New Dispatch Vs old SOC

[PJ]

Since the changeover to Comcen dispatch by the current system certainly seems a big step backwards. Who else is finding the service far from 1st class?

The response from Adel fire is 2nd rate they have little to no interest in CFS and are sometimes don't even bother answering radios. At least when SOC was up and running we could get some response to a radio call, these guys don't give a toss. seems like they are purposely making life difficult at the most critical time-dispatch. No longer do we get given a predetermined TG it is a case of pick your own . I wonder how this will work once the realFDS starts and things really crank up in temperature & jobs on the go? I have yet to here anyone that thinks the system is working better than it was?

Lets here from the masses.

[Zippy]

Very easy to know who were CFS OCO's

Yesterday a predetermined TG was put in the pager message for an incident which was interesting.

[Robert-Robert34]

When we had SOC doing all CFS & SES paging & response life was alot easier cause you could hop on the radio and get answered right away by State Headquarters without delay

Whereas now even im listening to the scanner during the daytime and a SES or CFS station comes on air trying to call Adelaide Fire to acknowledge a callout page it normally takes anywhere between 2-5 minutes or more before they can get a reply from Adelaide Fire

I hate to imagine whats gonna happen once we get into the dangerous part of summer and the work load starts to increase we better pray that the CFS OCO's are incharge of the radios at Adelaide Fire when South Australia sees another Perfect Fire Day     

[uniden]

Yeah it is a big conspiracy to shut the CFS down. Adelaide Fire comms just sit around and play cards.
Get over yourselves, the staff are there to serve the community I am sure they are doing their best with what they have available..Remember who made the decision to change, it wasnt MFS.

[alphaone]

Since the changeover to Comcen dispatch by the current system certainly seems a big step backwards. Who else is finding the service far from 1st class?
Yes the service is not as good as it could be, however, I believe that the guys and girls in Comcen are doing their best, considering they were throwen into this change as much as we were.

The response from Adel fire is 2nd rate they have little to no interest in CFS and are sometimes don't even bother answering radios. At least when SOC was up and running we could get some response to a radio call, these guys don't give a toss. seems like they are purposely making life difficult at the most critical time-dispatch.
How many people are there in Comcen? How many TG are there that need monitoring? When you look at the numbers, there are about 3 operators in Comcen, I believe, and atleast 8 TG to monitor. I think they are doing the best job they can.

No longer do we get given a predetermined TG it is a case of pick your own . I wonder how this will work once the realFDS starts and things really crank up in temperature & jobs on the go? I have yet to here anyone that thinks the system is working better than it was?
Why do you say that it is a case of pick you own TG? You should be using your group TG for comms. Which should be run from either your station, or group base if the incident is significant. Large incidents should be moved on to a regional operations TG, or a Group Operations TG, this should be done by the IC, or IMT. If need be, request a TG to be allocated for the job.

How about all of you who are so busy and interested in berating the Comcen operators give them a break.

[chook]

I find the guys at Adl Fire totally professional, sure they don't answer radio or phone calls immediately - but may be they might be a bit busy at times. My understanding is some of your old comcen people are there now anyway. As far as preasigned talkgroups that is a CFS problem (its the way your service decided to set up your GRN's - we don't have that issue even though I'm not sure you guys understand that -
1918239 17:26:30 17-11-07 MFS: INC # 63 - 17/11/07 17:26,RESPOND To,BARMERA SES,BARMERA, MAP 0 A 0 ,,RESPOND WITH BOAT TO BRUNO BAY RAMP, MEET CFS THERE. TG 203,BMA029*CFSRES: SES Barmera
TG203 doesn't mean anything to us, we can't get it
Its not a perfect world, but its not that bad either so you will just have to get used to it. I know we have
cheers

[Comms]

Fireinthehole, I understand and fully agree with your concerns but your comments are ridiculous and this thread wont help.

