CBP Operating Predator Drones

Reports are that the DHS Customs & Border Protection directorate are now using Predator B unmanned drones to keep the northern New York state border under surveillance. The full story can be seen here:
http://www.newswatch50.com/news/local/story/Homeland-Security-drone-patrolling-NNY/8ujqf9M2YkCXVlOmBVxFOg.cspx

Reports had been that the CBP had several of the drones available for their use, but never where they were being used. The story indicates that these drones are not permanently based in New York state, but are being used for training and evaluation.

Local scanner listeners should keep an ear out on normal VHF air traffic control frequencies, as the drone should announce it's location to surrounding air traffic, or it's presence should be announced in warnings by local ATC.

DTV Transition - Boon for Scanners?

Has anyone else noticed a marked improvement in scanning the federal bands since the turn-off of analog full power TV stations? In the last couple of weeks, I have traveled to New York City, Los Angeles and Tucson, AZ and noticed that both my Uniden radios and GRE/Radio Shack scanners are not getting clobbered by interference and images in the 162-174 MHz band like they used to.

Normally all of my newer P-25 capable scanner would exhibit lots of signal level on their S-meters while scanning through the VHF bands, even when no signal was being received. I've always believed that this was a result of the front end of the radio being overloaded from high levels of RF. But I also believe that the problem was a result of the scanners receiver design and not the TV stations. Problems from this overload included low sensitivity and images of the wide-band FM audio sub carrier on some VHF frequencies. These have all seemed to vanished since the analog transmitters have shut down. Even at my home listening post, where I have a direct, line-of-site view to all the TV stations in the Portland, OR area, things are very quiet across the VHF federal and UHF military air bands.

Upcoming Events - G20 in Pittsburgh

It was recently announced that they next meeting of the G20 Summit will be in Pittsburgh, PA on September 24th and 25th.

These summit meetings are usually great monitoring opportunities for not only federal agencies, but local and state agencies as well. These events also seem to attract the anarchists and professional protesters as well. Security will be tight for the meeting dates and the days leading up to them as well.

There are some very good folks monitoring things in the Pittsburgh area, so we'll see what comes up during this event.

NASA Glenn TRS On Line

The new UHF P-25 trunked system apparently is on the air at the John Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. This system is apparently going to replace the UHF EDACS trunked system that has been in use.



Reports I have received show this for current system information:
System ID - 258
WACN - BEE00
406.1500 MHz
406.7750 MHz
408.4250 MHz

USCG Using Federal I/O Channels

Recent reports are that the US Coast Guard has started using some of the new Federal Interoperability channels for their operations in the field.

Back in early 2008, the Coast Guard began using new narrow-band radios, capable of APCO P-25 digital mode as well as analog. When the new radios went on line, so did some new frequencies.

For many years, Coast Guard listeners were familiar with the "LANT" VHF FM land-mobile channels that some Coast Guard operations used. With the move to narrow-band radios some of these frequencies changed, and they are now referred to by "NET" numbers. Here is the most recent list of these new USCG NET channels, as published in the May 2008 Monitoring Times:
NET 01 139.9750
NET 02 140.4750
NET 03 140.7250
NET 04 141.6125
NET 05 150.7250
NET 06 141.5500
NET 07 150.3000
NET 08 162.0500
NET 09 162.1250
NET 10 162.2500
NET 11 162.3250
NET 12 163.0500
NET 13 163.1375
NET 14 164.3000
NET 15 164.3125
NET 16 164.5500
NET 17 164.5625
NET 18 164.9000
NET 19 164.9125
NET 20 165.2625
NET 21 165.3125
NET 22 165.3250
NET 23 165.3375
NET 24 166.1875
NET 25 167.9000
NET 26 168.8625
NET 27 171.2375
NET 28 172.3125
NET 50 172.0375 (Not Confirmed)
NET 51 165.4625 (Not Confirmed)
Note that in some areas, the NET numbers seem to have 100 added to them for APCO P-25 digital, so NET 1 would become NET 101 if they are digital. Unknown if this is standard through out the entire CG.

