US Capitol Police Trunked System On The Air

I just started monitoring the new US Capitol Police VHF P-25 trunked system that should replace the analog VHF conventional channels that are currently in use.

Here is what the system that is on the air is showing for details at this time:
SYS ID - 582
SITE NAC - N580
SITE - 001
WACN - BEE00

173.1625
173.8125
173.4750
170.5750

No affiliations or channel grants are being shown right now, as previous new reports were that the system is on line for coverage testing.

Coast Guard Data Bursts?

I have recently seen complaints from multiple locations about hearing some sort of digital noise or interference on the Coast Guard primary air operations frequency of 345.0 MHz. I thought I was not hearing it myself, but I set up one of my tunable wide-band receivers on this frequency and did hear it clearly when I opened the receiver squelch all the way.

What I am hearing is a series of short bursts  of noise, almost like a burst of machine gun fire. The length seems to be from 4 to 6 "bursts" in a group, although some have been two groups of 4 or more in a row. I can also heard weaker stations followed by bursts from stronger stations. Sometimes the bursts are at a moderate tempo, and some seem to be very rapid compared to others.

Here are some short clips of what I heard. Turn the volume up when watching these:

At first I wasn't sure if these noises were intentional or just some form of interference, but after  hearing them and listening to the patterns, I am guessing they are intentional usage of the frequency by the Coast Guard. As to what this is used for and why they are using this frequency remains a mystery. Anyone want to guess at what's going on here?

State Department 409.5250 MHz Work in LA

While in the Inland Empire near LA, I caught someone doing some work on the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) repeater on 409.5250 MHz, N293. Besides a test tone, they were looping a test audio track of a man and a woman reading sentences that test the readability and the quality of the digital encoding & decoding. You can hear some of the errors that occurred while I was monitoring.

Eventually it sounded like they got the errors to a minimum, at least by listening to the audio tests. This went on over a couple of days this past week.

Monitoring Times Final Issue

The last ever issue of Monitoring Times magazine has hit the streets today. Farewell old friend, it was a great ride!

US Capitol Police Begin Testing of New Radio System

According to this article, the US Capitol Police are beginning testing of their new radio system:

http://www.rollcall.com/news/capitol_police_begin_testing_long_delayed_radio_upgrade-228775-1.html

The article states that they are testing system coverage of portable radios in each room of the Capitol building.

The system was planned to be a P25 VHF trunked system, with encryption being likely. Here is what information we have for frequencies from the original proposals of the trunked system. This list shows proposed trunked system channel, repeater transmit frequency & input frequency;
 
1 - 169.5750 / 162.2500
2 - 169.8375 / 162.6125
3 - 170.1375 / 162.8000
4 - 170.3750 / 163.1625
5 - 170.5750 / 163.6000
6 - 171.0000 / 164.0125
7 - 171.4125 / 164.3250
8 - 171.7875 / 164.6125
9 - 172.3875 / 164.8125
10 - 172.6875 / 165.0375
11 - 172.9625 / 165.5375
12 - 173.1625 / 165.7750
13 - 173.4750 / 166.2250
14 - 173.8125 / 166.4250

Details of this new system (System ID, WACN, NAC, etc.) are still waiting to make it to the radio forums, but I will update when information becomes available.

NOAA Weather Transmitter Causing Interference

According to this release from NOAA, the New York City area weather transmitter seems to be causing some interference issues with the Coast Guard:

NOUS41 KOKX 041949
PNSOKX
CTZ005>012-NJZ002-004-006-103>108-NYZ067>075-078>081-176>179-092100-

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW YORK NY
345 PM EDT FRI OCT 4 2013

...NOAA WEATHER RADIO NEW YORK CITY REMAINS OUT OF SERVICE...

THE NOAA WEATHER RADIO TRANSMITTER THAT SERVES THE NEW YORK CITY
METROPOLITAN AREA HAS BEEN CAUSING RADIO FREQUENCY INTERFERENCE ON
THE U.S. COAST GUARD CHANNEL 16 TRANSMITTER FOR INTERNATIONAL
DISTRESS...SAFETY AND CALLING SINCE LATE JULY.

