Albuquerque & Bernalillo County Fire/Rescue |
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 Albuquerque & Bernalillo County Fire/RescueAFR & BCFD (CAD) Dispatch - TAC - EMS - Interop Channels |
Public Safety
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Feed Notes
City of Albuquerque and Bernalillo County Fire/Rescue
This feed monitors the shared City of Albuquerque / Bernalillo County trunked radio system, a multi-site P25 simulcast system.
The feed is being broadcast with dedicated hardware from a dedicated computer. Alpha tags are shown when using an appropriate player or app.
If you are experiencing issues listening to the feed and feel the need to file a problem report, please include an email address if you'd like to be contacted regarding your issue.
** To ensure the best possible audio the feed computer is rebooted daily at 2 pm mountain time. **
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Listen on your mobile device with these excellent apps:
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Receive AFD dispatches in real time with the PulsePoint app for your Android or iOS device.
Albuquerque Fire Rescue - AFR now utilizes CAD (Computer Aided Dispatch) apart from AFR Alarm channel
- AFD Alarm
- AFD Tac 1 - Tac 9 *
- EMS 1 - EMS 4 *
AFD dispatches fire and rescue calls using the Medical Priority Dispatch / Advanced Medical Priority Dispatch system.
Bernalillo County Fire Rescue - BCFD now utilizes CAD (Computer Aided Dispatch) on Fire Control Channel
- BCFD Fire Control
- BCFD East Tac, West Tac, North Tac, South Tac *
BCFD does NOT use MPDS codes. Incidents are described in plain English with a response code assigned.
APD Area Command Map
Major cross streets and Zip codes
APD and BCSO Beats KMZ file for Google Earth
from https://www.cabq.gov/gis
Daily Police Incidents KML file
from https://data.cabq.gov/publicsafety/policeincidents/
Traffic Cameras and Road Conditions
Albuquerque Weather Conditions
New Mexico Search and Rescue Council
Key Ham Repeaters Map
SAR Frequencies
Social Media
@ABQPOLICE Twitter Account
APD Facebook Account
City of Albuquerque Social Media Directory
Local Media
KOAT
KOB-TV
KRQE
Albuquerque Journal
AFD/BCFD Response Level Codes:
- Alpha - Low Priority Response / Non life threatening. Typical examples would be a general non specific sick call with no complicating factors, citizen assist calls, smoke investigation.
- Bravo - Mid priority Response / Non threatening but intervention needed. Examples would be a car accident with all patients out and ambulatory, minor animal bites, intoxicated persons, small outside fires, alarm investigation w/ no confirmed fire.
- Charlie - Possible Threat to life or property. Examples would be diabetic episodes, sudden onset of severe pain, significant bleeding, sick calls with patient cardiac/stroke history, narcotics overdose, heavy smoke investigation.
- Delta - Immediate threat to life or property. Examples would be serious vehicle accidents w/ injuries, pedestrian/cyclist/motorcycle vs vehicle, shooting, stabbing, cardiac episodes, unconsciousness, ineffective breathing, confirmed structure fires, large outside fires.
- Echo - Imminent threat to life. Examples would be cardiac arrest, not currently breathing, CPR in progress, AED deployment, structure/vehicle fires with occupants trapped, water rescues.
- Omega - Low priority with other resources dispatched. Situations where other resources are more appropriate than a fire or rescue response.
APD operates two air units. Air 1 is a Eurocopter EC120B. They also operate a Cessna 182 for longer duration missions.
BCSO operates Metro 1, a Eurocopter AS350 B3. They also operate a UH1 that can be equipped for aerial firefighting operations and can be equipped with a rescue basket for retreiving injured hikers and the like. These capabilites are used frequently, particularly during the summer months when fires and stranded hikers are more common.
Whichever helicopter is up will handle both APD and BCSO calls and is also available to assist other nearby agencies. They can also talk directly to AFD/BCFD, and you'll hear them frequently providing aerial surveillance of fires or participating in search and rescue operations in the Sandia Mountains.
Code 1 - Non emergency response. No lights or sirens.
Code 3 - Emergency Response with lights and sirens.
Code 4 - All clear. Additional units responding can clear.
78 - EMS Quality Assurance Officer. A paramedic captain who plays a critical role in serious rescue or medical-related situations. On high profile calls, such as multiple casualty incidents, the QA officer may be dispatched to provide supervision and act as the incident commander.
Code 900 – Status check. At regular intervals or if an officer has not checked in for a period of time or keys the emergency button on their radio, dispatch will attempt to check in with the officer. If the dispatcher does not get an all safe reply, additional units will be sent to check on that officer. Only used by APD, other area agencies just ask for a status/well fare check.
AAS - Albuquerque Ambulance Service. The contracted ambulance provider for AFD. Responds with AFD on most rescue calls and handles patient transport duties. AAS units are referred to as "55" on the radio.
AIQ - Available In Quarters. Unit is in station and available for assignment.
ALS - Advanced Life Support unit. A fully equipped rescue unit staffed with paramedics.
AOR - Available On Radio. Used when a fire/rescue unit is in district and available for assignment but is not yet back in station.
ATL - Attempt to Locate.
BOLO - Be on The Lookout. A formal bulletin disseminated among area law enforcement agencies containing information on the subject(s) in the bulletin.
CAD - Computer Aided Dispatch. Every call for service is entered into this system and assigned a CAD number.
CP - Calling Party / Command Post. Dual meaning, when used in the context of a major incident, will refer to the Command Post that has been set up for that incident.
