channel that all fire departments and ambulance companies are supposed to have programmed into their radio system. A lot of police and outside agencies also have it programmed.

If I’m in Kern county they may want me to use Kern 5 or Kern 27, if I am in San Bernardino they may want EMS 1, if I’m in Riverside they may want CalCord, if I’m in Imperial county they may want IC AirMed. It is much easier to just use CalCord. Since it’s line of site with no repeaters you don’t have to worry about a repeater being down or other radio traffic on the channel.
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VHF agencies here use the VFire channels that every public safety VHF radio has programmed. Same deal, simplex and reliable. 800 agencies use the same simplex channel for heli ops statewide which is appreciated. The state radio people are very against helicopters using "local" 800 channels as I guess it does some bizzare things to trunked radio systems when they are within range of many more repeaters than ground units due to elevation, @NomadicMedic could probably explain better.
 
Tigger said:
VHF agencies here use the VFire channels that every public safety VHF radio has programmed. Same deal, simplex and reliable. 800 agencies use the same simplex channel for heli ops statewide which is appreciated. The state radio people are very against helicopters using "local" 800 channels as I guess it does some bizzare things to trunked radio systems when they are within range of many more repeaters than ground units due to elevation, @NomadicMedic could probably explain better.
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Yes. That's that basic problem. When a transmitter is in range of multiple sites on the trunked system, it causes big problems for the Gizmo that selects which site to send radio traffic to.

Helos should always be on a simplex channel when communicating with ground units. We tend to use either a national TAC channel (UTAC) or a dedicated simplex channel, like med 9.
 
DesertMedic66 said:
I actually love CalCord. It is one channel that all fire departments and ambulance companies are supposed to have programmed into their radio system.
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Specifically I meant for an assignment on an otherwise inactive channel.

For out of county calls, it’s absolutely what works universally as all first responding agencies in CA have and are typically familiar with it. In county, however, fire crews can be a bit...overzealous.
 
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