7.5 Zones and Channels

Purpose

To ensure a consistent and standardised form of communication across SA, zones and channels are used for all radio communications.

Procedure

All SLS radios used by SLSSA use the following zone and channel assignment.

Zones

A zone is a collection of channels.

• Zone A – Normal patrol operations and includes the main channels used by SLS services
• Zone B – Manual selection of a repeater channel, usually only used at the direction of the State Operations Centre for troubleshooting
• Zone C – Surf Sports

Zone A is recommended for all SLSCs and services.

Channels

	ZONE A	ZONE B	ZONE C
Channel	Normal Patrol Operations	Manual Selection	Surf Sports
1	1 – Local	1 – Local	1 – Water Safety
2	2 – Local	2 – Local	2 – Administration
3	3 – Patrol	3 – Patrol	3 – Spare
4		4 – Metro	4 – Scan Carnival*
5		5 – Mid Coast North	5 – Scan Patrol*
6		6 – Mid Coast South
7		7 – South Coast
8		8 – Beachport
9		9 – Robe

Bold denotes repeater channels. All other channels are simplex (line of sight) channels.

*Limited to some Surf Sports radios

Channel Priority

The channels in Zones A and B are primarily for SLS operations. If there are no SLS operations occurring on the channels in these zones, they may be used for training in accordance with SOP 6.5 – Radio Training.

Temporary Change to Channel Usage in Chiton Rocks and Normanville Areas

In the Chiton Rocks and Normanville areas, Zone A – Channel 2 must be used as the main patrol channel.