Has Cibola National Forest Service gone to digital or secretly changed frequencies?

Hello,

I was just wondering if anyone knows or has heard if Cibola National Forest Service in New Mexico has gone to digital or secretly changed frequencies without updating or posting them on Radio Reference? Why? I use to always hear Cedro Peak & many of the others with Cibola National Forest Service on my scanner primarily on 170.5250 Mhz & 171.4500 Mhz. Lately especially in the last 6 months to a year I am not hearing much at all on my scanner of Cibola National Forest Service like I use to. I searched the web & cannot run into or find any new or updated scanner frequencies for them.

Does anybody here know or can help me to find out in some way? I hope that someone here can help me figure out why I am not picking up or hearing Cibola National Forest Service hardly anymore on my scanner like I use to. My scanner is a Uniden BCT15X

Thanks everyone!

Just as a frame of reference if they went digital you would hear strange noises on your scanner. If they changed frequencies that's when you hear nothing at all

Has Cibola National Forest Service Gone To Digital Or Secretly Changed Frequencies?

jaymatt1978 said:

Just as a frame of reference if they went digital you would hear strange noises on your scanner. If they changed frequencies that's when you hear nothing at all

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Of course, if he programmed the frequencies with PL tone, then they would not here strange noises. I am inclined to think they have gone to APCO P25. Try searching the entire 162-174 mHz area and see what you hear. If you have a scanner that will decode APCO P25, it is time to use it.

CorwinScansNM said:

Hello,

I was just wondering if anyone knows or has heard if Cibola National Forest Service in New Mexico has gone to digital or secretly changed frequencies without updating or posting them on Radio Reference? Why? I use to always hear Cedro Peak & many of the others with Cibola National Forest Service on my scanner primarily on 170.5250 Mhz & 171.4500 Mhz. Lately especially in the last 6 months to a year I am not hearing much at all on my scanner of Cibola National Forest Service like I use to. I searched the web & cannot run into or find any new or updated scanner frequencies for them.

Does anybody here know or can help me to find out in some way? I hope that someone here can help me figure out why I am not picking up or hearing Cibola National Forest Service hardly anymore on my scanner like I use to. My scanner is a Uniden BCT15X

Thanks everyone!

Click to expand...

There aren't any agencies that update their listings in Radio Reference. It is up to us to figure them out and submit changes to the database. All federal frequencies are officially confidential, not shared with the public and are not subject to the Federal Freedom of Information Act. The Southwestern Region (R3) of the Forest Service is very conscious of not leaving any frequency information accessible to those without a password. I've only seen 1-2 documents come to light in the past several years, then the next year's version can't be found. I've seen frequency information accessible year after year in other Forest Service regions. I will look up the Cibola NF on those 2 documents to see if I can shed some light on this situation.

Thank you all very much. Please do keep your eyes open for any additional informational or frequencies for Cibola National Forest Service in New Mexico. Maybe you all know or can find or spot something that I can't seem to find on the Internet on my own. I appreciate all of your help with this.

I am very fire aware to my extremely dry mountain that I live right next to which is why I always want to be able to hear & pick up all of Cibola National Forest Service on all & any of their frequencies which are quite unknown now to this day & maybe not still current with the frequencies that are posed on RadioReference.com as for I am not hearing them talk on their radios like I use to 2 to 3 years ago. Back then I heard them talking back & forth off & on throughout the day & talking to Cedro Peak fire watch tower located in Tijeras NM about smoke reports & fire checks way more that I do now.

Reply For jaymatt1978,
I do not own a scanner that will decode APCO P25 as for I just recently upgraded from a Uniden BC355N to a Uniden BCT15X which is only capable of analog & analog trunking signals.

The best information I have is real sketchy. The Cibola should still be on 170.5250, but try 171.4500. Please report back on this thread it you hear anything on 171.4500. If you do then a submission to the database is in order.

I do in fact & have had 170.5250 Mhz & 171.4500 Mhz frequencies programed on my scanner because that is what I was really picking up Cibola National Forest Service on years ago but am hearing very little to nothing now from them on my scanner except a tiny piece of a conversation every now & then but not enough to be of any help to me in listening to them fully like I use to.

Regards,
CorwinScansNM

I don't have a source in Region 3 (AZ,NM) for any frequency information. Changing frequencies during field season does seem a bit uncommon. Have you tried monitoring in a different area? You don't show where you are located and that information might be helpful in determining what is going on here. I worked four years on the Cibola National Forest on the Magdalena Ranger District. I hiked and drove all over the San Mateos and Magdalena Mountains as well as north of town and in the Datil area. So I monitored the Cibola's radio frequencies a lot. I'm familiar with the electronic sites and what can be heard from various areas on the forest. I'm not sure I can figure this out from here, but knowing where you are listening from might provide a lead.

I live in Zip Code 87047 & am only monitoring from one location being my home. I have switched scanner locations inside my home though to see if I got better signals & sound along with multiple scanner antenna switch outs.

I'm hearing some talking off & on on the 170.5250 & 171.4500 but 90% of it is garbled & scratchy when I do hear something. I have purchased quite a bit of scanner antennas over the last year mostly on eBay to try to help me pick up Cibola National Forest Service again like I used to & clearly too unlike I do now. I've not yet found a BNC type scanner antenna that helps in this & have convinced myself to ship most of them back for refunds after just one week of use for trying to pick up & hear most or all of Cibola National Forest Service on my scanner using the frequencies found here on RadioReference & again, clearly too without all of the garbled scratchiness on Cibola's 2 main frequencies.

