Aberdeen Proving Grounds

[TinEar]

If anyone has additional information on talkgroups at either Aberdeen or Edgewood Arsenal, please post them. The problem is that Aberdeen and Edgewood are really two separate nets but listed under one heading in the database. The talkgroups are also jumbled together rather than under their respective net IDs. I had been copying them in a conventional mode simply because I was out of room in the scanner for another trunked system. I just replaced my Upper Eastern Shore Consortium net with Aberdeen to attempt to get some talkgroups recovered. The database no longer lists talkgroups with unknown functions so we can't even try to recover IDs for those that have been noted by others and build on the information. I've recovered these unknowns just today and I'm sure there are many others:

16
496
624
880 (Associated with TG4976)
1296
1392 (Range Operations)
1936 (Probably Military Police function)
2800
11504
11600 (Range Operations)
12944
13040
17680

I also noticed the Aberdeen bombing range is very active today with F16s from the NJ Air National Guard (callsign SMASH) and A10s from the PA Air National Guard (callsign UGLY) operating. The Aberdeen Range uses a control frequency of 248.4 mHz in AM mode if you want to listen.

 

[ka3jjz]

138.425 was also reported active by Jack on Scan-DC.

As an aside, Al, are you using software to track those unknown talkgroups? This sounds like a job for IDTracker.

73s Mike

 

[TinEar]

No Mike, no software....just listening, marking them down, comparing against the known list of talkgroups and trying to identify the activity on each. Finding the list of unknowns is really the easiest part of the equation. The difficult part is putting an identity with each of them. For Aberdeen, we have lots of talkgroups marked simply "Range Operations" but that doesn't tell the whole story. Certain talkgroups belong to certain ranges and certain types of testing. Those might never be recovered by just listening and will need an insider to provide insight. However, at least lumping them into general categories such as mentioned, helps when listening is directed at the range testing, for instance. This is really an interesting net to listen to. You can often hear them calling for the Klaxon horn to be sounded to warn of an upcoming test, the countdown and hear the weapon being fired in the background which is followed by the results. Okay, so I'm a sucker for things that go boom.

Oh, and yes, I also heard the 138.425 but it was A10 activity and much of it was ground attack which put the aircraft at low altitudes and difficult to hear. I could hear them each time they pulled up to begin an attack but then would lose them when they dived at the target.

 

[ka3jjz]

Hmm, the more you describe it the more it seems IDTracker would be ideal for the job. It can do recording on each unknown talkgroup so you could concentrate on getting the details rather than having to grab pencil and paper, and maybe miss something. It's free, by the way.

73s Mike

 

[TinEar]

More new talkgroups for Aberdeen Proving Ground:

112
400 (Listed as Building Maint. in database but is Range Operations)
592
1584
1968
2448
2512 (Range Operations)
4336
11216