Saturday, November 03, 2012

Sandy Recovery NYC Area

I have been in the Brooklyn/Staten Island area for the last few days have have been monitoring some of the federal recovery efforts. Federal agency activity has started to increase on Saturday, with FEMA finally setting up some communications along with some DoD assets. Some FEMA communications were heard in the clear.

I have been monitoring mostly from the Ft. Wadsworth area on Staten Island. Ft. Wadsworth is the location of the US Coast Guard Sector New York. They have had numerous fly overs by USCG helicopters and have been landing some at the baseball field on Ft. Wadsworth. I've also been seeing many other military and other helicopters flying over the area over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

The National Guard and active duty military units have begun to arrive and are staging at various locations, one of which is Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn. I have not been able to confirm any military or National Guard communications yet, but the National Parks Police are very busy supporting operations in their areas.

Here is what has been busy:

-->
162.3250 N293 USCG NET 111 
164.3125
164.4000
N293
N001
USCG NET 115
USSS PAPA
165.1750 N225
165.2375 N301 DHS CBP DNET 1
166.0500 100.0 FORT WADSWORTH NPS OPERATIONS/SECURITY
166.3250 136.5 US PARK POLICE - NEW YORK AREA F1
167.7875  N653 FEDERAL I/O
168.9125 N935
169.7250 N824
169.8250 N225 NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, GATEWAY NATIONAL RECREATION AREA
173.6625 N167 FBI
345.0000 AM  USCG AIR OPERATIONS
406.3375 N482 USPS POSTAL INSPECTORS
407.6625 N421 FEMA
408.2000 N270 FEDERAL PROTECTIVE SERVICE
408.8625 N421 FEMA DMATS

UPDATE:
During the evening I heard multiple communications on 123.1 MHz from "AVIATION BASE". They were apparently directing inbound helicopters to landing and parking areas somewhere. There was mention of parking on a baseball field near a flight line. I thought it might have been at the old airfield at Floyd Bennett, but haven't been able to confirm that. Reports on Radio Reference have 242.2 MHz and 283.0 MHz being used by the National Guard helicopters operating in the area.

And I forgot to include in the list above the Red Cross frequency of 47.42 MHz, which I caught some transmissions Saturday.