USCG Sector Portand Update

Since posting about the US Coast Guard utilizing more federal interoperability frequencies, I have run into some changes in my own listening area in Portland, Oregon.

Until recently, the CG tended to operate on either the standard VHF marine channels allocated for Coast Guard use. They also had access to, and used often, a talk-group on the Portland metro area 800 MHz public safety trunked system. However, around the time of the Portland Rose Festival, most of the activity on these channels seemed to disappear.

While searching around, I discovered that they had moved to one of the new CG "NET" channels in the APCO P-25 mode. So far SECTOR PORTLAND is using NET 21 (165.3125 MHz) in P25. It does not seem to be a repeater, but the base transmitters are probably located at one of the new Rescue 21 antenna sites in the area. Also, while the US and Canada had some navy vessels docked at Portland's Waterfront Park for the Rose Festival, CG security PACCOMM was heard using 163.1375 MHz, NET 113.

http://www.uscg.mil/d13/sectPortland/default.asp

Minneapolis FRB

As some may recall, we have noted that the Federal Reserve branch banks across the US have been using a common set of UHF frequencies for their communications, but in all different modes. Some are analog, others are analog with DCS squelch tones and some are P-25 digital. But now
I received a report from a listener in the Twin Cites that indicates the Federal Reserve Branch Bank in Minneapolis is using a UHF LTR trunked system.

According to the supplied information, the trunked system is as follows:
406.6625 - LCN 10
410.4875 - LCN 01

I've learned long ago not to underestimate the possibilities of what can show up in the federal bands, but this is indeed unusual! Until I make it back up to Minneapolis, can anyone supply any further information on this system?

DHS Demos Thales Liberty Radio

The Department of Homeland Security will be testing a new multi-band portable radio from Thales. The pilot program will involve field testing of the Thales Liberty muli-band portable radio that will cover both VHF and UHF public safety bands as well as 700 and 800 MHz channels. The test program will involve multiple agencies, both in the US and Canada and will involve first-responders as well as federal agencies.

http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/43196

The 14 pilot organizations that will be involved in the test program are:

-2010 Olympic Security Committee (Blaine, Wash., and Vancouver, B.C. Canada)

-Amtrak (Northeast Corridor)

-Boise Fire Department (Boise, Idaho)

-Canadian Interoperability Technology Interest Group (Ottawa, ON Canada)

-Customs and Border Patrol (Detroit)

-Federal Emergency Management Agency (Multiple Locations)

-Hawaii State Civil Defense (Honolulu)

-Interagency Communication Interoperability System (Los Angeles County, Calif.)

-Michigan Emergency Medical Services (Lower Peninsula Areas)

-Murray State University (Southwest Kentucky)

-Phoenix Police Department and Arizona Department of Emergency --Management Greater Phoenix and Yuma County)

-Texas National Guard (Austin, Texas)

-U.S. Marshals Service (Northeast Region)

-Washington Metro Area Transit Authority Transit Police (District of Columbia)

According to information on the Thales Communications web site, the radio can be configured to operate in multiple mdes, including analog, APCO-25 digital, conventional and trunked.

http://www.thalesliberty.com/about_liberty.asp

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...

GAO Report on FAMS

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released a report on progress with the Federal Air Marshals Service (FAMS). The report can be found here:
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09273.pdf

The Federal Air Marshals Service operates under the Transportation Security Administration, part of Homeland Security.

There has been much speculation about what the FAMS is using for communications. The GAO report mentions some items concerning research into a viable communications solution for the Air Marshals.

Super Bowl XLIII Update

With the kickoff fast approaching, things are getting busy here in Tampa.

The FBI and DHS are the prime agencies covering this event so far, and the Thunderbirds are scheduled for the fly by at the national anthem.

More later!

BTW, this is where I am working during the game...

Super Bowl XLIII

Now that the Inauguration has passed, the next big event to monitor will be Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa. I'm on scene now, but so far the federal bands have been pretty quiet in the area. I did spot what appeared to be a DHS-marked AS350 AStar helicopter flying around the stadium on Thursday morning. But it's still over a week away so things will start ramping up soon.

For those who might want to listen in to the NFL event and behind the scenes communications at Raymond James Stadium, try looking up WQJQ418 on the FCC web site!