In addition to the new P-25 NETs, the new radios also contain the new VHF federal interoperability frequencies that have been made available to all federal agencies. There are two groups of VHF federal interop channels available in the CG radios and here they are:
VHF Law Enforcement (LE)
LE-A 167.0875 (simplex)
LE-1 167.0875
LE-2 167.2500
LE-3 167.7500
LE-4 168.1125
LE-5 168.4625
LE-6 167.2500 (simplex)
LE-7 167.7500 (simplex)
LE-8 168.1125 (simplex)
LE-9 168.4625 (simplex)

VHF Incident Response (IR)
IR-C 169.5375
IR-1 170.0125
IR-2 170.4125
IR-3 170.6875
IR-4 173.0375
IR-5 169.5375 (simplex)
IR-6 170.0125 (simplex)
IR-7 170.4125 (simplex)
IR-8 170.6875 (simplex)
IR-9 173.0375 (simplex)

So far, the Coast Guard has been heard using LE-A and LE-2 in some areas. The channel names for these interop frequencies have been changing often, so CG radios also have the 167.0875 MHz channel as LE-C for "LE Calling".

More can be found on these and other federal and non-federal interoperability frequencies in the National Interoperability Field Operations Guide that was mentioned in a previous blog posting. You can find the latest NIFOG download here:
http://www.dhhs.state.nc.us/dhsr/EMS/pdf/NIFOG.pdf

LEWC Information

After searching for new information about the Justice Department's Integrated Wireless Network (IWN) trunked system, I discovered that the new acronym in federal communication is LEWC, or Law Enforcement Wireless Communications. I've also seen some references to LEWN or Law Enforcement Wireless Network in some documents.

LEWC is a broad concept for federal LE communications, which still includes the IWN as part of the big picture. But they have apparently come to realize that the IWN is not going to happen soon enough to replace some of the conventional legacy communications systems in use by various federal aagencies.

Here is a link to the Justice Department's FY 2010 Performance Budget of LEWC. Inside the report are some interesting timetables and maps showing a proposed schedule for some of the new installations and possible IWN expansion:

http://www.usdoj.gov/jmd/2010justification/pdf/fy10-lewc.pdf

Declassify Federal Frequencies?

As part of their move towards "transparent" and open government, the White House has started asking for suggestions. One member of the FEDCOM list has submitted a proposal that asks for declassifying federal frequency assignments.

You can see his suggestion here:
http://opengov.ideascale.com/akira/dtd/2902-4049

You are able to vote on weather you agree or disagree with this suggestion on this page.

No idea if this will lead to anything, but it's an interesting idea.

Secret Service Requests Funding For Upgrades

Two news sources discuss budget requests by the Secret Service for upgrades to their IT systems:
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=7644369&page=1

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/05/secretservice/

Although both articles refer to problems with the USSS "communications" systems, a deeper read seems to indicate the problems exist with computer networks and information security.

In addition, there is congressional testimony that you can read here:
http://appropriations.house.gov/Witness_testimony/HS/Mark_Sullivan_03_25_09.pdf

There is some reference to incompatible "telecommunications" between the US Secret Service and the White House Communications Agency (WHCA), but again, I think it refers more towards computer network and phone communications.

FPS UPdates

I've recently received information that both Houston and Dallas Federal Protective Service radios have switched to new frequencies and are now P-25 digital. The Dallas FPS is reported to be using 410.8000 MHz, NAC 201. Houston is also on 410.8000 MHz, but no confirmation on the NAC yet (but I'll bet it's also 201). Input to these repeaters should be 419.8000 MHz, now following a standard 9 MHz repeater offset in the federal 406-420 MHz band.

NIFOG Update

The latest version of the National Interoperability Field Operations Guide (NIFOG) is available for download here:

http://www.dhhs.state.nc.us/dhsr/EMS/pdf/NIFOG.pdf

This guide is filled with useful information about interoperable communications, including frequencies and other good stuff. This version corrects some errors that were in the last version.

