INTRODUCTION 3
PURPOSE 3
SUMMARY 3
OPERATIONAL INFORMATION 3
FCC RULES AND REGULATIONS 3
2. Station Identification 4
3. Operator Requirements 4
OPERATING PRACTICES 5
1. Equipment Familiarization 5
2. Communications Skills 5
RADIO THEORY 7
1. Land Mobile Radio Frequency Bands 7
2. VHF Low Band 7
3. VHF High Band 8
4. UHF BAND 8
5. 700 MHz Band 8
6. 800 MHz Band 9
RADIO FREQUENCY INTERFERENCE 9
1. Co-Channel Interference 9
2. Receiver Desensitization 9
3. Transmitter Noise 10
4. Intermodulation Interference 10
5. Equipment and Interference Rejection 10
CONCEPTS OF EMS COMMUNICATIONS 11
1. General 11
2. Citizen Access 11
3. Vehicle Dispatch and Response (VDR) 11
4. Automatic Vehicle Location 11
5. Crew Alert Paging 11
6. Local Medical Coordination (LMC) 12
7. Statewide Medical Coordination (SMC) 12
8. On-Scene Coordination (OSC) 12
9. Medical Resource Coordination (MRC) 12
CALIFORNIA EMS ALLOCATIONS 13
GENERAL 13
INTRODUCTION TO TABLES 13
1. Radio Channel Information 13
2. Emergency Department Information 15
3. EMS Provider 15
Alameda County EMS Agency 16
Contra Costa County EMS Agency 19
El Dorado County EMS Agency 22
Central California EMS Agency 24
Coastal Valleys EMS Agency 29
Imperial County EMS Agency 33
Inland County EMS Agency 35
Kern County EMS Agency 41
Los Angeles County EMS Agency 44
Marin County EMS Agency 55
Merced County EMS Agency 57
Monterey County EMS Agency 59
Mountain Valley EMS Agency 63
North Coast EMS Agency 72
Northern California EMS Agency 76
Orange County EMS Agency 84
Riverside County EMS Agency 89
Sacramento County EMS Agency 93
San Benito County EMS Agency 98
San Diego County EMS Agency 99
103
San Francisco City and County EMS Agency 104
San Joaquin County EMS Agency 108
San Luis Obispo County EMS Agency 111
San Mateo County EMS Agency 113
115
Santa Barbara County EMS Agency 116
Santa Clara County EMS Agency 119
Santa Cruz County EMS Agency 123
Sierra-Sacramento Valley EMS Agency 125
Solano County EMS Agency 130
Tuolumne County EMS Agency 132
Ventura County EMS Agency 134
FCC CODES AND NAMES OF RADIO SERVICES 140
GLOSSARY 141
ADDENDUM 170
This Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Operations and Communications Resource Manual has been developed by the State of California Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMS Authority) primarily as an operational manual to be available to all local EMS agencies. It contains useful information for EMS operations, as well as provides the data necessary to enable radio communications during transport operations within the state.
The Operational Information section of this manual contains requirements of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules relating to communications operations, information on standard operating practices, discussion of the various radio frequency bands, and an explanation of primary sources of interference which can disrupt normal communications, as well as a definition of the concepts involved in EMS communications.