NTSB in NYC

As news reports are being broadcast about the US Airways flight emergency landing in the Hudson River, many in the NYC area are probably curious about the NTSB investigation team that is headed that way.

Here is what I have most likely for the NTSB as far as radio frequencies. I have no idea if they are analog, digital or what:

165.1500 - NTSB
165.1750 - NTSB
165.3375 - NTSB INPUT TO F2 REPEATER
165.6250 - NTSB
165.7500 - NTSB F3
165.7625 - NTSB F1
166.1750 - NTSB F2
168.1750 - NTSB
169.0750 - NTSB

Now, a few caveats about NTSB frequencies...

1) I have never actually heard these or confirmed their usage.

2) I have never known or spoken to anyone who has actually confirmed these as being used.

3) Many lists found on the Internet seem to mix up FAA and NTSB frequencies freely. The NTSB is a completely separate & independent agency and is NOT part of the Department of Transportation.

4) I know someone who trained at the NTSB HQ in Washington DC. He noticed that all the teams that were prepping to leave on assignments took only cell phones and FRS type radios with them. It's unknown if they have radios shipped in on long investigations or what, but the folks he talked with had no knowledge or experience with real land-mobile type radios.

Remember, these are assignments that may be used by the FAA and other agencies. If you can confirm any of these as in use by the NTSB, you will win a prize of some sort!

UPDATE:
A listener reported that he did actually hear the NTSB back during the Valujet crash in the Florida Everglades. The frequency was 165.7500 MHz and was encrypted full-time. So far nothing from New York City.

Presidential Inauguration Activities

Reports are coming in of potential communications activities related to the upcoming Inauguration. An active frequency to keep an ear on appears to be one of the federal interoperability repeaters that is part of the "25 Cities Project" organized & funded by the Justice Department. Here are the DC area repeaters:

DCIO1 - 159.15000, N653
DCIO2 - 168.87500, N653
DCIO2 N - 173.75000, N653
DCIO2 S - 168.08750, N653
DCIO2 W - 166.78750, N653

Reports are that DC I/O 2 or "C-TAC 2" may be in use for the upcoming activities.

VA Going Digital-Updated!

More listeners are reporting that VA Medical Centers near them are switching to APCO P-25 digital radios. One report from the Albany, NY area has these frequencies being used there:
163.0000 MHz, N299
163.3625 MHz, N298
164.0625 MHz, N297
166.2125 MHz, N296

Keep those reports of new P-25 activity coming in!

UPDATE - I have started to receive some listener reports on other VA facilities using P-25. Here are some from Michigan:
164.2000 MHz, N293 - VAMC Ann Arbor (input to 168.5250)
168.5250 MHz, N293 - VAMC Ann Arbor
170.6000 MHz, N293 - VAMC Saginaw
411.0750 MHz, N293 - VAMC Detroit

And here is one from Tucson, AZ:
171.2625 MHz - VAMC Tucson

And some from West Haven, CT:
407.8375 MHz, N150 - VAMC Police
408.2375 MHz - VAMC West Haven
409.4375 MHz - VAMC West Haven

And possibly from Northport, Long Island, NY:
410.1750 MHz, N293

How about Tampa, FL?:
163.3625 MHz, N131

Or Nashville, TN:
408.0000 MHz, N283

More updates, this from southern Alabama and Mississippi:
163.3625 MHz, 164.9625 MHz and 172.6875 all using a NAC of 293. Reports are that all these frequencies are tied together in a wide-area network.

And from Montgomery, AL:
172.3000 P-25, no NAC info available


A report from West Palm Beach, FL of the VA using 408.0000 MHz with a NAC of 2e0. I thought that the VAMC had a trunked system there, but maybe this is part of that.

Inaugural Edition of CHM Newletter Now Available

The latest edition of The Capitol Hill Monitor newsletter is now available for download:

http://henney.com/chm/0109/chm0109.pdf

Anyone who is planning on being in or near Washington DC during the Presidential Inauguration won't want to miss out on all the great information that they have put together for this edition. Nice work!

2009 Presidential Inauguration

The Presidential Inauguration is fast approaching, planned for Tuesday, January 20th. Unfortunately I will not be in Washington DC for the event, but have some sources that will help provide some insight to what is happening as far as scanning and monitoring the events. And because of the publishing schedule of Monitoring Times, I won't be able to do any sort of article on the Inauguration until the May issue! So if you don't want to wait that long, keep checking here at the Fed Files blog, and I'll post what I find out.

