Los Angeles BoP MDC

For a while I have been seeking information on the Los Angeles Metropolitan Detention Center, operated by the US Bureau of Prisons. I just stumbled on several P-25 voice channels and a Motorola trunked control channel that I think may be located at the LA MDC in downtown Los Angeles.

I think I have picked up this control channel on my last visit to LA, but the frequency is also used by the Camp Pendelton UHF trunked system, and I may have ignored it.

Still working on more system information but here is what I have so far:

Motorola Type II

System ID - ca0b

406.8125 - P25 voice

409.4125 - P25 voice

409.9500 - Control channel

Fed Files Contest Winner!

Congratulations to David Stearns of Overland Park, Kansas. He won the drawing for an original copy of Monitoring Times, volume 1, #4. That issue of MT featured a front page story about the NTIA classifying the federal frequency Master File.

Thanks to everyone who entered the Fed Files drawing. We'll do it again when we come up with another prize!

CBP Border Patrol Update

After my recent trip to Arizona, I decided to dust off my listings for the DHS Customs & Border Protection Border Patrol. The Border Patrol continues to use its legacy VHF frequencies that are in blocks assigned to the Justice Department.

Currently the CBP Border Patrol doesn’t have a national channel plan like some agencies, but assigns their frequencies as needed locally. Along both the northern and southern border areas (except for southern California), the 163 MHz frequencies are the “backbone” repeaters with multiple input frequencies, from the 162 MHz, 165 MHz and 168 MHz blocks of frequencies. These frequencies can be used as repeaters or “local” simplex frequencies as well.

In areas not near the US borders, the former US Immigration agents, now part of DHS as the Immigration and Customs Enforcement may use frequencies from these blocks for local use.

162.8250
162.8500
162.8750
162.9000
162.9250
162.9500
162.9750

163.0500
163.1000
163.3750
163.5500
163.6000
163.6250
163.6500
163.6625
163.6750
163.7000
163.7250
163.7500
163.7750
163.8250
163.8875
163.9625

164.0500
164.5500

165.8000
165.8250
165.8500
165.8625
165.8750
165.9000
165.9250
165.9750

166.5875
166.8500

168.3500
168.8000
168.8250
168.8500
168.8625
168.8750
168.9000
168.9250
168.9500
168.9750

170.3500
170.6250
170.6750
170.7000
170.7250
170.7375
170.7500
170.7750
170.8250
171.3125
171.7250
172.5250
173.6875
173.7750

Besides the frequencies listed above, most CBP Border Patrol units have access to the national CBP Customs radio nets listed in a previous blog entry:

http://mt-fedfiles.blogspot.com/2006/06/dhs-cbp-channel-lineup.html

Phoenix Federal Scanning

Just finishing up a weeks work in the Phoenix, Arizona area and found quite a bit of federal activity. Despite the use of encrypted P-25 in southern California Border Patrol activity, southern Arizona remains a mix of analog and DES encryption.

163.6500 DHS CBP DES

163.7750 123.0 DHS CBP BORDER PATROL

164.6000 100.0 DHS CBP

165.2375 100.0 DHS CBP NET 1

165.6375 P-25 TRUNKED SYSTEM 534 SITE 107- PRIMARY CC

166.3250 ?

166.7000 P-25 TRUNKED SYSTEM 534 SITE 107- ALTERNATE CC

167.6250 127.3 TONTO NF?

167.8250 P-25

168.9750 100.0 DHS CBP BORDER PATROL

169.4000 CSQ REPEATER - USFS?

169.4500 100.0 DHS CBP - DES

171.7500 123.0

172.8250 P-25 FAA PHOENIX

173.6875 123.0 DHS CBP BORDER PATROL

173.7125 P-25 ? ENC

173.8375 P-25 UNKNOWN - KEYS UP WITH NO VOICE

411.6750 ?

418.9500 156.7 DEA F6

The trunked sites listed are part of the Phoenix Metro P-25 800 MHz Public Safety system. They've been on the air for a couple of years now, but I don't know if anyone has actually heard them used yet.

Justice IWN Update - The Next Move?

As I have been reporting both on the Fed Files blog and in the Fed Files column in Monitoring Times, the Justice Integrated Wireless Network or IWN continues to grow and progress towards it's goal of being a nationwide digital trunked system for federal agencies. However, a recent audit of the systems shows there are some troubles for the IWN Project:

http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/reports/OBD/a0725/final.pdf

The above link contains some interesting information about the project and its use by various agencies so far.

The IWN expanded it's coverage from Washington State down in to Oregon and the Portland metro area in late 2006. It now appears to be in full use by Portland area federal agencies. We've been monitoring a LOT of activity on the system in the last month or so, almost 24/7. Several talk-groups on the system are showing the majority of the activity, but since the radios have been set up with the encryption selected automaticaly, I haven't heard any clear transmissions since the radio techs finished with their installation tests. But remember - systems are not encrypted, talk groups are not encrypted, but it is the individual radios that are encrypted.

So where will the IWN show up next? Information in the above referenced audit report confirms that the southwest US is the next region to start the build out. I am currently in the Phoenix area (more on that in another blog entry) and have noted there is a P-25 control channel on 165.6375 MHz. It is part of the Phoenix area P-25 trunked system that allows federal VHF users to tie directly in to the 800 MHz system without patches.

Here is some budget information for the IWN project:

http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/mgmt/e300-dhs-iwn2008.pdf

So keep a lookout for P-25 control channels showing up in the VHF federal band in your area!