THE NEW YORK CITY TRANSMITTER BROADCASTS ON A FREQUENCY OF 162.550
MHZ AND THE U.S.COAST GUARD TRANSMITTER BROADCASTS ON A FREQUENCY OF
156.800 MHZ. OTHER TRANSMITTERS...IN VERY CLOSE PROXIMITY TO THE NYC
TRANSMITTER BROADCAST ON A FREQUENCY OF 168.3 MHZ.

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IS WORKING WITH SEVERAL U.S. GOVERNMENT
AGENCIES TO ISOLATE AND RESOLVE THIS TECHNICAL PROBLEM. WE HAVE
INSTALLED A FILTER ON THE NYC TRANSMITTER...WHICH REDUCED...BUT DID
NOT ELIMINATE THIS PROBLEM. WE WORKED WITH ANOTHER FEDERAL AGENCY
AND OVERSAW THE INSTALLATION OF ANOTHER FILTER...ON A TRANSMITTER
BROADCASTING OVER 168.3 MHZ...WHICH DID NOT FURTHER REDUCE THE RADIO
FREQUENCY INTERFERENCE.

WE CONTINUE TO WORK WITH THE U.S. COAST GUARD TO RESOLVE THIS
PROBLEM AND APOLOGIZE FOR THE INTERRUPTION OF OUR ROUTINE WEATHER
BROADCASTS.


...NOAA WEATHER RADIO WILL BE PLACED IN OPERATION TO BROADCAST 
SHORT FUSE LIFE THREATENING WEATHER WATCHES AND WARNINGS...

NOTE THAT THE NYC TRANSMITTER WILL BE PLACED IN OPERATION FOR THE
ISSUANCE OF SHORT FUSE LIFE THREATENING WEATHER WATCHES AND
WARNINGS...SUCH AS TORNADO...SEVERE THUNDERSTORM AND FLASH FLOOD
WATCHES AND WARNINGS...TO ENSURE DISSEMINATION THROUGH THE EMERGENCY
ALERT SYSTEM...WHICH IS CARRIED BY THE BROADCAST MEDIA.

THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE AND FOR LISTENING TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO.

WE WILL PERIODICALLY PROVIDE YOU WITH UPDATES ON THE STATUS OF THE
NEW YORK CITY NOAA WEATHER RADIO TRANSMITTER VIA THESE PUBLIC
INFORMATION STATEMENTS.

$$
GC

The 168.3000 MHz transmitter mentioned in this release is an FBI P25 repeater. It appears that the mixing between the FBI repeater and the NWS broadcasts are causing interference issues on marine channel 16. Various filtering solutions have apparently not solved the problem.

Boulder, CO Area Trunked Systems

I recently found myself with some spare time and a rental car in the northwest part of Denver. I decided to cruise up and see what I could find active in the federal bands.

There are a more than a few federal facilities in the Denver area, and in the Boulder area, the Department of Commerce has multiple facilities for NOAA and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

I came across at least 3 VHF and UHF trunked sites that may be related to NIST and Department of Commerce agencies in the area. The first was a P-25 VHF trunked system using the System ID of AD5, and here are the details:

System ID             : AD5
WACN                  : BEE07
Tower Number (Decimal): 2-1
Tower Number (Hex)    : T0201
Control Capabilities  : Data,Voice,Registration
Timestamp             : Sat Oct 19 09:36:45 2013

-Tables
#Format: Table ID,Base Freq,Spacing,Input Offset,Assumed/Confirmed,BandWidth,Slots
00,162.00000,0.01250,-6.97500,"Confirmed",0.01250,1
01,162.00000,0.01250,-8.77500,"Confirmed",0.01250,1
02,162.00000,0.01250,-1.06250,"Confirmed",0.01250,1
03,162.00000,0.01250,-8.80000,"Confirmed",0.01250,1
04,162.00000,0.01250,-4.60000,"Confirmed",0.01250,1
05,162.00000,0.01250,-5.68750,"Confirmed",0.01250,1

