The Charlotte Fire Department Communications Center moved to its present location on February 1st 1991.  Prior to that time it had been located on the second floor of the old fire station one located at 125 S. Davidson Street.  Before the move, the department received calls for service from not only the public telephone system but also from a code transmitted telegraph system consisting of manual pull boxes mounted on telephone poles and buildings.

This system which was manufactured by the Gamewell Company was maintained by the fire department and provided a direct method for reporting emergencies to the department. Because private and pay telephones were not as common then as they are now, the pull boxes gave citizens a method of calling for help in areas where a telephone may not be easy to locate.   The major drawback to the Gamewell system was that the Fire Dispatchers were in the blind when an alarm signal was received. They knew the location of the box that was activated but not the exact address of the incident, and only knew that help was needed, but not what type of emergency existed.  As a general rule most Gamewell activations were false alarms due to pranks or were malfunctions in the case of those boxes which were directly connected to business or factory fire alarm systems.  While the system was not perfect and is still used in many cities today, it was technology from the turn of the century and was in need of improvement.

     In 1979 with the advent of the 9-1-1 telephone system's introduction to Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, the Gamewell system was phased out as both private and pay telephones were quite commonplace.  The 9-1-1 system allowed a caller's telephone to be traced and locked-in if necessary to track down abusers of the system.  The 9-1-1 system greatly improved the citizens' access to the department and helped reduce the number of false or prank calls.  On the radio side, the department was utilizing five (5) 460 MHZ radio channels for dispatching and working fire department incidents.  All calls were dispatched on a single frequency main alarm channel and on dispatch, the responding companies were advised to switch to one of the four (4) remaining single frequency channels for the remainder of the call.  Each of these four frequencies were assigned to a specific geographic area of the city that was managed by a Deputy Fire Chief for that area.  Initially, the system worked quite well, but was designed for a coverage area that was the size Charlotte was in 1973.  By 1987, the radio system had been expanded and redesigned as much as was possible and other communication options were explored as the City continued to grow through annexation.

     In 1988 part of the new communications package involved upgrading of the 9-1-1 telephone system into an Enhanced 9-1-1 or E-911 system as it is called.   E-911 allowed a display of the callers telephone number as well as a second display of the callers number, name and address to be seen at the dispatching console.  Each Telecommunicator, (the employees also got a name change  as well) could now know where the caller was and have a printout of this information as a record .  This helped even more by identifying if the call was being placed from a coin phone or from within a business with a PBX system as it even showed the extension number the caller was talking from.  Because of this we saw an even further reduction in false or prank calls.  E-911 was the answer to a prayer for emergency telecommunicators.

     The department also realized that as the City grew through annexation, that the call load placed on telecommunicators would tax the handwritten card and time stamp method of dispatching currently being used.  In 1972 the annual number of dispatches was about 5,000 fire calls per year.  By 1987 the call load for both fire and EMS related incidents had climbed to   25,828 responses per year.  In 1988 the C.F.D. Communications Center placed online the departments first Computer Aided Dispatch or (CAD) system.  The system was linked to the City's main-frame computer by a fiber optic network which allowed near instantaneous data retrieval from the main data base.  Except for maintenance downtime, the CAD system all but eliminated the manual system for dispatching and tracking calls and companies.  The CAD system also allowed each telecommunicator to answer incoming calls, select and dispatch a departmental response independently from any other telecommunicator in the center.  This removed the bottleneck caused by the old style of dispatching and greatly improved the call load distribution.   At present, the Communications Center handles over 78,000 dispatches annually, a feat that could not be accomplished without our CAD system.  On June 4, 2003 we implemented a new CAD system – VisiCad by Tritech.  This new CAD enables us to automatically enter calls upon answering 911 through the 911 interface, send the closest unit via AVL – automatic vehicle locator, send the call information to the unit via on board computers, send the call information to a tear and run printer at the station, and plot the call on the map through mapping (VisiCad Explorer).  It gives us many different ways to perform functions such as move-ups, vehicle changes, status changes on vehicles, assigning vehicles to calls, etc. than we have ever had before.

      In the radio department, we moved into the next era of wireless communications when the City elected to buy into the County's new Motorola 800mhz trunked radio system in 1990.  This system, unlike single frequency radio systems, utilizes a computer which controls each individual radio on the system.  With a conventional radio system the blank spaces or unused carrier space between transmissions is wasted because only two radios can communicate on the channel at any one time. With the trunked 800 MHZ system each radio has it's own electronic serial number which identifies the radio to the control computer each time it is used on the system.  As spaces develop in the carrier of one of the 800 MHZ frequencies, the computer matches units which need to communicate with each other, and assigns them to the open space on that frequency.  As the two original radios on that frequency need to address the system again, the computer assigns them to the next blank or open space that is available on the system.  This rotation by the computer made scanning of any single radio conversation almost impossible but there have been scanners made that now allows this.  Also the rotation allows more communication to occur on fewer frequencies thereby allowing small systems to have more talk time on the 800 MHZ system than would be able to occur on a larger single frequency system, even with multiple channels.  Another feature of the trunked system is that each radio has an identifying number, which displays as an English language conversion at each console in the Communications Center. This feature greatly enhances the telecommunicators ability to track units during times of heavy call loads. While the 800 MHZ system does have limitations, it offers a greater range of telecommunications options and we will continue to stay in the forefront of technology.