page_title: German fire services
section_title: Radios
hierarchical_section_title: German fire services / Dispatching and alerting / Radios
context_page_description: The Feuerwehr is a number of German fire departments. The responsible bodies for operating and equipping fire departments are the German communities and cities. By law, they are required to operate fire-fighting forces. In cities, this is usually performed by the Fire Prevention Bureau, one of the higher-ranking authorities.
  There are three kinds of recruiting firefighters in Germany: the predominant number of Germany's 1,383,730 firefighters are members of voluntary fire brigades, a lesser number working in professional fire brigades and at least the drafted members of a Compulsory Fire Service, established just in a few places nationwide.
  Professional fire brigades are usually operated as
  Berufsfeuerwehr of a municipal body counting over 100,000 citizens, such as the city of Berlin as a full-time city department
  Werkfeuerwehr of a larger company, for the needs of the company operating them by law e.g. refineries or chemical industry production facilities
  Betriebsfeuerwehr of a larger company, that does not need to run a Werkfeuerwehr by law, but if it is required for the insurance coverage
context_section_description: German fire brigades all use two-way FM radio to coordinate their efforts. The German emergency currently use the so-called "BOS-Band" (BOS means Behörden und Organisationen mit Sicherheitsaufgaben, "authorities and organisations with security duties"), channels located in the 4-metre and 2-metre bands with a frequency range from 74.215 to 87.255 MHz (4m/base stations) and from 167.56 to 173.98 MHz (2m/portable radios).  There were plans to implement digitally scrambled trunked radio systems (a nationwide TETRA-based  system) located in many German cities by 2010.  This process was delayed in many cities due to either financial constraints (expenses due to setting up a whole new infrastructure and replacing numerous 4-meter base stations/mobile radios and 2-meter portable radios) or legislative delays.  The city of Aachen began testing a TETRA-based system in 2001 and has implemented it since 2003 after completion of the pilot project ,. 
  An enormous advantage of the German BOS Radio System is that virtually every helping organisation in Germany like police, Rescue Services, THW, life-guard and fire brigades are using the same system in different channels so they can easily switch and communicate.
  Typically, 4-meter-radios ,, are used by dispatch centres and on vehicles, whereas 2-metre-radios are handheld Handie-Talkies ,,, for tactical communication on scene.  Unlike in the US, 2-meter portable radios are normally only used for fireground/tactical communications and not for direct contact with the dispatch centre.  If direct communication is required, the engineer of the first-in engine will relay all messages directly to the dispatch center via the 4-meter radio on the engine.  However, a dispatch center can monitor and if necessary respond on a (non-)repeatered 2-metre tactical channel.  In most cases, German tactical channels are not used with a repeater.
  In bigger areas, there is usually a number of relay stations/repeaters in place which repeat the signal, giving it more range and quality.
caption: German firefighters during an exercise
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