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Console IDs and radio IDs

Dispatch desks are gone

Until October 2026 a dispatcher signed on at a named desk, and the desk decided which channels the board carried and what it idented as. Now every channel except car-to-car is on every console (see Channels and radios), each dispatcher chooses which zones their own board shows, and the console ID belongs to the dispatcher. Borrowing a channel a desk did not carry went with them: there is nothing left to borrow.

Console IDs

A console ID is what a dispatcher's board idents as when they key up from the console: DISP1, FIRE2. It is set on People, on the dispatcher's own line, beside their radio ID. The field is offered for owners, admins and dispatchers, the roles that can open a console.

From the console, a dispatcher with a console ID idents as their name and that ID: Sam Reyes · DISP1. Without one, they ident as their name and radio ID, like anybody else.

Radio IDs

Every member gets a numeric radio ID: the PTT ID a console prints when they key up.

Real radios ident themselves before the first word: MDC-1200 sends a four-digit unit ID as a data burst on key-up, and P25 puts a source ID in every voice frame. A dispatcher reads an ID at least as often as they recognize a voice.

  • IDs are allocated automatically the first time somebody gets on the air. A community that configures nothing still gets sensible, stable IDs, and nobody has to fill this in for the radio to work.
  • Edit one on People, on that member's own line.
  • Nothing renumbers anybody. A number that moved would rewrite who the comms log says was talking.
  • An alias overrides what the console prints beside the ID. Left blank, it falls back to the CAD unit callsign (in a linked community) and then to the account name.
  • Admins hold the same capability (manage_identities) and can edit callsigns from the console's On the net roster; click a callsign there and retype it. Dispatchers cannot.

Who may change their own number, and the range they may pick from, is under People → Radio ID rules.

What the board shows on key-up

  • A field unit idents as callsign and ID: 3A-12 · 1401.
  • A dispatcher at the console idents as their name and console ID: Sam Reyes · DISP1.