The Fed Files Blog

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

Department of Agriculture Frequencies

Department of Agriculture

Because of the vast areas that the Department of Agriculture has responsibility over, it has a long history with radio. It started experimenting with wireless communications as far back as the early 1900’s with an early network covering eastern Arizona and western New Mexico. It wasn’t until 1931 that the Forest Service officially adopted an HF radio system for communications. That system used the frequencies of 3114 KHz, 3172 KHz, 3250 and 3286 KHz. Since the early days, the USDA has expanded its use of the federal spectrum to many frequencies in the 30 to 50 MHz, 162 to 174 MHz, and 406.1 to 420 MHz bands.

The USDA is divided into eight distinct mission areas:

*Farm Production and Conservation (FPAC)

FPAC Business Center

Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)

Risk Management Agency (RMA)

Farm Service Agency (FSA)

Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services (FNCS)

*Food and Nutrition Service (FNS)

Food Safety (FS)

*Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS)

Marketing and Regulatory Programs (MRP)

*Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS)

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)

Natural Resources and the Environment (NRE)

*Forest Service (FS)

Research, Education, and Economics (REE)

*National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS)

National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA)

Agricultural Research Service (ARS)

Economic Research Service (ERS)

Rural Development (RD)

*Rural Utilities Service (RUS)

Rural Housing Service (RHS)

Rural Business-Cooperative Service (RBS)

Trade and Foreign Agriculture Affairs (TFAA)

*Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS)

U.S. Forest Service

Probably one the most monitored agencies of the Department of Agriculture is the US Forest Service. The United States Forest Service is an agency under the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). They maintain responsibility for national forests and for fighting forest fires in many areas, not only on federal property, but also assist state and local agencies when fighting fires that threaten large areas.

As with the National Parks, U.S. Forests will often have several repeater sites set up to cover the large areas of the park, as well as some channels set aside for fire prevention and forest management operations. If you do some sleuthing on the Internet, you can sometimes find regional fire fighting guides for coordination of fire fighting communications. These guides are often updated yearly, and contain frequencies that are set aside for each federal forest or wildlife areas in case of wildfires. You can sometimes find them available for download, but in recent years, many have been stored behind password-protected web sites.

Most U.S. Forests are still using analog radio systems, but APCO P-25 digital is on the way. Here are the currently known U.S. Forest Service VHF and UHF frequency allocations. Give these a listen and see what comes up as active:

162.0250

162.2250

162.6125

163.0000

163.0500

163.1750

163.3750

163.5375

163.8375

163.8625

163.8875

163.9125

164.0250

164.1000

164.1250

164.1500

164.1750

164.3750

164.6000

164.6250

164.7000

164.8000

164.8250

164.9125

164.9250

164.9375

164.9625

164.9750

164.9875

165.0375

165.0875

165.2625

165.4125

165.5125

166.0000

166.1250

166.2000

166.2250

166.2500

166.3750

166.4875

166.5625

166.5750

166.5875

166.6750

166.9750

167.4500

168.0250

168.0500

168.0625

168.0750

168.0875

168.1000

168.1250

168.1500

168.1750

168.2000

168.3250

168.6000

168.6250

168.6375

168.6500

168.6750

168.7000

168.7125

168.7250

168.7375

168.7500

168.7625

168.7750

169.0250

169.0750

169.1000

169.1250

169.1375

169.1500

169.1625

169.1750

169.1875

169.2000

169.3250

169.4000

169.5500

169.5750

169.6000

169.6250

169.6750

169.7250

169.7750

169.8000

169.8750

169.8875

169.9000

169.9125

169.9250

169.9375

169.9500

169.9750

169.9875

170.0000

170.0500

170.1000

170.1250

170.1500

170.1750

170.3500

170.3750

170.4250

170.4375

170.4500

170.4625

170.4750

170.4875

170.5000

170.5125

170.5250

170.5375

170.5500

170.5750

170.6000

170.7000

170.7500

170.9750

171.1500

171.4250

171.4500

171.4750

171.5000

171.5250

171.5500

171.5750

171.6000

171.7000

171.9750

172.0750

172.2000

172.2250

172.2375

172.2500

172.2625

172.2750

172.2875

172.3000

172.3125

172.3250

172.3375

172.3500

172.3625

172.3750

172.3875

172.4000

172.4250

172.5000

173.0250

173.0500

173.3375

173.7625

173.7875

173.9125

173.9625

173.9875

406.2250

406.2500

406.2750

406.3000

406.3125

406.3250

406.3500

406.3750

406.4000

406.4250

406.4500

406.4750

406.4875

406.5000

406.5250

406.5500

406.5750

407.0125

407.5375

407.8500

408.6500

408.9000

409.1500

409.2250

409.6000

409.6500

409.7000

410.1500

410.2000

410.2750

410.4000

410.6500

410.7750

411.2250

411.2500

411.2750

411.3000

411.3125

411.3250

411.3500

411.3750

411.4000

411.4250

411.4500

411.4750

411.4875

411.5000

411.5250

411.5500

411.5750

411.9500

412.4000

412.6000

412.8000

413.9000

414.6500

415.2250

415.2500

415.2750

415.3000

415.3125

415.3250

415.3500

415.3750

415.4000

415.4250

415.4500

415.4750

415.4875

415.5000

415.5250

415.5500

415.5750

416.0125

416.5375

416.8500

417.6500

417.9000

418.1500

418.2250

418.6000

418.6500

418.7000

419.1500

419.2000

419.2750

419.4000

419.6500

419.7750

USDA OIG

Nearly every federal agency has an investigative over site unit called the Office of the Inspector General, or OIG. The OIG is responsible for many law enforcement and internal investigation of the parent agency and has armed agents that investigate criminal activities or malfeasance within the agency.

I have some frequencies that are used by the Department of Agriculture OIG. This group has a number of VHF frequencies allocated for their use. Here are some of the frequencies assigned for use by the OIG:

164.1375

166.1250

167.3500

167.3375

167.3625

167.3750

167.9750