Where the Break Room Author Works

This is only one of 24 CHP Communication Centers throughout the state; and a fairly small one. We have a staff allotment of 20 dispatchers, but of course, we're always under-staffed. You can get some information about the position from this place -- but you should know that the smaller CHP Comm Centers such as mine do NOT hire Communications Operator I -- we can only operate with COIIs. (The e-mail contact on that page is specifically for our second largest Comm Center, and is in the greater San Francisco Bay Area.)

This is one of our two radio consoles; as you can see, we do NOT have a CAD system at this Center; we still hand-write cards!

We DO have state-of-the-art PC-based "touch screen" radio consoles, though.

This particular radio console handles all of Monterey County (for the CHP jurisdiction). The map you see is actually the map for the other radio console; the map used by this position is out of the picture to the left.

The picture below and to the right features the other radio console (and its touch-screen use).

There are five separate ways to transmit: foot pedal, small desktop control, mouse for "move and click" on the screen, "instant transmit" by touching a module on the screen, and a "push-to-talk" button on the base of the micro-processor under the monitor.

The CHP uses a duplex radio system; each "channel" consists of two separate frequencies. One is for station-to-unit and the other is for unit-to-station, which means the field units can still talk to to us while we are also broadcasting information to them. (It takes some getting used to!)

Since we cover a great deal of territory, we have a LOT of repeater sites; we have to be able to select the most appropriate one to reach units in particular geographic locations.

Click here for some more photos of the Comm Center.