Boulder County Radio Frequency List

Adequate communications on a scene continues to be one of the more difficult aspects of the incident management process. If we are to progress towards that goal, we need to ensure that the frequencies that are designated by the incident communications plan are available to the field units. Boulder County needs to designate a minimum set of frequencies that will be in every hand held radio.

It is strongly suggested that your agency contact any agencies that you provide mutual aid to or work with on a regular basis and coordinate the use of any other frequencies (privately licensed frequencies, etc.) that may be commonly used in scene management.

The frequencies marked with an asterisk are not licensed through BRCC and as such they are only to be used in an emergency situation. Use in a non-emergency situation can constitute a violation of FCC and NTIA regulations, and will violate the provisions of the Boulder County Annual Operating Plan, endangering the use of those frequencies for all non-licensed agencies. Any violation of the emergency use only rule will be treated as a very serious matter.

It is highly recommended that, in addition to NiCad batteries, each Bendix/King hand held radio have a AA alkaline battery "clam shell" and other hand held radios have disposable alkaline batteries, if available. Your hand held radio becomes useless when the NiCad battery dies 15 minutes into an incident.

The following frequencies should be mandatory on all hand held radios.

Vehicle radios should contain all of the above frequencies. If your agency has older radios that will not accept all of these frequencies, the following prioritization should be used; Red 1, Red 3, FERN 1, FERN 2, FERN 3, Red 2 (Red 4 cannot be used in vehicle radios).

The Roosevelt Work frequency should be considered mandatory for all mountain departments or any agencies that respond to USFS fires. Air Tactical should be considered mandatory for all mountain department command officer radios.

The following frequencies are optional frequencies that may be useful.