Pre changeover SOC had 2 operators and MFS Comms had 2 officers and 4 operators. Comms still operate with 2+4 or 2+5 on day shift in Fire Danger season yet we now have a much larger workload. Are you aware when I'm on the CFS radio desk I'm monitoring 124, 093, 209, 062, 232, 007, 111, 115, 001, 154 plus any emergency activations on another 4 channels. If the MFS radio operator needs a short break I'll also operate 150. It is simply not possible for 1 person to conduct simultaneous radio comms on multiple channels.

The nature of the job means there can be no radio transimissions on any channels for long periods. I can't sit idle on the radio desk and watch as 000 and alerts calls wait. Yesterday I answered a 000 call and missed an urgent request for additional brigades to respond to Bute. Delayed radio responses are unacceptable, but so is the public being on hold when making an emergency call.

I don't feel we are providing a safe and proffesional service but it's more to do with a lack of CFS background, lack of training and insufficient manning. We are trying and learning and over time will improve.

Our shift is without a former CFS operator while he is on leave. That's making things even harder for us until he returns...

 

[RescueHazmat]

I got no problems.

I think people need to stop whinging on the internet when they don't actually really understand what is going on, and just like laying the blame game.

[mack]

My understanding is some of your old comcen people are there now anyway. As far as preasigned talkgroups that is a CFS problem (its the way your service decided to set up your GRN's - we don't have that issue even though I'm not sure you guys understand that -

chook, CFS GRN is setup with 2 GRN TGs for EVERY group in region one, and 1or2 dependant on which group in R2, then 1 each for every other group... (dont ask me why it differs who knows? i think its dependant on workload)

brigades shouldnt need someone to dictate which TG to use, they should know there own groups comms plan. the only times they may need to be told is when entering a differant groups area....

didnt anyone ever notice that SOCC merely told you to go to your own groups GRN TG for local incidents?

[chook]

Comms, don't beat yourself up man! If more brigades are required shouldn't group or region handle that?
Its the same as our guys expecting your commcen to handle our metro taskings when a storm happens sorry that is Bullfiltered.
When we need extra help we phone our neighbouring units simple!
Its only when we need help from other services do we bother you guys, until I can get all of the phone numbers that aren't Alerts .
All thats required is a new way of thinking, group & regional commcens taking responsibility of you guys - my understanding is you are only supposed to do initial call and dispatch then we are on our own.
As I said I find you guys courteous & professional an example to our own commcens - keep up the good work. cheers

[bittenyakka]

hey give the comms guys/gals a break remember you might not ber the only person in need.

last week we got told the TG used is the one of the group which has primary response as opposed to previously where it was whoever opens for comms first.

[chook]

Thanks Mack, when we talk units & you guys talk Groups we are talking the same when its to do with comms plans - each unit has a talkgroup assigned e.g. B23 is mine. Thats why I didn't understand the issue if we cross into anothers area we change to their TG its just a standard thing.
cheers for clearing that up.

[6739264]

A lot of the issues that seem to have appeared with the shift to comms, have more to do with idiotic volunteers who can't or don't want to get their head around the new system.

As someone who grew up only using the 'new' system of paging notification, I saw the SOCC pages as archaic and sub standard.

The issues to do with Adelaide Fire not answering calls has more to do with the operators having to get used to constant aural monitoring, rather than the old SAMFS system.

[Zippy]

The way i see it...if Incident command requires more resources at scene....it means the incident is too much for the current assignment, should be priority otherwise its gonna go well out of control.   000 calls are important YES...but ensuring success at incidents is also important.  It is a bit too much for the current system down at comm's but it certain is much better than it was in July, August. (except that day of 280 incidents  )

[bittenyakka]

well mabey the solution is to make it more simple to respond other stations out of  your station.

eg Piccadilly frequently responds to woodhouse scout cam AFAs with Stirling if one day that happens to be a going job chances are it would automatically be a 3rd if not greater alarm due to possible large numbers of people in the accommodation.

