Wild Justice Direction Finding?

[acepilot340]

Hey all, there is a show on TV called Wild Justice and it is basically like COPS, but the crews follow California Fish and Game. On one of the episodes one of the wardens was in search of poachers. The warden was standing on a ridge looking over the valley and he was using a small directional antenna that was connected to a scanner of some sort, and he was listening to what appeared to be poacher 'activity'.

My question is, what exactly was he listening to, the show didn't go into any detail at all and I would like to know what the heck he was listening to to know where the poachers were located at. I wish I had a screen-shot of the equipment, but this is basically what he had... http://www.qsl.net/nz0i/equipment/DFsetup.gif

Any insight would be appreciated because I think it is interesting how this guy was able to track down these poachers.

[ecps92]

MURS, FRS, GMRS, VHF Marine are all channels poachers/hunters like to hide out on for two-way comms. Seems the warden might of had some inside info on which Freq

Originally Posted by acepilot340

Hey all, there is a show on TV called Wild Justice and it is basically like COPS, but the crews follow California Fish and Game. On one of the episodes one of the wardens was in search of poachers. The warden was standing on a ridge looking over the valley and he was using a small directional antenna that was connected to a scanner of some sort, and he was listening to what appeared to be poacher 'activity'.

My question is, what exactly was he listening to, the show didn't go into any detail at all and I would like to know what the heck he was listening to to know where the poachers were located at. I wish I had a screen-shot of the equipment, but this is basically what he had... http://www.qsl.net/nz0i/equipment/DFsetup.gif

Any insight would be appreciated because I think it is interesting how this guy was able to track down these poachers.

[canav844]

Originally Posted by ecps92

MURS, FRS, GMRS, VHF Marine are all channels poachers/hunters like to hide out on for two-way comms. Seems the warden might of had some inside info on which Freq

Probably knew from what he caught them on last time, or ran a quick scan with an omni first. I saw the episode just a radio shack handheld scanner and a yagi.

In some places just using the radio while otherwise legally hunting is a crime so seeing a warden with a scanner doesn't seem unusual. Give it several episodes though, they vilify scanner users as only having them for criminal activity before you get to the end of the series.

[Hooligan]

Originally Posted by acepilot340

Hey all, there is a show on TV called Wild Justice and it is basically like COPS, but the crews follow California Fish and Game. On one of the episodes one of the wardens was in search of poachers. The warden was standing on a ridge looking over the valley and he was using a small directional antenna that was connected to a scanner of some sort, and he was listening to what appeared to be poacher 'activity'.

It's great that they know to use communications intelligence, but it's too bad they don't seem to comprehend that bad-guys can target them with the same thing. Their Nextels are relatively secure, but what I've heard them using for clearly sensitive, comms as well as the routine stuff clearly are not.

Anyway, I missed the episode in question. My first guess would have been that they were monitoring a tracking beacon, but if you're sure they were monitoring comms of potential poachers, I guess the problem antenna-wise is that the poachers could easily be on UHF (FRS/GMRS/BRS), or VHF (MURS/BRS/Marine) so they'd kinda want to use a small log-periodic antenna.

If the warden dude you saw was on a ridge overlooking a big valley & the directional antenna was pretty small, he's not going to really get a very accurate idea of the direction, but I'm sure he looked high-tech & bad-*** on TV & sometimes that's more important.

[acepilot340]

Originally Posted by canav844

Give it several episodes though, they vilify scanner users as only having them for criminal activity before you get to the end of the series.

Wow, I haven't seen that episode yet. I'll have to watch and see which warden makes that comment. I can understand because I have heard of fishermen who purposely fish without licenses and monitor the scanners so they know when DNR or Fish and Game is in the area.

Thanks for all the replies, I was thinking he was monitoring some sort of goofy human RF interference because I just couldn't see how he would be able to know if anyone was in the area just by waving the antenna around in such a large area picking up GMRS/FRS/MURS. And like some have said, he could be hearing comms all over the place.

[Hooligan]

Originally Posted by acepilot340

Hey all, there is a show on TV called Wild Justice and it is basically like COPS, but the crews follow California Fish and Game. On one of the episodes one of the wardens was in search of poachers. The warden was standing on a ridge looking over the valley and he was using a small directional antenna that was connected to a scanner of some sort, and he was listening to what appeared to be poacher 'activity'.

I think I finally saw the episode you're referring to last night. My DVR recorded it several weeks ago.