Here are some useful links to the various agencies that will be involved in the Inauguration and the related activities. This may give you some information on where to what to program in your scanners for the events:
http://www.inaugural.senate.gov/

http://www.afic.northcom.mil/participation.html

http://www.secretservice.gov/

http://www.wmata.com/inauguration/

http://www.pic2009.org/content/home/

http://www.inauguration.dc.gov/index.asp

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone!

I got to spend my New Years Eve freezing my rear end in Times Square. I was working as part of the NBC coverage of the events. I was too busy working & shivering in the biting cold winds to really concentrate on scanning and federal stuff.

While many of the NY area FBI channels were busy with some encrypted activity, I did manage to catch some activity on the NY Federal Interoperability repeater on 167.7875 MHz, N653. And I did hear the security detail for President & Senator Clinton, who were on scene to help start the ball drop. The EAGLE security detail was on 165.3750 MHz, N001 simplex.

Blue Ridge Parkway-Updated!

Listeners along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia and North Carolina have started to report that the US Park Police that patrol the BRP have switched over to new P-25 digital repeaters for their patrol operations.

While vacationing in North Carolina I came across at least one new P-25 frequency that appears to be the Blue Ridge Parkway patrols. I heard 172.7250, N120 while traveling from Charlotte to Asheville, NC. They appear to have stopped using their old frequency of 167.1750 MHz that used to be heard all over the area.

Here are a list of the frequencies that have been reported as active along the route of the Blue Ridge Parkway:

172.4500
172.7250
172.7500
173.7625

UPDATE 1: While in Asheville, I believe I heard the BRP Patrols on 172.5000 MHz, N4c5. Also, traffic on 172.7250 MHz was alternating between P-25 and analog while listening on December 27th.
UPDATE 2: The 172.7250 MHz P25 channel has been confirmed as Great Smokey Mountain National Park, not the BRP.

Merry Christmas!

A very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all the Monitoring Times and Fed Files readers out there.

Holiday travel has been a challenge for me this year, due to the snow and ice in the Pacific Northwest. But things look like they are starting to settle down and hopefully return to a normal, wet winter!

New GAO Report on IWN

The latest GOA report on the current progress of the federal Integrated Wireless Network (IWN) has been released, and you can find a copy here:

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09133.pdf

In a nutshell, the latest report says that the cooperation between the Justice Department, Treasury and Homeland Security has collapsed. The original vision of a shared, nationwide radio communications network for federal agencies has turned out to be not exactly what everyone wants and probably can't be deployed as hoped.

A few more key points:

The original pilot project in the Pacific Northwest continues to operate and is growing, but users still report that some of their requirements have not been met. These agencies continue to utilize their legacy radio systems outside of the IWN.

The pilot project appears to be too costly to be expanded nationwide and still fulfill the needs of Justice, Treasury and DHS. While the Treasury Department has been signed on as a participant of the project, they appear mostly as observers and seem to be waiting to see what happens, while Justice and DHS have moved off on their own.

The Justice Department has begun upgrading it's land mobile communications system on it's own, outside of the IWN project. They are calling it the Law Enforcement Wireless Communications Solution. This appears to include recent upgrades to the FBI, US Marshals and other radio systems that listeners have reported over the last year or so. I cover some of this activity in the January issue of Monitoring Times.

Customs and Border Protection has been upgrading their own radio network since 2005. Listeners along both the Northern and Southern US have reported these changes to APCO P-25 over the last two years or so.

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement has also been upgrading their radio communications network, referred to as the Tactical Communications Modernization Project. This project is not geared towards building their own communications network. Instead, ICE is looking to partner up with other federal agencies and utilized existing infrastructure to accomplish what they need. Again, this is what we have been hearing over the last few years on the radios.

The GAO report asks Congress to try and get these agencies working together again. To pursue their individual projects risks a lot of wasted time and money by duplication, according to the GAO audit.

Interesting to see what becomes of the IWN project in the coming months.