Now i can either call Adelaide fire on my GRN and request resources or  if a station is open call them on GRN and ask for resources and ther will probarly ring Adelaide fire and ask, both ways involving adeleide fire. how do i respond  more   trucks  without involving Adelaide fire?

[littlejohn]

I agree, in so far as I think the things have gone backwards - it often takes much longer to get hold of Adelaide Fire than it did SOCC, and at times pages coming out also seem to take some time.

However I wouldn't have a go at the commcen crew. I reckon there are too few of them, and they're doing the best with the resources provided.

fireinthehole, may I suggest you're either trolling, or you could be a bit more diplomatic in your posts. It would appear that you've not read the previous posts on this topic. It would pay to do a little research before posting.

[6739264]

how do i respond  more   trucks  without involving Adelaide fire?

You can't and you should never ever try to.

[littlejohn]

how do i respond  more   trucks  without involving Adelaide fire?

You can't and you should never ever try to.

That's the sort of answer I'd expect to 'How do I drive that concorde?'

All R5 GroupCC have airsource (all the ones I know do anyway), plus whatever you call the magic box (press a button = a 'respond to station' page for relevant brigade, covering each individual brigade in our group).

R5 office is able to page anyone in the region also.



Why post a false answer 6793264?

[safireservice]

how do i respond  more   trucks  without involving Adelaide fire?

You can't and you should never ever try to.

That's the sort of answer I'd expect to 'How do I drive that concorde?'

All R5 GroupCC have airsource (all the ones I know do anyway), plus whatever you call the magic box (press a button = a 'respond to station' page for relevant brigade, covering each individual brigade in our group).

R5 office is able to page anyone in the region also.



Why post a false answer 6793264?

True it is a false answer. We often use our decoder to respond other brigades in our group, nothing wrong with it (Or you wouldnt be able to do it if there was). On occasions when acknowledging the page(usually within the 1st 2mins) ive asked for other brigades to be responded only to have them responded some 8 mins after asking for them? Not good service delivery.

[6739264]

My apologies for the 'fake' answer. Head still stuck in R1 territory.

[mack]

Now i can either call Adelaide fire on my GRN and request resources or  if a station is open call them on GRN and ask for resources and ther will probarly ring Adelaide fire and ask, both ways involving adeleide fire. how do i respond  more   trucks  without involving Adelaide fire?

why would you bother doing it without involving adelaide fire?

part of the agreement is that they will respond resources as requested to incidents.... lets not turn one persons whinge/troll into another stupid thread...

[RescueHazmat]

http://www.safirefighter.com/boards/index.php?action=profile;u=161;sa=showPosts

Just look at the last 5 posts..

[SA Firey]

This has been a subject of much discussion and I believe the priority should be getting resources to an incident,rather than manning a radio.I can see many members getting jack of turning up just to do comms at the station,when there is a second appliance available to respond to your own area.

Oh well FDS is about to get a whole lot hotter.....under the collar

[Zippy]

I think Manually turning out brigades through pressing ya Alpha decoder buttons, is a solution...but it also confuses the filtered out of adelaide fire...because all the brigades logging mobile would not be entered into the IIR (inital incident report) through boms.  Its just easier for them to page out another amount of brigades and enter there status as they log through Regional channel.  Adelaide fire would then know what the filtered is happening.

Remember ur Attention Grabbing Pro-Words people    ATTENTION ATTENTION     "Attention Attention Adelaide Fire, this is so and so, priorty message for incident ###"..."we require further resources"...

Just respect the meaning of a "priority message", by not classing everything as one.

(side note: i could not believe how fast people were putting posts up in this thread..."4 people have posted, are you sure you want to post"...just as busy as  124 )

[RescueHazmat]

I would PMSL if I heard someone call up "Attention attention Adelaide Fire"..

I would only expect that for a PA dispatch.

If you have a Priority message, say so. Keep it to that, if everyone makes their own method of 'priority' style voice requests, it will just get messy, confusing, and sound very un-professional.