Howard County operates on a Motorola type II Astro digital 800mhz trunked radio system. In addition, the county has retained one of it’s old VHF frequencies, which is used for station and voice pager alerting. Below is a brief overview of the channel plan used in Fire & Rescue radios.
For more information, head on over to RadioReference. You can also listen to Fire & Rescue live, courtesy of Savage VFC.
| Zone | Position | Alpha tag | Use |
| Main zone | |||
| A | 1 | FDSP | Dispatch |
| A | 2 | OPS 1 | Routine operations |
| A | 3 | OPS 2 | Secondary operations |
| A | 4 | HCGH | Howard County General notification |
| A | 5 | EVT 1 | Special events |
| A | 6 | BAT 1 | Routine communications |
| A | 7 | BAT 2 | Routine communications |
| A | 8 | EMKX | Emergency channel revert / Knox box release |
| A | 9 | NDP 1 | HCPD Northern dispatch |
| A | 10 | SDP 1 | HCPD Southern dispatch |
| A | 11 | FIOP 10 | Fire interop |
| A | 12 | FIOP 11 | Fire interop |
| A | 13 | FIOP 12 | Fire interop |
| A | 14 | RNS 1 | Regional interservice channel |
| A | 15 | RNS 2 | Regional interservice channel |
| A | 16 | FDSP | Dispatch |
| Incident 1 | |||
| B | 1 | FI10 | Fire incident 1-0 |
| B | 2 | FI11 | Fire incident 1-1 |
| B | 3 | FI12 | Fire incident 1-2 |
| B | 4 | FI13 | Fire incident 1-3 |
| B | 5 | WTR1 | Water supply |
| B | 6 | STG1 | Staging |
| B | 7 | ANN1 | Announce |
| B | 8 | EMKX | Emergency / Knox box |
| B | 9 | PI10 | Police incident 1-0 |
| B | 10 | PI17 | Police incident 1-7 |
| B | 11 | FIOP 10 | Fire interop |
| B | 12 | FIOP 11 | Fire interop |
| B | 13 | FIOP 12 | Fire interop |
| B | 14 | RNS 1 | Regional interservice channel |
| B | 15 | RNS 2 | Regional interservice channel |
| B | 16 | FI10 | Fire incident 1-0 |
| Incident 2 | |||
| C | 1 | FI20 | Fire incident 2-0 |
| C | 2 | FI21 | Fire incident 2-1 |
| C | 3 | FI22 | Fire incident 2-2 |
| C | 4 | FI23 | Fire incident 2-3 |
| C | 5 | WTR2 | Water supply |
| C | 6 | STG2 | Staging |
| C | 7 | ANN2 | Announce |
| C | 8 | EMKX | Emergency / Knox box |
| C | 9 | PI20 | Police incident 2-0 |
| C | 10 | PI27 | Police incident 2-7 |
| C | 11 | FIOP 10 | Fire interop |
| C | 12 | FIOP 11 | Fire interop |
| C | 13 | FIOP 12 | Fire interop |
| C | 14 | RNS 1 | Regional interservice channel |
| C | 15 | RNS 2 | Regional interservice channel |
| C | 16 | FI20 | Fire incident 2-0 |
| Incident 3 | |||
| D | 1 | FI30 | Fire incident 3-0 |
| D | 2 | FI31 | Fire incident 3-1 |
| D | 3 | FI32 | Fire incident 3-2 |
| D | 4 | FI33 | Fire incident 3-3 |
| D | 5 | WTR3 | Water supply |
| D | 6 | STG3 | Staging |
| D | 7 | ANN3 | Announce |
| D | 8 | EMKX | Emergency / Knox box |
| D | 9 | PI30 | Police incident 3-0 |
| D | 10 | PI37 | Police incident 3-7 |