-Frequencies
#Format: Channel,Usage,Frequency(/Slot),Input Channel,Input Frequency(/Slot),Input Explicit(1/0),Hit Count
"01-0807","c",172.08750,"01-0807",163.31250,0,0

-Neighbors
#Format: TowerID,TowerIDHex,System ID,Channel,Frequency,Tower Name
202,"T0202",ad5,"03-0808",172.10000

System ID             : AD5
WACN                  : BEE07
Tower Number (Decimal): 2-2
Tower Number (Hex)    : T0202
Control Capabilities  : Data,Voice,Registration
Timestamp             : Sat Oct 19 09:38:13 2013

-Tables
#Format: Table ID,Base Freq,Spacing,Input Offset,Assumed/Confirmed,BandWidth,Slots
00,162.00000,0.01250,-6.97500,"Confirmed",0.01250,1
01,162.00000,0.01250,-8.77500,"Confirmed",0.01250,1
02,162.00000,0.01250,-1.06250,"Confirmed",0.01250,1
03,162.00000,0.01250,-8.80000,"Confirmed",0.01250,1
04,162.00000,0.01250,-4.60000,"Confirmed",0.01250,1
05,162.00000,0.01250,-5.68750,"Confirmed",0.01250,1

-Frequencies
#Format: Channel,Usage,Frequency(/Slot),Input Channel,Input Frequency(/Slot),Input Explicit(1/0),Hit Count
"03-0808","c",172.10000,"03-0808",163.30000,0,0

-Neighbors
#Format: TowerID,TowerIDHex,System ID,Channel,Frequency,Tower Name
201,"T0201",ad5,"01-0807",172.08750

As you can see from the above PRO96COM files, there are two VHF sites that show each other as neighbors. I could copy both from the Boulder area. In addition to these two VHF sites, there was a UHF site using the same System ID, but showing no connection to the VHF sites;

System ID             : AD5
WACN                  : BEE07
Tower Number (Decimal): 3-3
Tower Number (Hex)    : T0303
Control Capabilities  : Data,Voice,Registration
Timestamp             : Sat Oct 19 10:50:26 2013

-Tables
#Format: Table ID,Base Freq,Spacing,Input Offset,Assumed/Confirmed,BandWidth,Slots
00,400.00000,0.01250,9.00000,"Confirmed",0.01250,1

-Frequencies
#Format: Channel,Usage,Frequency(/Slot),Input Channel,Input Frequency(/Slot),Input Explicit(1/0),Hit Count
"00-0818","c",410.22500,"00-0818",419.22500

I also found two UHF P-25 trunked sites using the System ID of AD1. Here is that information;

System ID             : AD1
WACN                  : BEE07
Tower Number (Decimal): 4-101
Tower Number (Hex)    : T0465
Control Capabilities  : Voice,Registration,Authentication
Timestamp             : Sat Oct 19 09:41:12 2013

-Tables
#Format: Table ID,Base Freq,Spacing,Input Offset,Assumed/Confirmed,BandWidth,Slots
00,400.00000,0.01250,9.00000,"Confirmed",0.01250,1
01,400.00000,0.01250,0.00000,"Confirmed",0.01250,1

-Frequencies
#Format: Channel,Usage,Frequency(/Slot),Input Channel,Input Frequency(/Slot),Input Explicit(1/0),Hit Count
"00-0858","c",410.72500,"00-0858",419.72500,0,0

System ID             : AD1
WACN                  : BEE07
Tower Number (Decimal): 5-100
Tower Number (Hex)    : T0564
Control Capabilities  : Voice,Registration,Authentication
Timestamp             : Sat Oct 19 09:39:12 2013