Arizona Scanning

I was in the Phoenix & Tucson areas after Thanksgiving, so I had some time to scan the bands for activity...
162.0625 MHz, N001 - CBP Border Patrol BP WEST repeater
162.3125 MHz, N001 - CBP Border Patrol BP EAST repeater
163.7000 MHz, N001 - CBP Border Patrol WHITE TANK repeater
163.7250 MHz, N001 - CBP Border Patrol LEMMON 1 repeater
163.7750 MHz, N001 - CBP Border Patrol
164.0625 MHz, 206.5pl
164.6000 MHz, 100.0pl - CBP Customs NET 5
166.3500 MHz, N111 - Unknown, possibly VAMC in Tucson?
167.8250 MHz, N293
168.9750 MHz, N001 - CBP Border Patrol LEMMON 2 repeater
169.6000 MHz, 114.8pl - Coronado National Forest
169.6875 MHz, 167.9pl - Department of the Interior - BLM?
170.1250 MHz, 100.0pl - ?
170.5875 MHz, 162.2pl - Unknown analog repeater in Phoenix area
171.2625 MHz, N293
172.2125 MHz, N167 - FBI Tucson area
172.9000 MHz, N001 - TSA at Tucson International
409.3625 MHz, P-25

And we made a quick side trip up to Kitt Peak. The National Science Foundation vehicles all carried VHF hi-band antennas and I may have caught some of their radios with the Close Call, along with other transmitters located up on the peak:

155.6250, D343 - May be some sort of bus service or school district.
164.3500 - NSF Operations at Kitt Peak
165.2375 - Definitely a CBP Customs NET 1 repeater up there!
168.5250 - NSF operations on Kitt Peak
859.0000, D025
860.0000, D025 - Don't know who these two conventional repeaters belong to, but they were definitely located up on Kitt Peak.

White House Operations?

I caught an interesting program on the History Channel the other night. It was sort of a companion program to the inside look at Air Force One that aired a few months ago. This program was an inside look at the White House.

Although the program focused mainly on the history of this building and had some interesting stories of what goes on behind the scenes, there were some subtle clues to communications that goes on within the White House fences.

There were several camera shots of various maintenance workers doing things like vacuuming or moving furniture around. Many seemed to have radios on their belts. Unfortunately, even in high-definition, I couldn't tell what band they were on.

That got me thinking about all the various Washington DC scanning resources that have logged many of the security & Secret Service channels used at the White House, but I don't recall seeing anything identified as being maintenance or operations (non-security) related. I would guess that even these communications may be secure, as there is all kinds of interesting intelligence that might be gleaned from routine maintenance communications.

Is there anyone out there that may have some information on what the routine operations & maintenance folks at the White House might use for communications?

I also noticed that the program dealt extensively with the layout and history of the first and second floors of the White House, but only mentioned the later-added third story in passing. Any idea what is up on the third floor?

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend

Happy Thanksgiving weekend to all the Fed Files fans out there. This holiday weekend finds me working in Ontario, CA. I haven't had a lot of time for listening to the scanner, but here are a few things I have heard from my hotel location:

164.9375 MHz, 103.5 - Angeles National Forest
166,9125 MHz, N245 - CBP Border Patrol "MA-4 SP", part of the So Cal EVRP network
167.3125 MHz, 167.9 - FBI
171.4750 MHz, 103.5 - Unknown
172.1500 MHz, N002 - DHS TSA at Ontario Int'l
172.6750 MHz, 146.2 - Unknown, running 10-28's
173.7375 MHz, 167.9 - FBI, simplex

Nashville Now

Caught some interesting traffic from the Federal Reserve Branch Bank in Nashville last night. I don't know if anything made the news wires, but they had a fire alarm go off and had to evacuate the building.

406.6625 MHz, NAC 293 - This frequency appears to be common amongst all the FRB Branches that I have come across so far.

New In New York

I just spent a few days in Mid-Town Manhattan and was able to confirm some P-25 NAC info, and had a few new things pop up.

167.7875, P-25 NAC 653 - This is the Federal Interoperability repeater that is linked with 414.750 MHz. Finally caught the NAC they were using. Also heard some encrypted P-25 traffic during the time I was there.

167.8875, 127.3 pl - Analog simplex operation or a repeater input. Don't know who this is or where they are but I do hear the dispatch side often. Anyone in NYC heard this?