Shuttle EVA Communications

I have been asked about possible shuttle EVA communications frequencies that could be monitored while the shuttle Atlantis is overhead. Although you would need to be in just the right place, it is possible to catch some traffic from the space shuttle on their UHF frequencies.

296.8 MHz, 259.7 MHz and 279.0 MHz are the three UHF simplex frequencies that are used by the EVA astronauts while outside the shuttle. The shuttle communications system relays these frequencies down to earth via S-band, Ku-band or TDRSS links.

To the best of my knowledge, these are not encrypted and are AM. There was some reserch being done a few years ago about replacing the EVA radios with something new and possibly digital in the 400 MHz band, but I don't know where that project is currently (my NASA sources have moved on to other careers).

Here are some good links to the NASA web site that deal with shuttle EVA and flight communications:

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/technology/sts-newsref/sts-ovcomm.html

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/reference/shutref/orbiter/comm/orbcomm/uhf.html

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/reference/shutref/orbiter/eclss/emu.html

Swine Flu Frequencies?

Due to the recent news reports of possible Swine Flu threats in this country as well as Mexico and Canada, I have seen some requests on line for frequencies that might be in use by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) or the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS).

Although I doubt at this point there is going to be any radio traffic from these agencies related to the Swine flu, I will post the HHS frequencies that were featured in the March 2008 edition of the Fed Files.

Department of Health & Human Services (All frequencies are in MHz)

30.420
30.430
34.050
36.180
36.220
36.250
36.270
36.350
36.750
38.830
40.370
41.350
41.390
41.430 (Nationwide)
41.470 (Nationwide)
41.530 (Nationwide)
41.650 (Nationwide)
41.690 (Nationwide)
41.790 (Nationwide)
41.830

163.0000
163.0750
163.1750
163.2500 (Nationwide Medical Paging Allocation)
163.3000
163.3750
163.7000
164.3000 (Nationwide)
164.5250
164.7000
164.8000
164.9625
164.9875 (Nationwide)
165.0625
165.2625
165.3125
165.3375
166.1000
166.8250
168.0000
168.3250
168.5250
169.6250
170.1250
171.2375 (Nationwide – shared)
171.7250
172.3000
172.7750

407.7000 / 416.7000
408.0500 / 417.0500
409.0000 / 418.0000
410.0250 / 419.0250
410.2000 / 419.2000
410.2250 / 419.2250
410.4000 / 419.4000
410.4250 / 419.4250
411.2250 – Simplex
411.4500 – Simplex
411.8250 – Simplex
413.4500 – Simplex
413.8750 – Simplex
415.4000 / 406.4000
415.8250 / 406.8250
415.9250 / 406.9250
416.9750 / 407.9750
417.6500 / 408.6500
417.7000 / 408.7000
419.1500 / 410.1500
419.6000 / 410.6000
419.6250 / 410.6250
419.8000 / 410.8000

As for CDC frequencies, the only ones I have seen are used for security at their facility outside of Atlanta.

Also from the Fed Files column, here is an HHS mobile unit that was seen in the Chicago area. Note the mobile satellite system as well as the land-mobile radios.

Super Bowl Helicopters

In the May 2009 issue of Monitoring Times, the Fed Files column contains a wrap-up of active frequencies that were monitored at Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa. I mentioned in the column about spotting two mysterious helicopters that were stationed near the stadium in our designated "Emergency Evacuation" rally point next to the football stadium.

Unfortunately the space in the magazine did not allow for any photos of the mystery helos, so I decided to post them here. You should be able to click on the photos for a larger view.

And I did not get any closer photos and was unable to catch the N numbers off of the helicopters on the one trip they made around the stadium. They arrived in the dark and departed the Monday after the Super Bowl.

Federal Reserve Update

As has been reported over the past year or so, many of the Federal Reserve Branches have changed to some standard UHF channels, some still in analog, some in P-25. I recently received a report from a listener in the Richmond, VA area and reports these frequencies as being active:

410.4875 MHz, 131.8 pl - Security Operations
406.6625 MHz, 131.8 pl - Facilities and Maintenance
413.9250 MHz, CSQ - Paging

The security and maintenance repeaters are reported as using the new +9 MHz offset, now standard in the federal 406-420 MHz band.

