federal call sign question

Status
Not open for further replies.

hippieman556

Member
Joined
Jan 14, 2005
Messages
536
Location
Philadelphia,PA
I am hearing a female keep saying 215 copy and then the other side comes back encyrpted. I have this in my radio as a fbi frequency. Anyone have any info ?
 

jonwienke

More Info Coming Soon!
Joined
Jul 18, 2014
Messages
13,416
Location
VA
Probably more like a PD where "215" would refer to a specific officer. But it's not an amateur-style call sign, or an abbreviation thereof.
 

freqhopping

Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2004
Messages
6,890
Location
Lo Co VA/ FM19
Federal agencies don't have license call signs, they are not licensed by the FCC. They operate under the National Telecommunications & Information Administration.


Actually they do have license callsigns.

Some examples I have are
[FONT=&quot]FBI Washington Field Office KGB770[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Federal Protective Service KPH624[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Supreme Court of US PD KRY706[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]US Marshall Service Communications Center KFQ385[/FONT]
Pentagon PD WAR101
CIA is KGB###
US Capitol PD is something like KGB238
US Park PD something like KGB797


[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
 

prcguy

Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2006
Messages
15,228
Location
So Cal - Richardson, TX - Tewksbury, MA
I like the FBI and CIA having callsigns that start with KGB, the initials for the old Soviet security agency.
prcguy


Actually they do have license callsigns.

Some examples I have are
[FONT=&quot]FBI Washington Field Office KGB770[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Federal Protective Service KPH624[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Supreme Court of US PD KRY706[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]US Marshall Service Communications Center KFQ385[/FONT]
Pentagon PD WAR101
CIA is KGB###
US Capitol PD is something like KGB238
US Park PD something like KGB797


[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
 

Squad10

Member
Joined
Nov 8, 2007
Messages
922
Maybe 215 is the radio ID for the squad that performs Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act related investigations.
 

lep

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2002
Messages
948
Actually call signs to Federal Agencies are from the ITU bloc assigned to the USA but set aside from the FCC so that there will be no overlap. US stations (mostly HF but not all) are sometimes "notified in the so-called Berne (named for the capitol of Switzerland) list" since notification to other nations provides protection against Harmful Interference as defined in the international radio regulations.
And yes US Agency stations do in fact have a piece of paper on an NTIA form suitable for posting. A long, long time ago I worked at such a station and we had our "license" framed and hanging on the wall of the shack, why? I was not high enough in the chain to make any comment about how silly it was since the facility was 'secure' in the first place so it wasn't as if some casual person would walk up and read the license. And besides in the block for "Frequency of operations" was typed in Classified (!).
Just to save any speculation, the place I worked was in Indiana.
 

jhooten

Member
Joined
Mar 6, 2004
Messages
1,735
Location
Paige, Republic of Texas
Being an retired federal commtech maybe I can shed some light. We did not have a call sign for our federal NTIA coordinated frequencies. We did have an FCC license/call sign for the Part 90 frequencies used for interoperability with local agencies.

Some of the dispatchers/control room operators came from non-federal agencies where they were used to giving the call sign as required by the FCC. They often used the FCC call sign on the NTIA frequencies, shall we say, out of habit since it was posted on the part 90 station.
 

WatnNY

Database Admin
Database Admin
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
1,180
Location
Knoxville, TN
I used to have the book by Mr Knietel I tthink his name was, with call signs for the Fed agencies. 215 may have been the number part of the call sign for the agency. If anyone still has the book, look up the FBI section and see what the call sign was for Philly FBI.

Mike
 

kennyblues

Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2003
Messages
656
Location
Randolph, MA
In the Federal Government Frequency Assignments book from Artsci publications from the 90's it lists. The Philadelphia Field Division as KEX 640
 

ecps92

Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2002
Messages
14,360
Location
Taxachusetts
Did the same think Kenny, waiting on the OP to share the Freq/Tone first.

I do hate the bad info that get's posted about agencies not having NTIA Call-signs :( when we know they do. Not just for Part 90 by the FCC

In the Federal Government Frequency Assignments book from Artsci publications from the 90's it lists. The Philadelphia Field Division as KEX 640
 

lep

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2002
Messages
948
Prior to encryption becoming common, my local FBI resident Agency gave their call on every transmission just like any other Police dispatcher. Now of course they are encrypted and I can no longer understand what they are saying but I can only assume they still id as previously. Again, prior to encryption the nearest Field Office used to periodically 'call" the resident agencies nearby for check in.
Here they were all in the KEV3xx grouping. The "locals" were not allowed to transmit on any Federal frequencies but the FBI cars had an extra radio to transmit TO the locals. In those OLD days, the FBI units prefixed their ID with "F" when talking with the locals.
 

methusaleh

Member
Joined
Feb 18, 2009
Messages
361
Location
New England
Actually they do have license callsigns.

Some examples I have are
[FONT=&quot]FBI Washington Field Office KGB770[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Federal Protective Service KPH624[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Supreme Court of US PD KRY706[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]US Marshall Service Communications Center KFQ385[/FONT]
Pentagon PD WAR101
CIA is KGB###
US Capitol PD is something like KGB238
US Park PD something like KGB797


[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]

We sure do...I am a federal LE supervisor, and oversaw the communications people in my office for four years.
 

jonwienke

More Info Coming Soon!
Joined
Jul 18, 2014
Messages
13,416
Location
VA
An agency having a 5 or 6-character alphanumeric call sign is not the same as the call signs being used by an individual officer/agent. I have yet to hear any federal, state, or local LE/EMS/fire traffic in which such a call sign was used, with the exception of one state police repeater that periodically broadcasts a call sign in Morse code.Everything else involves a 2-3-digit number, sometimes with a descriptor in front.

Examples:
"Engine 22" "Medic 11" (local fire department)
"Romney" (state police dispatch)

Everything else I hear is 2 or 3-digit numbers.
 

lep

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2002
Messages
948
An agency having a 5 or 6-character alphanumeric call sign is not the same as the call signs being used by an individual officer/agent. I have yet to hear any federal, state, or local LE/EMS/fire traffic in which such a call sign was used, with the exception of one state police repeater that periodically broadcasts a call sign in Morse code.Everything else involves a 2-3-digit number, sometimes with a descriptor in front.

Examples:
"Engine 22" "Medic 11" (local fire department)
"Romney" (state police dispatch)

Everything else I hear is 2 or 3-digit numbers.

And your point? This is a discussion of FEDERAL agencies where the use of the spectrum is under the NTIA, not state and/or local government where the use of the spectrum is under rules of FCC. The FCC has NO jurisdiction over FEDERAL agencies and must apply to NTIA for permission to use radios itself in mobile radio monitoring.
 

jonwienke

More Info Coming Soon!
Joined
Jul 18, 2014
Messages
13,416
Location
VA
"everything else" includes federal agencies--park service, park police, etc.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top