-Tables
#Format: Table ID,Base Freq,Spacing,Input Offset,Assumed/Confirmed,BandWidth,Slots
00,400.00000,0.01250,0.00000,"Confirmed",0.01250,1
01,400.00000,0.01250,0.00000,"Confirmed",0.01250,1

-Frequencies
#Format: Channel,Usage,Frequency(/Slot),Input Channel,Input Frequency(/Slot),Input Explicit(1/0),Hit Count
"00-0805","c",410.06250,"00-1525",419.06250,1,0

-Neighbors
#Format: TowerID,TowerIDHex,System ID,Channel,Frequency,Tower Name
4101,"T0465",ad1,"00-0858",410.72500

Notice that tower 5100 shows tower 4101 as a neighboring site, but tower 4101 does not show 5100 as a neighbor. (I have been advised that P-25 trunked system programming now allows for non-reciprocal neighbors in trunked systems.)

I am fairly certain that the AD5 VHF systems are being used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric  Administration and their projects in the area, as they submitted a request for bidder information on radio system components using these same VHF frequencies back in 2008,

https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=b9fc10eca8957361d0183329c46dcbaf&tab=core&_cview=0

What relationship the UHF AD5 site has to the VHF sites is unknown. The users of the UHF AD1 system is currently unknown.

Unfortunately, all of these systems were running in idle with no traffic heard. This was a weekend near the end of the federal government shutdown, so I didn't expect too much.

There was some discussion on the Radio Reference forums about some new federal trunked systems being heard in the Boulder, Ft. Collins areas north of Denver, but no one seemed to have any information on them.

Press release on The Spectrum Monitor

-->

PRESS RELEASE

10-23-13

For Immediate Release

Contact: Ken Reitz

e-mail:  ks4zr1@gmail.com

Phone: 540-967-2469

NEW RADIO MAGAZINE TO LAUNCH

            A new electronic publication, The Spectrum Monitor, will follow the final issue of Monitoring

 Times, a paper and electronic publication covering amateur, shortwave and scanner-related topics, which ceases publication after a thirty-three year run following the retirement of its publisher, Bob Grove.

            Managing editor, Ken Reitz KS4ZR, made the announcement in the November issue of

 Monitoring Times. "As the accolades poured in, all readers, regardless of how long they had been

 subscribers, expressed sadness and dismay at the closure of the magazine. I came to believe that there might be enough interest to warrant continuing the publication in some other form. I took it upon myself to explore the possibility of a follow-on magazine, not connected with Monitoring Times or Grove Enterprises, it's publisher."

            The Spectrum Monitor will debut with the January 2014 issue, on December 15, 2013, and will carry virtually all of the current Monitoring Times columnists and feature writers. Reitz noted, "These are the experts in all facets of radio who have helped make MT the best, full-spectrum magazine available and we are all excited about continuing our work for the new publication."

            The Spectrum Monitor will be available only as an electronic publication in PDF format which may be read on any desktop, laptop, iPad™, Kindle Fire™ or any other device capable of opening a PDF file. Details on how to become a charter subscriber may be found at www.thespectrummonitor.com.

The Spectrum Monitor

As you know, Monitoring Times magazine is ending publication with the upcoming December 2013 issue. Some of the MT editors & writers (including myself) will continue with an on-line magazine, The Spectrum Monitor. The magazine will be available as a PDF file that can be downloaded to your computer, tablet or smart phone.

The web site for the magazine is now on line, and you can check it out at the magazine web site:

http://www.thespectrummonitor.com

US Capitol Police Channels

I've had some inquiries about where to listen when looking for the US Capitol Police. As mentioned in a previous blog post, they are one of the few remaining federal law enforcement agencies in Washington DC that are still analog.

Here is a quick rundown of what the US Capitol Police have been heard using in DC and when providing protective details around the country. Channels 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 are all repeaters, and channels 6, 7, 8, 9 & 10 are simplex on the same frequency. Channel 11 is reported to be a repeater channel as well. The two TRAVEL channels listed are simplex. I have caught them on TRAVEL 3 with Representative Gabrielle Giffords when she was in rehabilitation.