Treasury Update - Los Angeles

A few weeks ago I asked about anyone hearing any traffic on some of the known Treasury channels. I've been working in Los Angeles for the last week or so, and found some significant activity on a common Treasury Department frequency.

165.9500 MHz, N009 was busy for several days this past week with some sort of surveillance operation. I got the feeling that there is another P-25 repeater on this frequency that I was not picking up well enough to decode. The repeater I was hearing well appears to be covering the downtown LA area. I was not able to confirm the input of 167.0000 MHz yet.

In addition to this frequency, I've found several VHF P-25 repeaters that may or may not be related, and will be posting those soon.

Federal Use of MotoTRBO?!?

Those who read the posts in the Radio Reference web site forums have no doubt noticed an increase in the number of posters asking about something called MotoTRBO. This is a new product line of XPR radios from Motorola that offers a proprietary digital format. An interesting description of the MotoTRBO system is available here:
http://www.danimex.com/Files/Billeder/2008/pdf/VHFUHF/motorola_mototrbo_system_planner.pdf

The new product line seems to have gotten popular with businesses, casinos, colleges and university security departments. Public safety agencies have started to utilize MotoTRBO equipment in some areas, which is a concern to scanner listeners as this digital format is not compatible with any scanners.

Now, I can report that it appears the MotoTRBO line of radios may be in use by a federal agency. The Portland VA Medical Center campus in Vancouver, Washington has been transmitting something on 409.4375 MHz that certainly sounds like the MotoTRBO sound samples available on the Internet. I have been hearing the signal for a couple of weeks now, but was finally able to confirm where it was coming from today. Here is a sample of what the MotoTRBO format sounds like on an analog scanner:
http://www.hamradio-dv.org/mototrbo/mototrbo-undecoded.wav.

This is interesting in that I was under the impression that federal agencies were strongly urged (if not required) to make all new radio purchases with APCO P-25 compatibility in mind. In fact any public safety agency that was hoping for federal grants to help with communications purchases was also urged to go with something that was P-25 compatible. So why the move towards the MotoTRBO radios? Price? Features? The fact that they can't be monitored?

Where Has Treasury Gone?

A lot of folks are wondering what has happened to radio traffic from the various bureaus of the Treasury Department, and particularly the IRS. In the March, 2007 Monitoring Times, I tried to answer that question.

Sometime in the late 1990’s many of the radio frequencies used by the IRS seemed to go silent. Looking back, this seemed to occur about the same time that various reforms in the IRS organization were signed in to law. The IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 may have changed what the various divisions of the IRS were responsible for and may have changed their radio communications needs. Shortly after these frequencies seemed to go silent, the Treasury Department also entered in to a plan to consolidate and restructure their radio communications system. They had originally started a pilot project to develop their own integrated wireless network, however they have since joined forces with the Justice Department’s IWN project.

But where are the Treasury and IRS communications today? The only thing I have actually confirmed as being active with the IRS lately is the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration or TIGTA, http://www.treas.gov/tigta/. TIGTA was created when the 1998 IRS Restructuring and Reform act was passed. TIGTA has two frequencies that they have been heard using. One is a repeater on 164.5375 MHz with 172.6375 MHz input and the other is also a repeater, but on 165.9500 MHz with 167.0000 MHz as the input. I have also received information, but not confirmed, that TIGTA may be using 165.3375 MHz as a tactical frequency. However, since the IWN trunked system has become active in the Portland, OR region, these frequences have been rarely heard.

I recently came across this report from the Treasury Department's Wireless Program Office. You can read the brief report here:
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/osmhome/spectrumreform/Spectrum_Progress_Reports_FY2008/Treasury_FY08_Progress_Report_Policy_Initiative.pdf. In this report, there is a clear indication that some agencies of the Treasury have moved to commercial cellular and mobile data communications systems rather than continue using federal land-mobile systems.

