BATFE Update

Just as the May issue of The Spectrum Monitor came out, with my column concerning the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), I received an update regarding the channel usage by this agency.

For as long as I've been listening to federal stuff, the ATF has always used 165.2875 MHz as their primary channel. However, with the eventual refarming of the VHF 162-174 MHz federal band to make a standard repeater offset (see the January Federal Wavelengths column for more information), this was bound to change. Information is that at least one major metro area, the ATF has already changed their primary repeater output to 170.9625 MHz, N650 with 165.2875 MHz as the input frequency. I have not run into this change in my travels yet, but will definitely keep an eye out for it.