Over the last few years I've seen reports of, and heard myself, some encrypted P-25 transmissions on 414.5625 MHz. Reports have come from Houston, Boston and Charlotte, NC of the same type traffic. The agency is unknown and traffic is, so far, entirely secure.
Initially the traffic reports had a P-25 NAC of N168 being heard, but lately the same frequency has been seen until N169 as well. Also have seen reports of what might be the same agency using 414.7500 MHz, also with a NAC of N169. 414.7500 MHz has traditionally been known as a US Postal Inspectors frequency and it is assigned to them nationwide. However, it is not an exclusive assignment. The various branches of the Department of Defense have some limited allocations of the same frequency, as well as the Bureau of Prisons.
My initial guess it might be one of the DoD Special Investigative agencies, or a DoD security detail of some sort. I have run into various DoD security details on various UHF channels over the years.
UPDATE:
I have been told by reliable sources that the frequency of 414.5625 does show some allocations to the US Postal Service in the Government Master File, but nothing else. So this could be some new assignment or some sort of special use by the Postal Inspectors. More as we find it!
THE FED FILES - Welcome to The Fed Files blog! This blog was originally built to support the "Fed Files" column in Monitoring Times magazine. Although the Fed Files, as well as Monitoring Times, ended with the December 2013 issue, this blog continues and is associated with the new federal monitoring column, Federal Wavelengths, in The Spectrum Monitor magazine. If you would like to make a comment, pass along a tip or frequency you can send it to my email address, chrisparris @ thefedfiles.com
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Thursday, May 17, 2012
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Chicago NATO Summit
The NATO Summit is getting cranked up this week in Chicago. The Summit occurs on May 20 & 21, but preparations are already underway. It should provide some interesting listening for those in the area. I have already started to receive some reports of testing on known Secret Service and other federal frequencies.
Here is a links to some information regarding the NATO Summit:
http://securechicago.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/NATOSecurityTransportationPlan.pdf
And a thread on Radio Reference that contains some good information:
http://forums.radioreference.com/chicago-metro-area-discussion/239345-up-coming-nato-communications-where-listen.html
UPDATE:
Just passing through Chicago today (5/15), changing planes @ ORD today and heard some testing on a couple of Secret Service channels in the clear. Person testing mentioned that it was a "Matrix test, 1, 2...".
5/17 - Hearing reports of "NATO" units on 166.7125 MHz. The frequency has been logged previously in Chicago as the North Chicago VAMC police.