Dog pound - Nickname for the city fueling yard near Lomas and Wyoming. So named because it's next to the eastside animal shelter. If you hear a unit reporting they're out at the dog pound, it means they're making a fuel stop.
ETOH - A commonly heard code that you won't find on the MPDS chart. Etoh is the chemical abbreviation for ethanol and refers to a callout for an intoxicated individual, usually coded as a 23B1. It's also humorously used as an acronym for Extremely Trashed Or Hammered.
FI – Field Investigator. Crime scene/evidence techs. They have a radio code of 10-64 but it is rarely used.
Fire Box - A grid square reference system used by AFD to narrow a call down to a specific area. Does not appear to be published anywhere, so I'm unable to provide any maps.
Level 0 - Code used by Albuquerque Ambulance Service to indicate that they have no units currently available for calls.
Level 1 Stage - Apparatus should stage one block away in the direction of travel to incident and await assignment.
Level 2 Stage - Apparatus should stage a sufficient distance away to keep the scene from becoming congested. There will typically be a designated staging area for responding units with a staging officer assigned to manage it.
MATS - Bernalillo County Metropolitan Assessment and Treatment Services, a detox facility on Zuni just east of San Mateo. An alternative facility to the MDC for otherwise nonviolent drug and alcohol abusers. Also a frequent destination for E11/R11 as their station is just down the street.
MCI - Mass Casualty Incident. A low level MCI is 5-25 patients, a high level MCI is 25-100 patients. A "disaster" incident is more than 100 patients. Declaring an MCI activates a set of protocols that include setting up formal triage, minimum resources assigned, triggering automatic mutual aid responses, and putting area hospitals on alert.
MDC - Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center, The main detention facility serving the metro area. Located 20 miles west of downtown. It's the 39th largest jail in the country.
MDT / PDT - Mobile/Portable Data Terminal. The computers in the vehicles that are tied into the CAD system. AFD tends to call them MDT's, APD likes to call them PDT's.
NCIC - National Crime Information Center.
PAR - Personnel Accountability Report. Radio reports that are periodically requested by command during a fire incident to ensure that each crew is intact and all crew members are accounted for.
PSA - Police Service Aide. Civilian employees that assist officers on patrol with traffic accidents, traffic control, minor misdemeanors, taking reports, paperwork and other administrative duties, freeing up patrol officers to handle higher priority calls for service.
PTC - Prisoner Transport Center. A holding facility downtown where arrested individuals are brought for transfer to the MDC via dedicated transport vans. Avoids officers having to make the long trip to the MDC for prisoner transport. On busy nights, it often fills up, and you'll hear the dispatchers advise that the PTC is 10-7 (out of service). In that case, officers will drive them directly to the MDC or to an area substation.
Radio Standby - A fallback radio only operating mode and procedures if there's an issue with the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) systems.
RIT - Rapid Intervention Team. A go-team of firefighters at the ready to assist other firefighters in distress. They are not involved in normal fire fighting duties, but are staged in full gear ready to enter the fire structure if needed.
RP – Responsible Party.
RTC/RTCC - Real Time Crime Center. An information hub and data clearinghouse that is able to provide intel to officers in real time as they are responding to a call.
Signal 7 - Stolen vehicle.
TIC - Thermal Imaging Camera. You'll sometimes hear this asked for on fire calls. Used to check for additional fire spread within walls. Can also be used to sweep a scene to detect the heat signatures of potential undisocvered victims.
Q: The audio sounds distorted or garbled.
A: This is what a Provoice radio system sounds like. What you are hearing is highly compressed digital audio. It's clear enough to be understandable, but the quality is not going to blow you away. You're hearing it basically how it sounds in the field. The transmissions either come through or they completely fall apart. That's the nature of digital audio, there's no graceful falloff like analog audio.
The upsides to this system are efficient use of bandwidth, no static, and almost complete lack of background noise. The downside is somewhat poor audio quality, even in a best case scenario. There are also numerous radio dead zones across the area, particularly with county units in the more rural parts and APD units operating close to the mountains.
Q: Why can't I hear [insert agency here]?
A: The county trunked radio system is quite busy, so I carefully pick and choose what to broadcast to maximize available airtime. Some channels may violate the Feed Provider Terms of Service and cannot be broadcast. A particular agency may not be on the county radio system. If there is something not on the feed you would like to hear, feel free to contact me about it and I will explore the possibility of adding it or even starting a new feed if it's appropriate and something I'm able to receive from my location within the Albuquerque metro area. It's also entirely possible I may have goofed and locked out a legitimate talkgroup by accident.
Q: I'm not seeing any alpha tags
A: You'll need to be using an external player like Winamp, MPC, foobar2000, itunes, etc. to see them, you will not see them with the Broadcastify web player. Most mobile listening apps also support the tags. If you're using a supported player and still not seeing them, it's probably a problem on my end that needs to be fixed.
Q: There's no audio!
A: Sometimes stuff breaks. Software and computers freeze or crash, a cable gets accidently unplugged, my cat jumped on something important, etc. One time, my derpy dog got tangled up in a cable and pulled the entire computer off the desk in her frantic attempt to escape. From time to time there will also be brief outages to install any needed software updates or equipment updates. I usually try to inform listeners in advance of any planned outage with feed status messages and Twitter updates.
All of you fine listeners are pretty good at informing me of any problems and I can usually address them fairly quickly, typically remotely if the problem is just software related. Sometimes it will take a bit longer if it is hardware related and I'm not around to address it right away.