CA State Parks/Fish n Game

[mkeguyver]

Does anyone monitor these guys? I just moved to the orange county/san diego area.. anyone have any input on them.. i have all the frequencies.. just curious about them..are they pretty active?

 

[gmclam]

State Parks & F&G

Yes I monitor both, but I am based in the Sacramento area.

F&G has two VHF channels that I beleive are statewide. I hear an awful lot of vehicle stops on them taking place all over N Calif.

I've got a few local park frequencies programmed as well as the statewide freqs on 800 MHz. I programmed all of them because I suspect I'll hear traffic where ever I am traveling. So far that is true plus I hear stuff in my area all the time. I have not been as far south as SD yet.

 

[Mick]

F&g

Hello. For your area they are using 151.43 repeater mode with numerous ctcss for the different mountain tops used.

They use 159.435 simplex mostly on weekends. There are so few wardens that they're not too busy on either frq.

 

[RolnCode3]

Both are fairly active. Wardens do a lot of work without talking on the radio much, but there's enough traffic to know it's an active frequency.

State Parks is on 800, so you gotta' be somewhat close to the location you want to monitor. I listen to Folsom Lake Rangers, and they do a lot as well.

BTW-They are both dispatched out of the same communications center. If you call for F&G, you have to ask for the F&G dispatcher when they answer the phone. The Comm center calls itself "Northern" (for Northern CA) on the air.

*D'oh* Just saw you're in San Diego. Dunno anything about down there, sorry.

 

[mkeguyver]

ya i've been trying to pick them up anywere in southern california...

 

[Mick]

Could you please decipher your sentence? Thanks in advance.

ya i've been trying to pick them up anywere in southern california...

 

[MikeyC]

In San Diego, try the following -

State Parks
=======
Aqua - Primary - 868.4625 D115
Copper - Lifeguards - 866.4625 D115
Pink - Desert - 857.125 D115

I don't know I've ever heard traffic on these last two, but I've seen 'em listed. I don't listen to Parks enough to know

Light Green - Coastal - 858.1250 D115
Light Blue - Tijuana River - 859.1250 D115


Fish & Game - 151.4300
With tones -
107.2 (Toro)
127.3 (Lyons)
186.2 (Boucher)
162.2 (Blackjack)
156.7 (Santiago)



You may also be interested in the Bureau of Land Management (Good coverage all over So Cal)

BLM Admin Net - 166.3750 103.5
BLM Law Net - 166.7500 131.8


For Orange County, I have the following but can't necessarily verify the validity of them

Yellow - North Sector - 867.5625 D115
Sand - Lifeguards North - 866.5625 D115
Slate - South Sector - 867.4625 D115
Violet - Lifeguards South - 856.1250 D115

 

[hotdjdave]

State Parks

In San Diego, try the following -

State Parks
=======
Aqua - Primary - 868.4625 D115
Copper - Lifeguards - 866.4625 D115
Pink - Desert - 857.125 D115

For Orange County, I have the following but can't necessarily verify the validity of them

Yellow - North Sector - 867.5625 D115
Sand - Lifeguards North - 866.5625 D115
Slate - South Sector - 867.4625 D115
Violet - Lifeguards South - 856.1250 D115

In addition to these California State Parks and Recreations Lifeguard frequencies for Orange County ("Orange Coast District"), you may also hear something on these State Parks rangers and lifeguard frequencies for San Diego County ("San Diego Coast District"):

California State Parks and Recreations, San Diego Coast District

Light Green - various State Parks and State Beaches - 858.1250
Light Blue - various State Parks and State Beaches - 859.1250


Also try:

US Fish and Wildlife Service

34.4300
34.8100
34.8300
34.8500
164.6250
164.7250
172.6500
410.6250 - F1 - Law Enforcement
408.6750 - F2 - Law Enforcement
408.7500 - F3 - Law Enforcement


Note: I have not verified any of the above frequencies (at least in the last eight years).

 

[scankid2591]

Activity on DFG's channels are VERY sparse in Monterey County (and surrounding areas).

 

[WayneH]

Light Green - Coastal - 858.1250 D115

I think this is more for Mutual Aid use. Every RCS radio has it in the conventional zone.

I've never caught any routine use of it.

 

[SCPD]

DFG and State Parks have three combined dispatch centers in the state. As was mentioned there is "Northern" in Rancho Cordova, with the other two being "Central" which used to be in Monterey, I believe, and "Surcomm" in southern California. Why this last one is not called "Southern" is something I don't know. There might also be a sort of satellite dispatch center for state parks somewhere in the San Luis Obispo area as well, but I haven't been in that area to monitor for many years now, before dispatching for them became more centralized.

