Caltrans in southern California

[Exsmokey]

For an area with so many scanner listeners I can't believe the lack of information about Caltans in southern California. Very little talkgroup information for the trunked system on Santiago shared by Districts 7, 8, and 12 is available. There is almost no callsign information available for these districts either. I have some pretty good information from 1994 showing the locations, frequencies, and tones of the conventional repeaters in L.A., Ventura, Orange, San Bernardino, and Riverside Counties, most of which is still valid.

The biggest gap I have is for eastern Riverside County, specifically for the Desert Center to Blythe section of I-10. I've done geographical searches on the FCC website and don't find anything on Chuckwalla Peak, the main electronic site for eastern Riverside County, licensed to Caltrans. The only State of Calif. licenses in the 800 MHz band are for the interoperability frequencies and for the Department of Corrections. Eastern Riverside used to be in Caltrans District 11 (San Diego), however, the information I have shows 856.100 and 857.100 on Chuckwalla and they are not licensed there anymore. In the past 4-5 years Caltrans did a re-alignment of districts and eastern Riverside was moved into District 8. Knowing that District 11 is converting to the San Diego Regional System I even looked for RCS frequencies on Chuckwalla in case D11 is still providing maintenance for highways in eastern Riverside. All the RCS frequencies are licensed in San Diego and Imperial Counties and I can't imagine the RCS putting in a site in Riverside County just to provide communications for Caltrans. As I-10 carries a major amount of traffic in and out of southern California I know that there has to be communications for Caltrans on it and the D8 sites north of Blythe at Vidal Junction and Iron Mtn. wouldn't cover I-10 all that well.

I'm surprised by the lack of Caltrans info for southern California. I realize that a lot of people just listen to law enforcement and then fire next, and don't listen to much of anything else. Here in a rural area having highway departments in the scanner is essential. I have them in my mobile rig wherever I travel. I've talked with many truckers who always do the same. They all comment on the lack of information for highway departments. With so many people driving and being stuck in traffic in southern CA, I would think more information about Caltrans would be available.

If anyone has infomation or comments on this I would appreciate it.

[WayneH]

I know how you feel. I basically enter all in the known Caltrans conventional freqs with CTCSS search on. Insider Caltrans info shouldn't be that hard to get.

I seem to recall the 7/8/12 trunked system being used along 15 in the Riverside area.

ETA: I added the Type I info to the database. It came from an LA Caltrans radio (I think). Not much in it other than a couple trunked channels and a few conventional....
SC: O, Fleet: 000, Sub: 15, Name: A15 LACOM
SC: D, Fleet 500, Sub: 01, Name: CONST 7
SC: D, Fleet 500, Sub: 03, Name: B3 I105
SC: D, Fleet 500, Sub: 04, Name: B4 I110
SC: D, Fleet 500, Sub: 15, Name: B15 LACOM (?)
Conv: 856.9875, Tone: 110.9, Name: CAR-CAR
Conv: 858.9875, Tone: 110.9, Name: LUKENS

-Wayne

[oregontreehugger]

There is a booklet in the Government Radio Systems series by Bob Kelty for the State of California.

I have a copy that is probably 3-4 years old by now, but there is a pretty big Caltrans section.

The booklets are readily available at Ham Radio Outlet in Oakland and especially Scanners Unlimited in San Carlos.

If anyone needs me to look something up I'd be happy to do so.

[Exsmokey]

I have them and the information for southern California is not as complete as it is for the northern Calif. districts. His information for the Bay area (Caltrans District 4) is outstanding, but then he lives there and monitors them all the time. Kelty does a lot of field research and combines that with exhaustive review of FCC records. He has knowledge of the radio systems of agenices most people don't even know exist. He somehow has access to inside information that I have never come close to even when working for an agency involved in large incident management.

[oregontreehugger]

Yeah, I've got some of his other books, too. Great material, like you said, especially for the Bay Area. I always wondered, "Geez, how did he find THAT out?!"

No doubt a LOT of time cramped up in some vehicle in a bunch of parking lots. Hope he's got a van!