It is either nothing at all as if my scanner is not picking them up at all or garbled & scratchy when I am picking up a conversation from Cibola National Forest Service on 170.5250 or 171.4500. What is strange is that I can pick up (Santa Fe), (Moriarty) & (Edgewood) fire, police & Santa Fe Forest Service totally clear as if they were in my back yard. This is all while I'm scanning in the frequency range of 150.0000 Mhz - 174.0000 Mhz but just can't seem to hear or pick up Cibola National Forest Service for nothing; & again when I do, 90% of what I hear of them is garbled & scratchy & not clear at all like I hear Santa Fe & some others. I don't really need to or care to hear the other counties or cities that I am picking up on my scanner but run into them when scanning for active frequencies being that I'm hoping to by some small miracle hear & locate a spare active frequency for Cibola National Forest Service that I do not have programmed on my scanner. Its not happened yet...

I searched around and as far as I can tell, 170.5250 MHz and 171.4500 MHz are still the primary frequencies for Cibola NF. And the fact that you are still hearing something on those frequencies indicates that they have probably not changed frequencies. From your postings, you did hear them at one time, just better than you are hearing them now.

I can't confirm any changes for Cibola NF, but it is possible they changed something on their end, such as a repeater site, an antenna location, etc. But something could possibly have changed near your listening location and perhaps something is de-sensing the BCT-15 scanner. Perhaps a new VHF transmitter or even an FM broadcast signal may be causing the two frequencies from Cibola to appear weak at your location.

Have you tried taking the scanner and listening at other locations and see if you can pick them up somewhere else any better? I ask because I have a couple of frequencies like yours that I can't pick up at home, but drive a few blocks away and they come in fine. RF can be a mystery sometimes...

- Chris

Correct, I use to hear Cibola National Forest Service like Gold but now I can't hardly hear or pick them up anymore & when I do it is not a nice, clear, scratch free signal so that I can fully understand them & what they are talking about or saying to each other.

One quick note: I was making my Uniden BCT15X do a custom scan of 168.0000 Mhz to 174.0000 Mhz to see if I could pick Cibola up on another frequency close to the other 2 which I have done & tried many many times before hoping to luck out & pick them up on another unknown frequency clearly. While I was doing this, I noticed that my scanner was stopping on some unknown trunked or digital frequencies in that short frequency band range. I had to keep going to my scanner & locking them out because they are annoying & worthless. Therefore, I do in fact wonder to myself if some of those trunked or digital frequencies that my scanner is stopping on in the 168.0000 to 174.0000 Mhz range are or could possibly be Cibola National Forest Service talking mostly encrypted on unknown frequencies that happen to fall around their 170.5250 Mhz & 171.4500 Mhz frequencies which I hear very little to nothing on anymore unlike I use to.

Technology, I'll you? Sometimes it is a good thing & sometimes it is not because it leaves people like me in the dust & wondering what has really happened & changed so much that I can't hear or much pick up Cibola National Forest Service clearly or at all if any percent lately it seems.

CORWINSCANSNM

Can you take your scanner to Albuquerque and see if you can receive the signal better. If I remember correctly there is a repeater on a peak near the north end of the Sandia Range called Cedro. That repeater is only used when units are on the backside of the Sandias.

The hub electronic site for the entire forest is on Sandia Crest, or at least it was when I worked there many years ago. The forest has three remote bases, one on South Baldy in the Magdalena Mountains, one on Mt. Taylor (I think it is actually at La Mosca Lookout) and one on Capilla Peak. The links from those sites are microwave. I'm wondering if another transmitter was built next to the Forest Service hub remote base. Another possibility is the antenna up there was changed from an omni-directional to a beam. Omni-directional means the antenna transmits in all directions. Maybe a directional beam was put in where the signal on Sandia only transmits to the west. You need to change locations, take the scanner to Albuquerque where you have a better path to Sandia Peak and see if your reception is better. I think you might be in a shadow of Sandia. Until you take your scanner over on the west side of the Sandias we won't know why you are having such trouble receiving the listed frequencies.

However, you should receive Cedro well. Then again you might be in a shadow of that also. I know that the large number of transmitters up there makes it difficult to keep a transceiver working correctly. There are some very powerful TV transmitters up there and at one time and when I worked on the forest some guy wires were emitting some powerful signals. The site had a lot of problems with interference to say the least.

Again just like I suggested in a previous post and chrisP as well, you have to go to other locations to see if you can receive better there. You must travel to Albuquerque frequently. Take the scanner with you and listen there.

Any new, unknown or unlisted frequencies for Cibola National Forestry that I should be aware of & program on my digital scanner? I have not checked in or posted about this sine late 2013 when I posted this thread regarding Cibola National Forestry & their frequencies.

I don't hear much of them or their communications anymore to this day like I used to except a lot of distortion/fuzz on some of their old frequencies with faint voices of them communicating which I think is or has something to do with Multi Simulcast Distortions used by them making radio signals & traffic unreadable to us on scanners but clear to all of the employees working for Cibola National Forestry who have the proper radios for communications.

They don't use simulcast systems. I would suggest to program a search on your scanner and let it run for days and weeks on end. It is also not a busy time of the year for them.

abqscan said:

They don't use simulcast systems. I would suggest to program a search on your scanner and let it run for days and weeks on end. It is also not a busy time of the year for them.

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I have in fact been doing the custom search range of 165.000 Mhz - 174.000 Mhz off & on quite a few days a week on my digital scanner hoping to land on & discover some new frequencies or trunked systems for Cibola National Forest. Have yet to really hear them & their full conversations on both radios without the distortion/fuzz on at least one of their communicating radios that they are using.

I am thinking about joining nationalradiodata.com for a short period of time for a bit of Money just to see if they have anything for Cibola National Forest Service that I don't or that is not posted on RadioReference.

I can confirm two-way conversations on P25 P1 many times this past summer for CNF. Was also mixed in with analog transmissions at the time.