Radio IDs

The radio ID is displayed beneath the talkgroup name

Every radio has a unique, eight-digit ID number that identifies your radio to BRICS and to the MARCS-IP statewide system of systems. Think of it like your radio’s telephone number.

When your radio is powered up and “affiliates” to the system, this number is what identifies you. You’ll see it on the screen of your portable beneath the name of the talkgroup. When other users transmit, their number will appear in the same location, like “caller ID”. Unfortunately, your portable and mobile radio does not translate this number to a name you might be familiar with.

Aliases as displayed on a dispatch console

At the communications center, the dispatch console does translate this number to a recognizable name, called an “alias”. All consoles at each center display this alias, which is translated from your ID number. When radio 00942391 transmits, the dispatcher sees “09 MED 25” on their console instead. This is also how the dispatcher identifies you following an emergency button activation. If, for some reason, there was no alias associated with your radio, the dispatcher would still receive the ID number.

It’s important to keep this alias up to date. Any time an employee resigns or changes assignments, don’t let the radio sit in a drawer! Submit an alias change support ticket so the system can be updated.

Learn more about how aliases are formatted.

Decoding the Radio ID Number

P25 radios are identified according to a statewide plan, using the first three digits of the eight digit ID to separate blocks. Butler County IDs are in the 00900000 to 00999999 range, because we are county 09. Warren County IDs, for instance, begin with 083.

Several parts of the radio ID can be decoded to determine the assignment of the radio:

The first three digits tell us from which county the radio originates.

The third and fourth digits indicate the particular agency or political subdivision with a two-digit code.

The remaining three digits identify the particular radio. Blocks within this three digit section divide the user disciplines (like law, fire/EMS) – more detail below.

The Technical Details

Based on P25 standards, radio IDs are 24 bits, allowing for over 16 million unique radios. In hexadecimal, the range is 1 to FFFFFF. In decimal, it is 1 to 16777215.

A multi-zone Motorola Astro 25 system may have up to 128,000 users. The IDs for those users may fall anywhere within the 16 million available IDs – they do not need to be sequential.

Essentially, each radio has an eight digit ID number. The highest possible number is:

The first digit can only ever be a 0 or a 1 so, in the state plan, it is normally zero. The prefixes or first three digits of “local” radios were then broken down by county, with 001 through 088. State / federal / other radios are using 089 through 167 according to the plan.

Radios based in Butler County must fall within the span of 00900000 and 00999999. This leaves the 4^th through 8^th digit for building a local ID scheme that makes sense for the logical management of radios and radio programming.

In Butler County, the 4^th and 5^th digits are used as a two-digit number assigned to political subdivisions and organizations using the radio system, similar to the original BRICS plan it was based upon. Butler County uses the last three digits (6^th through 8^th) to divide up radios within the political subdivision. Since nearly all Butler County agencies have fewer than 200 radios per agency or discipline, they are broken up as follows:

• 001 – 099: Consoles, Consolettes, Control Stations, Comm Center Radios
• 101 – 299: Law Enforcement
• 301 – 499: Fire / EMS
• 501 – 999: Public Works / Transportation / Other / Spill-over

Radio 00945301, for example, is a Butler County (009) City of Oxford (45) fire department user (301).

For agencies that have more than 200 radios (e.g. the BC Sheriff’s Office), BRICS staff assigned all of the 101 – 299 block and then used the 501 – 999 block.

Political Subdivision / Organization Code