171.6875, P-25 NAC 9c5 - Unknown user on this one.

172.6625, P-25 NAC 615 - Unknown user here, but heard lots and lots of key ups, as if the repeater was getting hit with some noise or interference.

406.1500, P-25 NAC 293 - VAMC Brooklyn

406.3375, P-25 NAC 482 - This is a US Postal Inspectors frequency. Traffic was encrypted.

408.1000, P-25 NAC 0f0 - State Department Security Detail.

408.1250, P-25 NAC 293 - VAMC Manhattan

417.2000, P-25 NAC 293- Federal Protective Service

417.5500, P-25 NAC 156 - DEA

And finally, has anyone in the NYC area confirmed the use of 409.9250 MHz? I have seen a report of some P-25 activity on this channel. One poster on RR said that it was a State Department frequency at the UN, but I have never seen or heard of this frequency in the State Department pool of frequencies before. I'm wondering if they were thinking of 409.6250?

More Fed Files Posts Coming!

Sorry for not much new on the Fed Files blog lately. Unfortunately, my primary job has been keeping me so busy, I haven't had much time to post much.

I have recently acquired some new hardware that will allow my to start collecting P25 NAC information on the federal frequencies I run in to. Starting in 2009, there will be more NAC data posted here and in the Fed Files column in Monitoring Times.

IWN Moving Ahead in Arizona?

Reports are beginning to surface of strange digital signals starting to appear on federal VHF frequencies in the Phoenix / Tucson areas of Arizona. The signals resemble Motorola trunking control channel data, but no one was able to decode or read these data channels.

The frequencies that were active with these signals were 167.6500 MHz, 167.7375 MHz, 170.7625 MHz, 173.0500 MHz, 173.2375 MHz and 173.7625 MHz. 163.8375 MHz was also heard, but very weak. It could have been an image or perhaps a mobile that was broadcasting the signal in to the repeaters.

Most likely these are digital "test patterns" used to check system coverage and signal propagation on digital radio systems. This V.52 test signal is used to check Bit Error Rate (BER) which is an important consideration in digital radio coverage. This may indicate that new trunked sites on the Justice Department's Integrated Wireless Network (IWN) P25 radio system are about to start appearing the Southwest US.

The prime contractor for the IWN is General Dynamics. Their web site, and the DoJ web site for the IWN reveal no new updates on the status of the IWN, so no idea when these new sites will be up and running, but keep searching the federal VHF band for new P-25 activity!

Campaign '08 Secret Service Call Signs

It is post convention campaign time and the candidates are traveling across the country for more and more events. Here is an update on the candidates and their Secret Service call signs, confirmed from multiple sources:

John McCain - PHOENIX
Cindy McCain - PARASOL

Barack Obama - RENEGADE
Michelle Obama - RENAISSANCE

Sen. Joe Biden - CELTIC
Jill Biden - CAPRI

Gov. Sarah Palin - DENALI
Todd Palin - DRILLER

Other family members of each of the candidates may have code names assigned to them as well.

Hurricane Ike Recovery

I have been monitoring the situation in southeast Texas and hurricane (now tropical storm) Ike. In addition to the news networks and the Weather Channel, DirecTV is providing a feed of the Houston CBS affiliate full time on channel 361.

It appears that an amazing number of state, federal and military resources, called "Task Force Texas", are being poured into the Houston/Galveston area to help with recovery and restoration of services and power. I had received word from friends in Houston before the storm hit that FEMA was already staging equipment and vehicles in the old Astrohall, near Reliant Stadium.

Although this is certainly an amazing monitoring opportunity with all the activity going on, most folks in the area either have other, much more important things to worry about, or they have no power. But if you are in the area and want to search for any recovery communications, don't overlook the federal UHF band, 406 to 420 MHz. FEMA and associated groups such as DMAT and Urban Search and Rescue crews are almost certainly utilizing radios in that band as they were at the two recent political conventions. Plus national guard units have been known to utilize this band for short range, simplex communications.

TSA Trying "Calmer" Radios

The TSA is apparently moving towards the use of speaker mics and earpieces with their radios at airport checkpoints. The move is intended to help keep the checkpoints "calmer" by eliminating the yelling across the checkpoint areas. You can read the story here:

http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-ctbradley0912.artsep12,0,7802412.story

I had noticed the new blue TSA uniforms when I travelled through Minneapolis / St. Paul airport a week ago after the Republican convention.