| D | 11 | FIOP 10 | Fire interop |
| D | 12 | FIOP 11 | Fire interop |
| D | 13 | FIOP 12 | Fire interop |
| D | 14 | RNS 1 | Regional interservice channel |
| D | 15 | RNS 2 | Regional interservice channel |
| D | 16 | FI30 | Fire incident 3-0 |
| Hospitals 1 | |||
| E | 1 | EMRC | |
| E | 2 | MED 4 | |
| E | 3 | MED 8 | |
| E | 4 | HCGH | |
| E | 5 | EMRC | Montgomery County medical consult talkgroups |
| E | 6 | MED 6 | |
| E | 7 | MED 8 | |
| E | 8 | MGH | |
| E | 9 | HCH | |
| E | 10 | BLANK | |
| E | 11 | BLANK | |
| E | 12 | EMRC | Frederick County medical consult talkgroups |
| E | 13 | MED 4 | |
| E | 14 | MED 8 | |
| E | 15 | BLANK | |
| E | 16 | BLANK | |
| Hospitals 2 | |||
| F | 1 | EMRC | Carroll County medical consult talkgroups |
| F | 2 | MED 4 | |
| F | 3 | MED 8 | |
| F | 4 | BLANK | |
| F | 5 | EMRC | Baltimore County medical consult talkgroups |
| F | 6 | MED 4 | |
| F | 7 | MED 8 | |
| F | 8 | BLANK | |
| F | 9 | EMRC | Anne Arundel County medical consult talkgroups |
| F | 10 | MED 4 | |
| F | 11 | MED 8 | |
| F | 12 | BLANK | |
| F | 13 | EMRC | Baltimore City medical consult talkgroups |
| F | 14 | MED | |
| F | 15 | BLANK | |
| F | 16 | BLANK | |
| Administration | |||
| G | 1 | ADMN | Administration |
| G | 2 | SRST | Senior staff |
| G | 3 | OPS | Operations |
| G | 4 | CIT | Computers & Information Technology |
| G | 5 | SUSV | Services |
| G | 6 | LFSF | Life Safety |
| G | 7 | TRNG | Training |
| G | 8 | ARSN | Arson |
| G | 9 | FRAN | Fire/Rescue announce |
| G | 10 | VCHF | Volunteer chiefs |
| G | 11 | VOL 1 | Station 1 |
| G | 12 | VOL 2 | Station 2 |
| G | 13 | VOL 3 | Station 3 |
| G | 14 | VOL 4 | Station 4 |
| G | 15 | VOL 5 | Station 5 |
| G | 16 | VOL 6 | Station 6 |
| National & Regional Interoperability | |||
| O | 1 | 8CLL | 8 Call |
| O | 2 | 8TC 1 | 8 TAC 1 |
| O | 3 | 8TC 2 | 8 TAC 2 |
| O | 4 | 8TC 3 | 8 TAC 3 |
| O | 5 | 8TC 4 | 8 TAC 4 |
| O | 6 | RNS 1 | RINS 1 |
| O | 7 | RNS 2 | RINS 2 |
| O | 8 | RNS 3 | RINS 3 |
| O | 9 | RNS 4 | RINS 4 |
| O | 10 | RNS 5 | RINS 5 |
| O | 11 | RNS 6 | RINS 6 |
| O | 12 | BLANK | |
| O | 13 | BLANK | |
| O | 14 | BLANK | |
| O | 15 | BLANK | |
| O | 16 | 911 | 911 emergency talkgroup |
| Countywide Interoperability | |||
| S | 1 | 911 | 911 emergency talkgroup |
| S | 2 | CNY 1 | County wide 1 |
| S | 3 | CNY 2 | County wide 2 |
| S | 4 | CNY 3 | County wide 3 |
| S | 5 | EOC | Emergency operations center |
| S | 6 | COEX | County executive |
| S | 7 | BEEM | Board of Education emergency |
| S | 8 | DYN | |
| S | 9 | 8CLL | 8 Call |
| S | 10 | 8TC 1 | 8 TAC 1 |
| S | 11 | 8TC 2 | 8 TAC 2 |
| S | 12 | 8TC 3 | 8 TAC 3 |
| S | 13 | 8TC 4 | 8 TAC 4 |
| S | 14 | RNS 6 | RINS 6 |
| S | 15 | FLT 1 | |
| S | 16 | 911 | 911 emergency talkgroup |