Prior to the establishment of the three comm centers and the interagency operation of same with DFG, state park dispatching was somewhat of a hodge podge. Sometimes a district would handle and sometimes the largest park in a district would handle dispatching. The same was true for DFG as they were sometimes dispatched by one of their own regional offices, sometimes by a CHP dispatch center, and in some locations by county sheriffs offices.

At one time most park rangers were expected to work the state beach units in Orange County for a year or two. This was to give them experience by using the agencies busiest law enforcement area for a place to get lots of experience in the shortest amount of time possible. It has been described to me as a situation where the county and municipalities in Orange County don't have enough officers to handle the beaches so they just let state parks handle the situation there. As a result I've had more than one state park ranger talk about paying their dues when they first start with state parks by being an "Orange County beach cop." I'm not sure if that is still the situation, but it would not surprise me.

Here in the Inyo-Mono Counties region of California I haven't heard a warden on their 151.430 or any other frequency I've found in at least five years now. I can't seem to find out what they are using. I hear the resource management people and aircraft on 151.430, especially the people who track collared animals, but not one peep out of a warden. I've searched the FCC records for clues but can't find anything.

 

[RolnCode3]

I'm not sure if that is still the situation, but it would not surprise me.

I've heard that new officers have been able to go to other places (Folsom Lake is here and I heard that it was an option).

I will say that it's good to have a consolidated dispatch...but they (especially F&G) cover HUGE territories, and every little nook and cranny has some nickname that's not on a map. There is no way a dispatcher can know exactly where the warden is. With a smaller dispatch, it might be possible. Give and take. Unless they were to employ some technology such as AVL or GPS on the officer (such as the new Pryme GPS shoulder mic). I think both of these agencies would benefit from such technology...it would offset some of the cost-savings from the dispatch consolidation, but would alleviate the loss of intimate knowledge the dispatcher has with the geography.

 

[Mick]

Hello. Have you also tried 151.415, 159.42, and 159.435? For Mono County the license is KME474 & KNDA352, for Inyo County it's KMD491, KNAE692, & KSZ251. With 151.43 these are Fish & Game's four primary frqs. for Calif.

Here in the Inyo-Mono Counties region of California I haven't heard a warden on their 151.430 or any other frequency I've found in at least five years now. I can't seem to find out what they are using. I hear the resource management people and aircraft on 151.430, especially the people who track collared animals, but not one peep out of a warden. I've searched the FCC records for clues but can't find anything.

 

[WayneH]

I catch the San Joaquin dispatcher transmitting from a base radio (On Blue Mtn) all the time so they must use a satellite office for that area.

 

[Mick]

Park Rangers and Fish & Game Wardens call in on their radio to "Surcomm." I understand the "Sur" part of the name is Spanish for "the south." Surcomm is in Perris, Riverside County.

DFG and State Parks have three combined dispatch centers in the state. As was mentioned there is "Northern" in Rancho Cordova, with the other two being "Central" which used to be in Monterey, I believe, and "Surcomm" in southern California. Why this last one is not called "Southern" is something I don't know. There might also be a sort of satellite dispatch center for state parks somewhere in the San Luis Obispo area as well, but I haven't been in that area to monitor for many years now, before dispatching for them became more centralized.

 

[RolnCode3]

Park Rangers and Fish & Game Wardens call in on their radio to "Surcomm." I understand the "Sur" part of the name is Spanish for "the south." Surcomm is in Perris, Riverside County.

That's why the 2 big Hispanic gangs are norteno and surreno.

 

[SCPD]

Hello. Have you also tried 151.415, 159.42, and 159.435? For Mono County the license is KME474 & KNDA352, for Inyo County it's KMD491, KNAE692, & KSZ251. With 151.43 these are Fish & Game's four primary frqs. for Calif.

I've tried all of those with no results. I've searched the FCC license database for any other frequencies they might be using here as well. I also follow the frequency coordination applications on the Northern CA APCO site and haven't picked anything there either. I can't imagine them using Nextel, but they want to keep much of their traffic as discrete as possible due to poachers, so this might be a possibility. During the general deer hunt season opening weekend as well as the annual opening of fishing season weekend, wardens from other parts of the state are brought in for extra coverage and I hear them on the 151.430 repeaters. During the remainder of the year I only hear the resource people and not a peep from the wardens.