RNC Opening Day

Just a quick update from St. Paul and the Republican National Convention. As has been reported by the news media, President Bush and VP Cheney will not be making an appearance at the convention center, but may do a video presentation.

Security operations continue to build, and we have had flights of both military and Coast Guard helicopters overhead. No sign of the Customs air assets yet, and no idea if there will be a combat air patrol overhead.

Since this event is designated as a National Security Special Event, all sorts of agencies are involved with the convention security, from the Secret Service to the FBI, US Marshals, Postal Inspectors and the military.

I'll have more as the convention continues.

RNC Build Up

Now that the dust has settled in Denver, the focus shifts towards the eastern half of the Twin Cites, St. Paul, Minnesota.

The radio spectrum has started to get busier and more new and unusual frequencies are being seen and heard here. This morning the Coast Guard flew 2 HH-65 Dolphin helicopters around downtown St. Paul and the Xcel Energy Center and the site of the Republican National Convention. No sign of any Customs air assets yet. Secret Service and other federal frequencies are starting to come alive with radio tests and encryption.

There are rumors flying about that if Hurricane Gustav makes a beeline for New Orleans, the RNC may be delayed by a few days or perhaps a week. The situation is being monitored and we'll find out if anything changes soon.

Denver DNC Ramps Up

The radio spectrum in the Denver area is becoming increasingly filled with communications related to the Democratic National Convention, which starts tomorrow at the Pepsi Center.

As we reported in an earlier blog post, the Multi Agency Communications Center started operations on Saturday, and reports of all sorts of federal activity in the VHF and UHF bands continue to pour in. Much of the activity is reported as using APCO P-25 digital with encryption, especially the US Secret Service channels, which is the lead agency for this event.

Also, reports are coming in that more new talk groups are being spotted on the Colorado State P-25 800 MHz system as well as the federal "Front Range" UHF trunked system. Most of these new talk group users are using the encryption feature, so identifying the channels will be difficult at best. Some conventional UHF federal activity is being heard in the downtown Denver area as well, some even in analog.

There are some web sites hosting live feeds of the Denver area public safety communications, including this one: http://co.scanamerica.us:80/index.php?county=Denver

Tom Kneitel, 1933-2008

I received word this morning that Tom Kneitel, author of many scanning and monitoring related books and writer for Popular Communications magazine, has passed away at the age of 75.

As many long time "Fed Heads" will remember, Tom was the author of the CRB books series "Top Secret Registry of US Government Frequencies". The last edition was the 8th edition, printed in 1993. These books were the bibles of the federal scanning hobby and provided much of the basis of all federal scanning & monitoring well before the Internet age.

Denver MACC Opens For DNC

The Multi Agency Communication Center for the Democratic National Convention has begun operations in Lakewood, CO this morning. The MACC is set up in the Denver Federal Center to support all the federal agencies involved in the DNC. The lead agency for this National Security Special Event is the US Secret Service, a division of the Department of Homeland Security.

http://www.9news.com/news/elections/dnc/article.aspx?storyid=98166&catid=348

A similar communication center will be established in St. Paul, MN for next month's Republican National Convention.

Federal Protective Service Frequency Shift

The process of re-farming the federal UHF channels continues with the shuffling of radio frequencies used by the Federal Protective Service (FPS). The FPS is a division of ICE (Immigrations & Customs Enforcement) under the Department of Homeland Security.

In most areas, 415.2000 MHz, 417.2000 MHz and 419.1750 MHz serve as the primary radio frequencies used by the FPS. However, some areas have begun moving towards repeater output frequencies in the 407 - 410 MHz area. This is due in part to the federal requirement of a standard 9 MHz repeater offset, so input frequencies are +9 MHz.

I have noted changes in the FPS radio system in some eastern US cities over the last year or so, but changes recently came to the Pacific Northwest, where I make my home. In the last week the FPS has moved to repeaters on 407.0000 MHz, 408.2000 MHz and 410.8000 MHz in the Portland, OR area. Reports are that the Seattle / Tacoma area has or will follow soon. Keep the 415.2000 MHz and 417.2000 MHz channels in, as they may be used as simplex talk-around channels. And all these repeaters are APCO P-25 digital mode.