The DFG Warden was using what looked to be a handheld CB or VHF Maine Band radio, and the potential poachers were using channel 10 (VHF Marine Band: 156.500MHz, HF CB: 27.075MHz) according to the display. The Warden was thinking the guys were using hound dogs to track & trap a bear. Eventually he got out of his truck and started walking down a ravine, as the suspects continued talking, & closed-in on them via their barking dogs. Thankfully, the suspects for whatever reason never did shoot at the tree'd bear, so everyone left happily ever-after & the warden didn't make contact with the guys.

The Warden did use communications intelligence, HOWEVER, he never RDF'ed them. The antenna on his handheld marine radio was clearly somewhat mangled & bent, as-if a dog had been chewing on it. It was absolutely not any sort of small, directional antenna.

I would really like to think that we cannot be talking about the same episode, because if we are, you either need a new TV, or better glasses ASAP. However, everything else matches your description, and thanks to my DVR, I do believe I've now seen every episode...


The episode I'm referring to is called 'Gold Diggers' & it re-airs this Sunday afternoon/evening. It's an interesting episode because it shows potential communications intelligence being conducted by both sides -- the Warden's example mentioned above, and then some crusty-old mountain-men hunter dudes who have an ancient scanner in one of their pickup trucks, complete with external antenna.

A funny thing about this episode: in the part where Warden Kroll is about to take his rookie partner in to investigate the gold mining operation, he sternly lectures him about officer safety & to demonstrate it, he shows him a "12-gage handgun" he took from a convicted felon a week or two earlier. It's not a 12-gage firearm, it's simply a %$#*& FLARE GUN! Kroll is an idiot.

[acepilot340]

HAHA, we are talking about the same episode, I'm just going off of memory because I saw the episode about 4 months ago and just now remembered to ask about it. But, I do need a new pair of glasses, lol.

[Hooligan]

Originally Posted by acepilot340

HAHA, we are talking about the same episode, I'm just going off of memory because I saw the episode about 4 months ago and just now remembered to ask about it. But, I do need a new pair of glasses, lol.

Hahaha, well, I'm still glad you pointed out that episode, as there was obviously several interesting aspects of radio use.

When I first saw the Warden grab that handheld radio from the back seat, my initial thought was "WTF kind of antenna is that?!"

Hurry-up & get those new glasses, before we report you to the FAA!



Tim

[N8IAA]

Just saw the episode again this evening with the abused antenna (looks to be in the 220Mhz range) and attached to a scanner. Heads up all ya'll bear poachers in northern CA, Boyd is on the prowl That boy has been in the woods waaayyy to long.
Larry

[acepilot340]

Originally Posted by N8IAA

That boy has been in the woods waaayyy to long.
Larry

I agree Larry, he uses a lot of deer hunting techniques to track down the bear poachers.

[canav844]

Well lets put an end to some of the speculation here. It appears to be a folding Yagi, that doesn't look all that beat up, just designed to fold and you watch him assemble it; I can't ID exactly what the radio used is but maybe someone here can. They got in the truck and ran for static so I'm pretty sure it was mostly for camera display, but as a tactic it would be sufficient for narrowing the area of a large park that people were using FRS or Marine Radios, if you can take that whole park and bring it down to a 10 degree slice to go look for people near a road and see what they're up to.








And then from a different episode here's all the radios they showed as being able to receive F&W frequencies and thus taking away the one tactic they had, the element of surprise.

[acepilot340]

Thanks for posting those pictures. So there were 2 different episodes where this warden was using scanners to find the poachers. In one a scanner connected to a small directional antenna. And in Season 1 Episode 11, he was using a scanner/marine radio with a chewed up rubber duckie looking antenna.

[Hooligan]

Yeah, thanks for those screen shots! I just saw (& was referring to in my prior post) the episode that didn't feature that directional VHF antenna.

[gvranchosbill]

09/16/2011 @ 11:30 am:

I was searching VHF Highband and my Scanner stopped on 156.6000 mhz (Marine Ch 12) so i listened for a while and low and behold they started refering to sows and cubs, i could hear hunting dogs in the background.

They said they let the sow and cubs go.

There are at least 3 people talking to each other from 4x4 trucks then they switched over to ATV's (I can hear the engines in background).

They have mentioned crossing a creek,in the saddle of mtn,on top of mtn.

Its now 12:25 pm and they went silent on radio chatter.

My location puts me in line of sight of the Eastern Sierra's from Spooner Summit(Carson City,Nv) to the extreme south of (Leviathan Peak) Markleeville,Ca.

According to local newspaper there is a legal bear hunt from Aug to Dec but only 45 hunting licenses were issued, so i dont know if these guys are legal, given they are simular to the Wild justice program poachers using marine radios and hunting dogs.

One name mentioned was Casey, forgot the other two.

