Federal Use of Analog

In the December Federal Wavelengths column, I mentioned that most federal law enforcement agencies still have a zone of their frequencies in analog mode available for their use. Many have it labeled as "WB" or wide-band.

This week, I received reports of one such use. The Drug Enforcement Administration has long been noted to still use their TAC channels in analog, especially when an airborne observer was part of the surveillance operations. The reports I have seen have analog surveillance ops going on, and some limited reports of DES encryption being used. 

So it might be good to set up some analog searches of federal channels some time!