Keep an ear open in your area for FPS frequency changes!

FEMA Phone System Hacked

According to new reports, FEMA had someone hack access to the federal agency's internal phone network and placed calls to the Middle East and Asia.

The story can be found HERE.

Customs AMD At Selfridge

The Air Marine Division of CBP Customs is now operating out of Selfridge ARB in Michigan. This makes a total of 5 AMD air bases along the northern US border. The others are Bellingham, WA, Great Falls, MT, Grand Forks, ND and Plattsburg, NY.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080805/METRO03/808050353/1412/METRO03


http://www.cbp.gov:80/xp/cgov/newsroom/news_releases/08042008_5.xml

Listeners should keep an ear out for activity on the known UHF air band frequencies set aside for use by the AMD, http://mt-fedfiles.blogspot.com/2006/07/customs-and-border-protection-amid.html.

Northwest CBP Gone P25

Listeners along the Washington / British Columbia border have reported that the US Border Patrol, part of the DHS Customs & Border Protection division, have recently switched to APCO P25 digital.

The Border Patrol channels in the far northwest Washington area, 163.625 MHz and 163.675 MHz, also utilized by local law enforcement agencies, had been in the analog mode for many years now. The switch to P-25 digital in this area follows a similar story along the Arizona / Mexico border that occurred late last year.

I recently finished a trip to Laredo, Texas and found the Laredo Sector of the CBP is still utilizing analog with DES encryption.

It appears that the CBP is not waiting for the IWN project to update their communications gear. Although I am certain the new P-25 radios will be compatible with the VHF IWN trunking system when it arrives along the border areas. The IWN already has sites along the Washington / BC border, but they have not apparently been utilized by the CBP as of yet.

Big Apple Update

I got to spend a week in New York City for the MLB All Star Game and found a few interesting things...

First, while spending my days at Yankee Stadium, I did catch some near-field hits on some federal frequencies. The NYPD was obviously the primary agency for event security. Their primary on-site channel was NYPD TAC F, 485.4375 MHz and was a blast to listen to. Prior to the gates opening on Monday evening for the Home Run Derby, I spotted several law enforcement folks wearing FBI event credentials and carrying VHF Motorola XTS-5000 hand-held radios.

During the events on Monday and Tuesday evenings I caught some P-25 transmissions on 168.8250, 173.6625 and 165.9250 MHz. That last one is a new one to me, and it had traffic from the "Command Post" and various "Sierra" units doing radio checks. I believe it was coming from the stadium, as I was getting Close Calla & Signal Stalker hits on that frequency when it was active. And as a side note, I caught the NY Governor's security detail on 155.4600 MHz.

After the All Star events were finished and I was relaxing at our hotel, I started noticing some previously unheard P-25 frequencies popping up in my searches of the VHF federal band. Since the New York area listeners have been very helpful with my "unknowns" in the past, I thought I would post them and see if anyone else has identified them yet.

168.0750 - encrypted
168.2250 - clear, surveillance
168.3000 - encrypted
169.9250
170.7375
170.7875
171.6875
171.7250
172.3125
173.1125

All of these were APCO P-25 digital transmissions. Where I actually caught some traffic on these, I have noted. Some were just the transmitter being keyed up with no voice, so I couldn't tell if it was encrypted or not. At one point, many of these frequencies seemed to be transmitting around the same time, as if someone was testing various repeater sites. I also hear the same thing on some of the known FBI repeaters in the NYC area. Could these be related?

IWN Updates?

I haven't seen much information on the Internet about the current status of the Jutice Department's Integrated Wireless Network (IWN). The last update on the IWN web site was from over a year ago when the primary contract was awarded to General Dynamics:
http://www.usdoj.gov/jmd/iwn/index.html

I also found this document regarding the FY 2008 budget of the IWN:
http://www.justice.gov/jmd/2008justification/exhibit300/jmd_iwn.pdf

The above document does show references to a timetable of modules to be completed. Most of these are in Oregon and Washington State, but some refer to the Gulf Coast. Keep an ear open for developments in that area.

And finally, I came across this site:
http://www.noiwn.com/
The person who launched this site seems a bit mis-informed and paranoid.