169.2250 MHz, 110.9 PL - F1 / F6
165.5375 MHz, 146.2 PL - F2 / F7
170.1750 MHz, 156.7 PL - F3 / F8
162.2500 MHz, 173.8 PL - F4 / F9
162.6125 MHz, 127.3 PL - F5 / F10
173.5250 MHz, 167.9 PL - F11 & TRAVEL 2
173.8750 MHz, 094.8 PL - TRAVEL 3 
163.1000 MHz - Federal Common channel
164.6000 MHz
164.6250 MHz, D023 & D074
164.8000 MHz
168.3500 MHz - Federal Common channel 

In addition to these, you can check out the proposed new channel lineup that appeared a couple of years ago when they posted requests for bids for the new P25 radio system:

http://mt-fedfiles.blogspot.com/2011/09/new-uscp-radio-system.html

Radio Problems Cited in Capitol Shooting Incident

Media outlets are reporting stories of poor equipment performance and radio system incompatibility during the car chase and shooting that occurred near the White House and US Capitol this past week.

One article describes the older radios that the US Capitol Police are using and why they have not been upgraded:

http://www.nbcwashington.com/investigations/Capitol-Police-Radio-Modernization-Slowed-by-Cost-Overruns-Delays-226521891.html

A second article now states that the US Capitol Police and Secret Service were not able to talk to each other during the incident:

http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/04/20823007-secret-service-capitol-police-radios-couldnt-communicate-during-dc-chase?lite

The US Capitol Police have been utilizing analog radios now for many years. In these days of "federal interoperability" and P-25 radios, they had plans in place to upgrade to new radios with digital repeaters sometime soon. Rumors around the DC scanning list  had the new radios being deployed for the presidential inauguration in January, but obviously that did not happen.

As far as the Secret Service and Capitol Police being able to talk to each other, I would bet that they do have some common channels in their radios, but they may not know it. This reminded me of the DHS report on radio training in the agency:

http://www.oig.dhs.gov/assets/Mgmt/2013/OIG_13-06_Nov12.pdf

I would also venture that normally they do not need to talk to each other directly. Standard procedure would most likely be that the dispatchers for each agencies would be talking to each other, either via land line or a common channel, and advising field personnel. Having the officers in the field switching around to different radio channels during this chase/shooting would probably not be recommended by most training curriculum.

DEA, FBI & FPS Updates

I've added some additional information to the DEA frequency updates featured at the top of the home page of the Fed Files blog.

A source sent some confirmed frequency information from the northern Florida area:

410.4125, N156 - DEA repeater in Tallahassee, FL
411.1750. N156 - DEA simplex operations

410.8000, N201- Federal Protective Service, Pensacola, FL

167.7875, N167 - FBI, Orlando, FL
173.5000, N167 - FBI, Orlando, FL

Armed Federal Agencies

With all the controversy surrounding the EPA and their use of armed agents in Alaska recently, I saw  this story about all the federal agencies that you didn't know had armed law enforcement personnel:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/09/14/armed-epa-agents-in-alaska-shed-light-on-70-fed-agencies-with-armed-divisions/

As I have mentioned in several Fed Files columns, nearly every federal agency has some division that is charged with investigating and enforcing the federal agency's own rules and regulations.

DoE Seeking New Radio System

The Department of Energy is seeking vendors for replacement of their current Motorola trunked radio system at their Oak Ridge, Tennessee facilities. The current system is to be replaced with a wide-area APCO P-25 digital system, according to the bid specifications.

There were some indications posted on Radio Reference about hearing some P25 control channels in the UHF band near Oak Ridge.

