Harlingen TX Logs

I received a few frequencies logged from a friend on a trip down to South Padre Island and Harlingen, Texas. Here is what was picked up:

162.2875, NAC A50 - New CBP Border Patrol
163.1375, NAC 293 - US Coast Guard NET 113
163.4750, NAC A61 - New CBP Border Patrol
169.2625, NAC 293 - CBP OAM AIR 3
171.2375, NAC 293 - US Coast Guard NET 127
172.7125, NAC A60 - New CBP Border Patrol
410.4125, NAC 156 - DEA, new F11

Here are some additional CBP Border Patrol Rio Grande Valley area frequencies that have been posted previously:

163.0625, NA40
163.5250, NA10
163.6500, NA60
163.9750, NA21
164.4375, NA51
164.7375, NA41
166.9875, N310
168.3875, N312
169.5750, NA80
169.6000, NA20
169.6375, NA31 - CBP WESLACO 2
169.6625, NA30 - CBP WESLACO 1
170.1250, NA40
170.3375, NA50
170.4375, NA61
170.5375, NA40 - CBP HARLINGEN 1
170.9875, NA60
171.1875, NA20 - CBP McALLEN
171.1875, NB20
171.3250, NA11 - CBP RIO GRANDE CITY 2
171.3250, NA41 - CBP HARLINGEN
171.6625, NA12 - CBP RIO GRANDE CITY 1
171.6625, NA51
171.7125, NA22 - CBP McALLEN 2 
171.9625, NA10 - CBP RIO GRANDE CITY
171.9875, N311
172.2375, NC20
172.2625, NA21 - CBP McALLEN 1

Houston Federal Activity

I came across a couple of interesting posts regarding federal activity in the Houston, Texas area.

The first was some security detail activity on 168.3500 MHz, N100. Over the years I have caught several security details using this common federal frequency. In at least two cases it was the US Capitol Police providing security for members of Congress. However, I was not able to confirm the P25 NAC on those catches.

Best guess is that this Houston activity was the protective detail for Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sebelius. The original poster also mentioned the code name FLOODGATE was associated with this detail.

Second catch from Houston was on 170.8500 MHz, N864, with some testing in the clear that identified this as "USMS Channel B", with USMS being the US Marshals Service. The P25 NAC of N864 has been speculated as being the US Marshals for a while, but not much has been provided for proof. This catch helps tilt the scales a bit towards confirmation.

New Federal VHF TRS

Some recent postings on Radio Reference are providing some details of a new VHF P-25 trunked system somewhere in northern Virginia. Here are the system details that are known;

System ID - 00A
WACN - 0000A
System NAC - 01F
Tower - 101

Main CC - 170.46250
Alt CC - 171.17500
Alt CC - 172.35000
Alt CC - 173.51250

All traffic has been encrypted so far, and no other towers appear to be a part of this system. Some have indicated the information gleaned from running the PRO96COM software package on this system show that it has APCO P25 Phase II TDMA capabilities.

I have noted that the System ID of 00A has shown up on several new trunked systems around the country and I had heard that this System ID is the "default" ID for Harris P25 systems.

I will post more information when it comes in!

US Capitol Police Trunked System

I saw a posting from Alan Henney about the new VHF trunked system in use by the US Capitol Police. The system is apparently in limited use and Alan was able to watch the system activity using PRO96COM software during the State of the Union speech on January 26th. Here's what he found:

System ID = 582
WACN = BEE00

Frequency       Input Frequency        Hit Count
172.6875        165.0875        193
172.3875        164.8125        184
172.9625        165.5375        183
173.1625        165.7750        12 (alternate control)
173.8125        166.4250        79 (alternate control)
170.1375        162.8000        199
169.5750        136.0000        191
173.4750        166.2250        42 (alternate control)
169.8375        162.6125        189
170.3750        163.1625        202
171.7875        164.6125        212
171.4125        164.3250        199
171.0000        164.0125        171
170.5750        163.6000        0 (primary control)

Alan also posted that the new system is being used along with the old, analog repeaters as well. So it appears that the USCP has not moved all operations to the new system full time yet.

Super Bowl XLVIII CAP Flights

It appears that the expected combat air patrol flights will begin with some training on Wednesday, the 29th;

"Individuals in and around the East Rutherford area can expect flights to begin Jan. 29 around 4:30 a.m. EST and continue for approximately one hour.
Exercise Amalgam Virgo 14-01, a NORAD air-defense exercise, will be conducted Wednesday in the greater East Rutherford area so interagency partners can practice procedures for responding to airspace violations."

http://www.norad.mil/Newsroom/PressReleases/tabid/3993/Article/7695/conr-to-fly-air-defense-exercise-in-preparation-for-super-bowl-xlviii.aspx

Super Bowl XLVIII

Things are starting to ramp up at Super Bowl XLVIII in E. Rutherford, New Jersey. The Department of Energy began doing aerial surveys of nominal radiation over most of northern New Jersey this week. Today (1/23) they were operating in the vacinity of MetLife Stadium, where the game will take place on February 2nd.

Happy 2014

I'm a few days late, but wanted to wish all the Fed Files fans a very Happy New Year!

This year marks the start of my Federal Wavelengths column that appears monthly in The Spectrum Monitor e-magazine. If you haven't checked it out yet, you can click on the link below and see what it is all about. You can subscribe to the magazine or purchase a single issue if you like:

http://www.thespectrummonitor.com

Updated Email Address

Just a reminder to all the folks out there who want to get in touch with me. My old email address at Monitoring Times will be going away soon, so emails should now go to my new address.
chrisparris @ thefedfiles.com.

The Spectrum Monitor is Out!

The first issue of The Spectrum Monitor is now available for download. If you have a subscription, you should have received an email with instructions on downloading your copy. If you want to purchase a single copy, you can do so by visiting the web site at http://www.thespectrummonitor.com

The magazine is in a digital PDF format that can be viewed on almost any current digital device, including computers, tablets and smart phones.

Luke AFB Moves to P25 Trunked System

Reports from the Phoenix, AZ area indicate that a new, APCO P-25 trunked radio system is in operation at Luke AFB near Glendale, a suburb of Phoenix. This new system has superseded the older UHF Motorola trunked system that has been serving the base for years.

According to listener provided information, here are the system specifics:

SYSTEM ID = 3D6
WASN = BEE00
SITE NAC = N3DE
SITE = 014
RFSS = 001

406.3625
406.5625
407.1625
407.3625
407.7625
407.9625
408.5625
408.7625
408.9625 - ALT CC
409.3625 - ALT CC
409.5625 - ALT CC
410.1625 - PRI CC


http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=7769

Interestingly, this trunked system shares the same System ID with two other trunked systems, also located at Air Force Bases in Florida and Mississippi. Information in the Radio Reference thread indicates this a planned wide-area system to service many USAF installations, in a similar way the ELMR 014C trunked system serves the Navy & Marines.

I also just noted that the P25 trunked system down in Tucson, AZ at Davis-Monthan AFB is showing a System ID of 3F6, and a Site ID of 002. Part of the same network? Maybe someday...

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