Station Call Signs

The units digits were left up to the the individual organizations to assign. SO: We have 'Station 320', which (300 series) is a city fire department, is located (20 series)in St. John, Kansas, and "Station" meaning the entire department. As the Chief I use '320' as a call sign without the "station" on it. Our 3 vehicles are designated '321','322', and '323', my assistant chief has '324', etc. Our Sheriff has the call of '101', our St. John City Police Chief has '120' as a call sign, with his partolmen using '121','122',and '123'. County Fire units would be 400 series, so our St. John County fire unit would be 'Station 420'. The County Fire Chief uses '401'. It seems to be a very good system and it is easy to identify various people and units when they are on the air just by their call sign even if you don't know them personally. I put this information in here as other small organizations may find this helpfull in setting up their own organizations. Prior to our setting our "new" call signs we used "Red 1", "Green 44","Tanker 2", or other various confusing call signs designated at the whim of the various leaders. This system works much better for everyone concerned.

Why we are Station 320! For some of our local folks, and anyone else interested, here is how our "Call Sign" numbering system in our county works. Many years ago when the county decided to go to the 911 system and utilize pagers to contact the various fire departments, ambulances, etc., we (all department heads) sat down and decided on a 3 digit code to represent all of the various departments. It works like this:

All law enforcement		100 series
All EMS services		200 series
All City Fire Depts		300 series
All County Fire Depts		400 series
Emergency Prepardness units		500 series
County Road Department		600 series

We then used the 10 series to further divide the above numbers to represent the various towns within our county. Thus..
00 series for		Stafford County departments
10 series for		City of Macksville, KS
20 series for		City of St. John, KS
30 series for		City of Hudson, KS
40 series for		City of Stafford, KS
50 series for		City of Radium, KS
60 series for		City of Zenith, KS
70 series for		City of Seward, KS

The units digits were left up to the the individual organizations to assign. SO: We have 'Station 320', which (300 series) is a city fire department, is located (20 series)in St. John, Kansas, and "Station" meaning the entire department. As the Chief I use '320' as a call sign without the "station" on it. Our 3 vehicles are designated '321','322', and '323', my assistant chief has '324', etc. Our Sheriff has the call of '101', our St. John City Police Chief has '120' as a call sign, with his partolmen using '121','122',and '123'. County Fire units would be 400 series, so our St. John County fire unit would be 'Station 420'. The County Fire Chief uses '401'. It seems to be a very good system and it is easy to identify various people and units when they are on the air just by their call sign even if you don't know them personally. I put this information in here as other small organizations may find this helpfull in setting up their own organizations. Prior to our setting our "new" call signs we used "Red 1", "Green 44","Tanker 2", or other various confusing call signs designated at the whim of the various leaders. This system works much better for everyone concerned.