Treasury Department communications are out there, but they may have begun to shift frequencies, perhaps in anticipation of the future Integrated Wireless Network. So keep in mind that the Treasury and IRS communications could have moved. But here is a list of previously known Treasury frequencies, so check these out and see if anything is active in your area:

163.1250
164.1000
164.2500
164.5375
165.9125
165.9500
166.2000
166.4625 - TREASURY COMMON
166.5375
166.5875
166.9750
167.0000 - NATIONWIDE ASSIGNMENT
167.1000
167.1500
167.9750
172.6375
173.0250
173.8625
411.5250
411.5500
412.2250
414.3250
414.7000
414.9000 - NATIONWIDE ASSIGNMENT
415.0000 - NATIONWIDE ASSIGNMENT
415.1000 - NATIONWIDE ASSIGNMENT
415.4250
415.5500
415.7250 - NATIONWIDE ASSIGNMENT
415.8000
415.8750
416.8000 - NATIONWIDE ASSIGNMENT
417.6500
418.1000
418.1750 - NATIONWIDE ASSIGNMENT
418.2000 - NATIONWIDE ASSIGNMENT
418.2250 - NATIONWIDE ASSIGNMENT
418.2500 - NATIONWIDE ASSIGNMENT

More From Houston-Updated

Just getting ready to depart the Houston area from IAH, and found a few interesting items.

168.9250 MHz, 167.9 and 171.1750 MHz, 167.9 are both keying up with no audio, sometimes noise on the input side. Both frequencies appear to be repeater outputs, but 171.1750 MHz is giving me Close Call hits at IAH (George Bush Intercontinental Airport), so it's very near there.

Caught some simplex P-25 traffic on 414.5625 MHz, NAC 168. No idea who this might be as it was encrypted and I have nothing on this frequency being assigned to anyone.

And caught 169.3000 MHz, with a NAC of N009 several times. This is the TSA frequency that is normally used as an input to a repeater on 172.9000 MHz. However N009 appears to be used on this frequency in the simplex mode. First time I've caught this in use.

And while waiting in Terminal A for my flight, I heard an analog repeater key up with a noisy input on 172.9000 MHz, no PL tone. Yes, that is the TSA repeater frequency, but it was clearly getting keyed up in analog. The signal strength seemed to indicate that the repeater was not located at IAH, but probably near by.

Houston Federal Interop Testing

I was working in Houston, Texas this week and caught some testing of the federal interoperability repeaters.

On Thursday evening, I caught traffic from Houston FBI to various federal and state agencies on 170.7250 MHz and 171.4375 MHz. Both were using P-25 with a NAC of 653. The 170.7250 MHz channel is known as COMMAND and 171.4375 MHz is called PATCH. These same frequencies are used in other cities and are part of the DoJ 25-Cities Project.

I seem to recall some reports of these same two frequencies being used by the Houston FBI field office. When they use these repeaters, they called them L-1 and L-2, probably referring to the channel numbers on their radios.

More on Federal P-25 NAC

Since federal agencies have started using IMBE P-25 digital radios, and scanner listeners have had access to scanners that will display the P-25 NAC (Network Access Code), there has been an ongoing effort to discover any patterns to the use of any particular NACs by different federal agencies.

While much of federal radio traffic is enrypted, the identification of the user by the NAC can be a big help when finding new and encrypted frequencies.

So far, there have been only a few federal agencies that appear to be using a particular NAC for all their frequencies. Here is a list if what has been confirmed so far:

BATF uses N650, N651, N652 and N653.

DEA uses N156.

FBI often uses N167, but has been seen using other NAC's on their frequencies. Why is still a mystery.

SECRET SERVICE is using N001 on their simplex and repeater output channels, but so are other agencies (TSA, CBP Border Patrol).

STATE DEPARTMENT Security Service appears to be using N0F0.

It now appears that the US Postal Inspectors are using a common NAC on their new P-25 repeaters. That NAC is N482, so if you are serching around the federal UHF (406-420 MHz) band and come across an encrypted frequency using a NAC of 482, that will most likely be the Postal Inspectors.

More coming as we figure these things out...