Postal Inspectors

[ks4ui]

Does anyone have information on what kind of radios the Postal Inspectors use or what channels they are on?

 

[shell6]

What's your location?

 

[Stavro35]

I have no idea what kind of radios they use.

You might find them some where between 406.0 and 420.0 mhz .. There is also a chance they're on a JIWN system.

 

[ks4ui]

Use to live in the WDC area but now I live in Chicago, travel a lot throughout the country. Years ago I use to monitor the feds as I traveled but they have changed frequencies and many are encrypted. I once met a Postal Inspector and they seem to investigate some pretty interesting stuff. I see the reports on RR but wonder how do you know that these are Postal investigators if they are encrypted?

 

[shell6]

Ah, I wouldn't know then. I'm in NYC. I know that they're analog on a trunked system here but it's 100% codewords. No exceptions.

 

[GM]

Usps P.i.s.

In the Northern/Central NJ area, they are on 407.725 with an input 9 MHz higher. I know this because only one Postal Inspector transmits in the clear, the rest ENC. Repeaters are in Hamilton and Newark, and various locations have the base input (Kilmer, etc.). Ahh, what wonders Signal Stalker/Close Call/Spectrum Sweeper does for you...

I believe in the Philadelphia area they are in the 409 range.

 

[SOFA_KING]

I see the reports on RR but wonder how do you know that these are Postal investigators if they are encrypted?

PI freqs used to be assigned locally from a pool that was used nation wide. The same freqs would pop up in different areas. They used to have many channels (may still have). Even though there has been a total reorg, some of the old frequencies are still being used. In my case some inputs became outputs. We compare notes here in this forum. As it turns out, other people in different areas are hearing the same freqs in use. Also, the NAC code so far has been the same (482). When someone confirms the identity (in the clear) and matches up the NAC, you can be pretty sure it is them when you get that NAC in a search. I know of no one else using it. Of course you have to be open minded to the possibility of different NACs used in different areas, but so far I have only seen one and heard of one. I expect the same type of radio system habbits and design, and so far I'm seeing it with the exception of wider area repeater design than before. These guys down here love to have long winded QSOs, and they do...especially on a Sunday mornings. Same MO as before.

There are two freqs in my area that fit the profile. I expect they have more and I'm searching with logging as much as I can. It is just a matter of time until I get some direct freqs.

407.7250 R
407.7750 R

I have heard reports of:

409.9375

The action used to be good, and when in the clear they would say way too much over the radio down here, but it was fun to listen to. Now all I hear is garble. In fact they are garbling right now!

Phil

 

[ecps92]

Depending on where you are, Sofa King is correct.

New England we have them on 409.9375 P25 with a mix of Clear and Encrypted.

PI freqs used to be assigned locally from a pool that was used nation wide. The same freqs would pop up in different areas. They used to have many channels (may still have). Even though there has been a total reorg, some of the old frequencies are still being used. In my case some inputs became outputs. We compare notes here in this forum. As it turns out, other people in different areas are hearing the same freqs in use. Also, the NAC code so far has been the same (482). When someone confirms the identity (in the clear) and matches up the NAC, you can be pretty sure it is them when you get that NAC in a search. I know of no one else using it. Of course you have to be open minded to the possibility of different NACs used in different areas, but so far I have only seen one and heard of one. I expect the same type of radio system habbits and design, and so far I'm seeing it with the exception of wider area repeater design than before. These guys down here love to have long winded QSOs, and they do...especially on a Sunday mornings. Same MO as before.

There are two freqs in my area that fit the profile. I expect they have more and I'm searching with logging as much as I can. It is just a matter of time until I get some direct freqs.

407.7250 R
407.7750 R

I have heard reports of:

409.9375

The action used to be good, and when in the clear they would say way too much over the radio down here, but it was fun to listen to. Now all I hear is garble. In fact they are garbling right now!

Phil

 

[diskmonger]

There are two freqs in my area that fit the profile. I expect they have more and I'm searching with logging as much as I can. It is just a matter of time until I get some direct freqs.

407.7250 R
407.7750 R

In Michigan (Detroit area) I have logged both of these freqs active using a NAC of 482. Encrypted 100% of the time. Inputs are 9Mhz above this as already mentioned.

 

[RayAir]

In Michigan (Detroit area) I have logged both of these freqs active using a NAC of 482. Encrypted 100% of the time. Inputs are 9Mhz above this as already mentioned.

Nice catch, are you sure they are postal inspectors? Not to doubt you but I was told by someone I know who works for USPS that they make extensive use of cell phones instead of radios.