Its 12:40 pm and radio still silent.

Its 12:50 pm and they are talking again, they are on the move getting turned around on a 4x4 trail at a very high elevation (Genoa Peak?) maybe.

Im going to listen on and off to frequency, but not much happening.

Heard Nevada Division of Wildlife earlier on Snow Valley Repeater along with Calif Dept of Fish & Game using Sweetwater Repeater, comms unrelated to this event.

gvranchosbill
Just east of Lake Tahoe,Nv

[SM166]

The 'scanner' is a AOR 8200 - more commonly referred to as a wide range 500kh- 1300 mhz all mode communications Reciever, the folded yagi along with this type of radio is also used by F/G officers as well as several ranchers out west to track radio collars on various animals - bears, birds, game animals, depending on the freq the yagi is change to track these collars
But what ever he doing he's using a AOR radio -

[HelixArray]

Oh man...sorry to bring up an old thread but I was just researching this episode the other day and found the images from here in a google search. Thanks for the posting.

This show had the feel of COPS(ie: real time, not scripted much) IMO. I like watching the FWC on animal planet and the Alaskan patrol as well. The guy above using that Yagi was the most clever officer I have ever seen..at one point he cut a dead bears foot off with a pocket knife and started making false "mondo-sized" tracks for the dogs and hunters to find. ahahaha

At any rate, I was curious about these collapsible antennas, as the one he received with was a simple design...one of each of the essentials; a reflector, driver and director...they all looked to be the same length in spacing as well as in length. Is this configuration common place for mobile deployments?

[w4wxp]

Originally Posted by canav844

In some places just using the radio while otherwise legally hunting is a crime so seeing a warden with a scanner doesn't seem unusual.

According to WHO? The FCC certainly doesn't have any prohibition on Murs, Gmrs, etc use while hunting - they are all part 95 regulated. The Fcc is the ONLY group that has power over the usage of those radios, period.

[gvranchosbill]

I remember the episode in question.
He had it in search mode, as it was searching it stopped on a freq picking up noise i believe from the film crews wireless microphone that the F&G Officer was wearing, i remeber that it wasnt on the actual freq, but sounded like do to the proximity it bled over.
From searching VHF Highband quite offten here with a view of the Eastern Sierra Nevada Range and near Lake Tahoe,
i have picked up many times Hunters using VHF Marine Radios, for all i know its the same guys on the program, if i remember correctly those guys were in the general area that i can pick up, they were enroute to a hunting area and were talking about ammo and concerned about getting permit.
Ive been hearing lots of chatter from #4241 on CAFG Sweetwater talking to Northern.Dispatch
Chatter on CAFG Leviathan.
NDOW has had lots of Bear Calls this weekend at Lake Tahoe Area, also "Frank William" Units NDOW Freq using Fox Mtn
USFW is my guess, i have a State Freq Doc from NVDEM stating who shares the NDOW Freqs.

Sept of 2011 they were using Marine Channel 12 156.600 MHz.Comms: Bears,Sows,Cubs,Dogs in Background
June of 2012 they were using Marine Channel 10 156.500 MHz Comms: Ammunition,Permits,Bighorn sheep
Sept of 2012 they were using Marine Channel 11 156.550 MHz Comms: Trails,Directions,General chatter as they 4x4 into area.

Its been 2 years and mostly on weekends i hear these guys, i taped the June 2012 conversation.

[4006]

Originally Posted by w4wxp

According to WHO? The FCC certainly doesn't have any prohibition on Murs, Gmrs, etc use while hunting - they are all part 95 regulated. The Fcc is the ONLY group that has power over the usage of those radios, period.

According the various states that have hunting laws that prohibit the use of electronic communications devices to coordinate hunting activities.

I think your tinfoil hat may be getting rusty...

[Wilrobnson]

Originally Posted by Hooligan

I A funny thing about this episode: in the part where Warden Kroll is about to take his rookie partner in to investigate the gold mining operation, he sternly lectures him about officer safety & to demonstrate it, he shows him a "12-gage handgun" he took from a convicted felon a week or two earlier. It's not a 12-gage firearm, it's simply a %$#*& FLARE GUN! Kroll is an idiot.

I've seen, seized and logged into evidence on two different occasions older model eastern European (German IIRC) flare pistols (steel ones) that held 12-ga birdshot rounds. Never really wondered what would happen if someone were to actually fire a shotgun round through one of these though.

I really want to see Joe Dirtbag fire a shotgun round out of one of the PLASTIC Orion model flare guns...

ETA- This is apparently what happens- Flare gun as 12 gauge - YouTube