APRS(Automatic Position Reporting System) would benefit Fish and Game as their officers cover very large areas. Fish and Game officers have the highest assault rate for any law enforcement officer so knowing the exact location of an officer at any given time would be important. The U.S. Forest Service locally here on the Inyo National Forest uses APRS for its law enforcement and fire apparatus. However, funding for natural resource agencies, which has never been all that great, is very marginal right now at both the federal and state levels. Fish and Game in California can barely afford to fill their warden positions and when they can they have trouble with recruiting as the pay is lower than for other POST certificate holding jobs. APRS is quite a ways further down the list.

The hodge/podge of dispatching I mentioned before included using county sheriffs dispatching/911 public safety answering point comm centers. Frequently DFG officers had to be put lower in priority due to heavy traffic in urban areas of counties. Wth centralized dispatching that is not as much of a problem. As for all those locations that are known by local convention and not on maps, that is a problem for any dispatcher. Sometimes the locations are on maps but are referred to with lingo for brevity purposes. Here in the eastern Sierra, Caltrans especially, has names for every segment of highway that isn't straight and level and the CHP, county sheriffs, and fire departments use them as well. When I was working for the Forest Service we would often meet with other agency's dispatchers or other employees and put those names on maps we would keep for reference as we responded to those locations after hearing scanner traffic. Those centralized dispatch centers probably have quite a few maps with more and more notes on them being added. In addition, in the Forest Service we had a computer program where landmarks and lat/long and township, range, section locations were cross referenced. Landmarks not shown on the map could be added to the program which put these locations onto a map at the same time. Having a dedicated computer at each dispatch center with this software would be cheaper than GPS based equipment, and a whole lot faster than trying to find it via notes on a bunch of maps.

I catch the San Joaquin dispatcher transmitting from a base radio (On Blue Mtn) all the time so they must use a satellite office for that area.

I don't follow what you are saying here. Who is the San Joaquin dispatcher? Fish and Game and state park units in San Joaquin county are dispatched by "Northern" and if you are referring to the Central or San Joaquin valley in general, at some point they are dispatched by either Surcomm or Central as you move south. For DFG I would guess that even the southern San Joaquin Valley is covered by Northern due to the way Fish and Game's regions are aligned. The repeater on Blue Mountain in the southern portion of the valley is linked via microwave into the appropriate dispatch center. This is a common situation all over the state. As an example, here in the eastern Sierra, you will hear "Northern" answering state park units on the Conway Summit electronic site, which is linked to Northern in Rancho Cordova. Just because you hear traffic on a local repeater does not mean there is a satellite office close by.

Wayne, and others who live in the San Joaquin Valley, if you listen to state parks and DFG I would like to hear which of the three dispatch centers cover particular areas. Example, which dispatch center covers the State Recreation Area around the San Luis reservoir, the state park units near Bakersfield, and the State Recreation Area at Millerton Lake just north of Fresno.

 

[WayneH]

I don't follow what you are saying here. Who is the San Joaquin dispatcher? Fish and Game and state park units in San Joaquin county are dispatched by "Northern" and if you are referring to the Central or San Joaquin valley in general, at some point they are dispatched by either Surcomm or Central as you move south.
<snip>
Just because you hear traffic on a local repeater does not mean there is a satellite office close by.

I understand, but the field unit was answered by a dispatcher using the Blue Mtn repeater input and tone. So I assume since they aren't replying via the M/W wireline connection that it would be a local office, especially since I was hearing them from the Altamont Pass area. I don't hear them answering anyone else on any other sites.

Wayne, and others who live in the San Joaquin Valley, if you listen to state parks and DFG I would like to hear which of the three dispatch centers cover particular areas.

I'm not in the SJ area enough to comment on the south end but both Blue and the unknown color freq (858.9875 I think) are answered by Northern. 9875 is also the freq used for primary at Carnegie too. I think they're licensed for two freqs there. Diablo RED is answered by "Central;" Diablo BROWN I can't remember.

For south of San Joaquin where BLUE ends, which freq takes up the area?

I'll keep a better ear to DFG as I recall hearing both Central and Northern, but not which tones.

-Wayne

 

[RolnCode3]

If it's important, I can just ask a Warden. There's a few that would either know the answer, or would find out for me.

 

[Big_Ears]

Sometimes DF&G uses other frequencies/radio systems of adjacent states. I encountered this when I was tagging along with a friend who pulled some X3B deer permits in Modoc County. The usual frequencies were silent, so began a band search and found the wardens operating on 151.475, simplex. They were watching some deer hunters along the border and apparently were using the Nevada State F&G - tactical frequency. I figured that the CA-DF&G system's coverage was too sketchy, and that they borrowed or configured their radios to access the adjacent state systems.