 

[GM]

Yes they do use the phones extensively, however they must check in with NLECC Control from time to time over the air as to their current status/location.

 

[diskmonger]

Nice catch, are you sure they are postal inspectors? Not to doubt you but I was told by someone I know who works for USPS that they make extensive use of cell phones instead of radios.

I'm pretty certain that is who it is. A 482 NAC is a common USPI NAC across the country.

Also, before they switched to P25 (20 years ago or more) they were analog and using the current output (407.775, 407.725) as the repeater inputs. Stands to reason that is who it is still since they are using 2 of the same freqs as before.

The new Fed UHF band plan calls for the repeater outputs in the lower part of the band and the repeater inputs exactly 9Mhz above that. Although, I have found at least 1 case of that rule not applying around here. But generally, that is how it is.

A lot of federal agencies are making use of nextels and cell phones but are still going to require radio usage. Think about when we had the black out in 2003, cell phones and nextels were pretty much uselss.

 

[Michael-SATX]

Down here in San Antonio, Texas ... Our US Post Office freqs are analog conventional UHF FM.
415.0500 = Postal Inspector, 414.7250 = Postal Ops, 415.5750 = Postal Ops ( all 3 are active ).

 

[SOFA_KING]

Down here in San Antonio, Texas ... Our US Post Office freqs are analog conventional UHF FM.
415.0500 = Postal Inspector, 414.7250 = Postal Ops, 415.5750 = Postal Ops ( all 3 are active ).

Then get ready for the big transistion! It is coming! And when it does, you will be in prime time to hear all of the testing on ALL of the FREQUENCIES. Transistions are mop up time. If you are lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time, you can clean up and bag all of the channels...something that will help us all. If you do not have NAC decode capability, get it!

Those old well known freqs are going bye bye soon.

Phil

 

[ecps92]

You will hear them sign-on in the am, with a Vehicle ID, Operator, Fuel Level.

Also responses on weekends to Alarm Calls at the Postal Facilities.

Not as much Investigation as they had in the past when they have 3 Repeaters linked via VHF

Yes they do use the phones extensively, however they must check in with NLECC Control from time to time over the air as to their current status/location.

 

[SOFA_KING]

I went through and did a review of old known PI freqs and made a list. As we are seeing, they have done a reorg and are reusing freqs under the new UHF band plan. Given the new plan, I broke the band up into sections. 406.0000 - 410.9875 for repeater outputs, 411.0000 - 414.9875 for simplex, and 415.0000 - 419.9875 for inputs. Then I paired the possible outputs and inputs, and then separated the ones in the center for possible simplex use. Since they had many freqs before, I would think they still have many, but some of them may not be used as repeater channels due to the new plan. My guess is that if they still had a license and could convert it, they would do so. I looked at both ends of the band to see if either end was already in use for another service. Some were, some were not. I don't know if this theory will pan out in practice, but if it does, it might speed up the search for additional PI channels.

Here are the results with notes:

NEW KNOWNS
RPTR / INPUT

407.7250 / 416.7250 output was at one time an input - new input freq
407.7750 / 416.7750 output was at one time an input - new input freq

NEW REPORTED

409.9375 / 418.9375? not heard in FL - odd splinter freq.

OLD FREQS - MIGHT BE REUSED AS REPEATERS
LOW FREQS KNOWN - HIGH FREQS MIGHT BE NEW

407.6500 / 416.6500 very possible - both IRAC USA
407.9500 / 416.9500 input is UAR trunking group 3 - maybe in some areas?
408.0000 / 417.0000 input UHR? - unknown input use
408.5000 / 417.5000 input is DEA NY - possible in some areas?
409.0250 / 418.0250 very possible - both IRAC USA
409.2750 / 418.2750 maybe - input is IRAC UIL

OLD FREQS - MIGHT BE REUSED AS REPEATERS
HIGH FREQS KNOWN - LOW FREQS MIGHT BE NEW

406.0500 / 415.0500 very possible - 415.0500 had heavy use before reorg
406.4750 / 415.4750 maybe - input is IRAC UII
407.2250 / 416.2250 maybe - input is IRAC UAR
408.8250 / 417.8250 input was reported as FAA at one time
409.3000 / 418.3000 input well known - output might be used by others

FREQS THAT VERY WELL MIGHT BE USED FOR DIRECT SIMPLEX

411.5750
413.6000
414.7500

I loaded most of these into my UPO scan list and will be looking for activity. If nothing comes of any of these after some time, I will take them out. But if this theory is correct I would expect to hear something. They used to have a few low use simplex channels in the past. Those are harder to get. I hope this works. Lets see what we get!

Phil