Thursday, July 17, 2008

Big Apple Update



I got to spend a week in New York City for the MLB All Star Game and found a few interesting things...

First, while spending my days at Yankee Stadium, I did catch some near-field hits on some federal frequencies. The NYPD was obviously the primary agency for event security. Their primary on-site channel was NYPD TAC F, 485.4375 MHz and was a blast to listen to. Prior to the gates opening on Monday evening for the Home Run Derby, I spotted several law enforcement folks wearing FBI event credentials and carrying VHF Motorola XTS-5000 hand-held radios.

During the events on Monday and Tuesday evenings I caught some P-25 transmissions on 168.8250, 173.6625 and 165.9250 MHz. That last one is a new one to me, and it had traffic from the "Command Post" and various "Sierra" units doing radio checks. I believe it was coming from the stadium, as I was getting Close Calla & Signal Stalker hits on that frequency when it was active. And as a side note, I caught the NY Governor's security detail on 155.4600 MHz.

After the All Star events were finished and I was relaxing at our hotel, I started noticing some previously unheard P-25 frequencies popping up in my searches of the VHF federal band. Since the New York area listeners have been very helpful with my "unknowns" in the past, I thought I would post them and see if anyone else has identified them yet.

168.0750 - encrypted
168.2250 - clear, surveillance
168.3000 - encrypted
169.9250
170.7375
170.7875
171.6875
171.7250
172.3125
173.1125

All of these were APCO P-25 digital transmissions. Where I actually caught some traffic on these, I have noted. Some were just the transmitter being keyed up with no voice, so I couldn't tell if it was encrypted or not. At one point, many of these frequencies seemed to be transmitting around the same time, as if someone was testing various repeater sites. I also hear the same thing on some of the known FBI repeaters in the NYC area. Could these be related?

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