Here is some information from the General Services Administration (GSA):

https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DOE/PAM/HQ/DE-SOL-0006098/listing.html

DHS OIG Report on Communications Management

The Department of Homeland Security continues to have difficulties in managing their communications resources, says a new report out from the DHS Inspector General. You can read a copy of the new report here:

http://www.oig.dhs.gov/assets/Mgmt/2013/OIG_13-113_Aug13.pdf

In the report, examples of mismanagement include two component agencies of DHS that have been storing more than 8,000 pieces of radio equipment for a year or longer at their maintenance and warehouse facilities, while other DHS communications programs suffer from critical equipment shortages.

The Fed Files on Twitter

Preparing for life after Monitoring Times, I have established a Twitter account for posting breaking news and updates on the federal frequency monitoring scene.

You can follow my tweets @TheFedFiles.

CBP Changes in Houston Area

I'm seeing reports of major changes in the Customs & Border Protection (CBP) repeaters in the Houston, Texas area. It appears that they have changed out the primary area analog repeaters on 165.2375 (NET 1) and 165.6875 (NET 4). Reports are that these have been replaced with 170.1250 MHz, N304 or 100.0 PL  (mixed-mode repeater) and 171.6625 MHz, N301. Also, 170.1000 MHz, N301 has been heard in the Galveston area, possibly as "D-NET 200". Neither 170.1250 or 171.6625 has previously been part of the standard CBP VHF channel lineup, but they both have appeared in the new, wide-area CBP networks along the southern US-Mexico border in Arizona and Texas. This could be signaling a major re-channeling of the CBP network in some areas. Stay tuned for further developments...

UPDATE!
Another new DNET channel has been identified near Houston. 170.4625 MHz, N301 is being called "DNET 201". I caught some testing on 170.1250 MHz, N301 near Bush Intercontinental Airport last week.

UPDATE 2!
These changes are not just in the Texas Gulf Coast area. Reports from Wichita Falls, Texas have 172.0625 MHz, N301 as D-NET 202. Keep listening for more CBP changes.

UPDATE 3!
Houston area sources confirm that 171.6625 MHz, N301 is identified as D-NET 207. Also reports of hearing simplex activity on 167.8875 MHz, N301 in the Wichita Falls, TX area. This might be a new simplex CBP channel, as it has not previously been an exclusive FBI allocation, despite being in the normal range of FBI operating frequencies (167-168 MHz)

UPDATE 4!
172.8625 MHz, N301 was heard in the DFW area. No channel name associated with this yet.

NFM in the UHF Miltiary Air Band?

Recently I have received reports of uses of narrow-band FM for voice traffic on various frequencies in the 225-380 MHz military air band. Most recently a report showed up on the MILCOM mailing list detailing how a Coast Guard C-130J was heard using NFM on 345.0 MHz to talk with a USCG cutter, then when calling their station inbound they were AM.

This may be due to the proliferation of all-mode radios in some military aircraft. Several years ago I caught some Air National Guard aircraft repeatedly trying to contact their base ops in NFM, but the base station was having a hard time hearing them because the base was AM.

Possibly these issues are due to incorrect settings on the radio presets, or operators not knowing what mode they should be in.

Anyone else catching aircraft using NFM in the UHF military band?

NTIA Plans Spectrum Monitoring

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) plans a remote, real-time, spectrum monitoring project. You can read some interesting, preliminary information about it here:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2013-20148.pdf

This project will monitor real world usage of radio frequency spectrum in 10 cities and evaluate possible plans to more efficiently utilize both federal and non-federal spectrum.

170.7875 MHz in Boston

Reports of a new frequency being tested by "radio services" were received from sources in the Boston area. The frequency heard was 170.7875 MHz, but no P25 NAC has been confirmed. This frequency has a sort of mysterious past, having been heard at various events but never positively identified.

Here's what I have logged it as:

170.7875, N001 - heard in Washington DC at last two Presidential Inaugurations
170.7875, N496 - unknown agency at Super Bowl
170.7875 - used as a voice channel in the IWN trunked system
170.7875, N452 - identified as a DHS Common channel
170.7875, N272 - been used for aerial surveillance in various areas of the country.

This may be amongst the new DHS "common" allocations to provide each DHS agency with its own common channel.