Confirm Taos Interagency Dispatch freq

[rbuxton]

I've come across a freq that is not in the database and would like someone(s) in the area to confirm its usage.

172.6125 192.8 PL heard "Taos Dispatch" (which is a pretty good hint). And if we could figure out if it is a USFS, BLM, or BIA freq.

Thanks and good luck.

 

[beerzkool]

Good Find. I guess you did not hear anymore of the transmission?

Where were you when you heard this?

 

[rbuxton]

I hear transmissions quite often (daily) on this freq. from my home in Durango.

 

[beerzkool]

WOW, Durango! I will monitor as well and we will figure this out.

 

[beerzkool]

So far nothing. My conjecture is that you are receiving from a repeater on San Antonio Mountain which I am unable to receive. I will keep listening.

 

[Paysonscanner]

Oh goody, goody!! I think I learned something new. I might have figured out this frequency. Using the extensive notes my dear sweet late hubby kept I see that in 2016 the Taos dispatch center had but 2 nets with repeaters on San Antonio. They were the Carson NF and the BLM New Mexico Farmington District net that covers both the district's field offices, Taos and Farmington. Unfortunately, I don't have a 2019 frequency directory that says this. Today, while trying to figure 172.6125 out I remembered a trick late hubby used. He would just type in the frequency followed by "MHz" to eliminate all the sites that have the number 172.6125 in them. I did a search this way and found 172.6125 is assigned to the BLM in Utah, California and Oregon in various locations. It follows that this frequency would be used in New Mexico by the BLM also and not by the Carson NF, the only other agency with a repeater on San Antonio.

So if I were a betting person I would put money on the transmission being that of the BLM Farmington District on the San Antonio repeater site. I also found a directory that showed the remote bases of the Taos dispatch center for National Flight Following and National Air Guard are located on San Antonio., so the site must have wide area coverage.

There is, however, one more possibility that being the transmission heard was on a Farmington Field Office repeater.. Those are located on Archuleta Mesa, Hood Mesa, Huerfano and Smith Pass. Hood Mesa and Smith Pass are the closest to Colorado. The other factor is that the 2013 and 2016 guides in hubby's notebooks don't show any Taos dispatch repeaters using Tone 192.8.

Did I do OK? I'm just beginning to learn this stuff after finally getting up the nerve after nearly 2 years to look though my late sweetheart's radio hobby notebooks. I've been interested in scanners since a little kid with my dad having one on in the house in the towns we lived in around Arizona. He is 92 now, a retired U.S. Forest Service civil engineer. We listened to the FS nearly all the time when I was growing up. I relied on my husband to figure out all the frequencies, tones, callsigns and verbal shorthand, but now I've been on my own for nearly 2 years, so I have to do it myself. My dad is very good at that stuff, the only thing on computers he is really sharp at is Google!

 

[Paysonscanner]

So far nothing. My conjecture is that you are receiving from a repeater on San Antonio Mountain which I am unable to receive. I will keep listening.

I just took a look at where San Antonio Mountain is on Google Earth. There is a ton of terrain (mountains) between it and Durango. Then I found both Smith Pass, located southeast of Navajo Dam and Hood Mesa, located northeast of Farmington. Both Smith Pass and Hood Mesa look like a straight shot to Durango. Huerfano Mesa or Mountain is located southeast of Bloomfield just east of Highway 550 and could be what you are hearing also. The communications guide for the Southwest GACC that is in my notebooks (that late hubby put together) shows Hood Mesa with an input tone of 146.2, Smith Pass with an input tone of 136.5 and Hurefano (how the guide spells it) with an input tone of 123.0. The guide, dated 2016, does not show output tones broadcast on each repeater making this a harder mystery to sort out.

An edit: Archuleta Mesa is close to the state line north of Dulce and has an input tone of 107.2. It is about half the distance to Durango that San Antonio Mtn. is.

 

[beerzkool]

Here is a map of Carson National Forest Repeaters. Some of these sites may be shred with BLM?BIA

 

[Paysonscanner]

Here is a map of Carson National Forest Repeaters. Some of these sites may be shred with BLM?BIAView attachment 74152

Sorry, I've been using a different map and didn't think to post it, duh! It looks like the Carson NF and the BLM Farmington District don't share all that many repeater sites. This shouldn't be a big surprise as the lands that need to be covered are very different. I wasn't able to post it like you did, viewable from the RR page. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, kinda new to this. Some might not have PDF viewer or whatever it's called. Here is what I've got,

 

[Paysonscanner]

I'm going to see if this works to show that the BLM and the Santa Fe NF share more repeaters than the BLM with the Carson NF, let's see if this works.

 

[Paysonscanner]

Now we see if this works. Life is funny, my late honey was always there to show me this kind of stuff. Now, I was practicing my Spanish with one of the guys painting the house I'm fixing up and he showed me the "snipping tool." I don't think he will be painting houses for the rest of his life!

 

[beerzkool]

 

[Paysonscanner]

View attachment 74551View attachment 74552

I have to wonder if 172.6125 is an update of the 168.5750 freq. for the BLM Rio Puerco Field Office of the Albuquerque District. Is it possible there is an updated version of the freq. guide this info came from? Maybe they made the change after the guide was printed? All the other agencies on the list comply with the 2019 due date for the new freq. allocation of the feds.

 

[beerzkool]

Here is a link to Carson National Forest radio programming guide from 2018.

Los Alamos County Scanner Frequencies - Documents

Southwest Coordination Center air/air and air/ground map 2024 Southwest Area Aviation Contacts and Communications Guide 2024 State Forestry Mobilization Plan 2025 Fire Lookout History of the Santa Fe National Forest

sites.google.com

 

[Paysonscanner]

Thank you beerzkool for the wonderful information you have provided. Now that I'm living in Arizona again I really wanted an updated version of the documents you linked to. In the next 2 years all the changes for compliance to the new VHF fed band assignments should be completed so getting post 2019 freq. guides will be important. Then things will settle down and stay the same for some time.

Even with beerzkool's info we have not answered the original question posed in this thread. My dad and I can't find 172.6125 in the SW guide or the freq group list for the Carson NF. We had a thought that it was a BIA frequency being used on the Jicarilla Reservation, but they use 172.6750. They are in the Taos dispatch zone and this would explain the OP hearing "Taos Dispatch." The Interior Department will assign the same frequency to all its agencies depending on the area it is used. A National Park Service freq in Washington might be used by the BIA in Oklahoma and then by the US Fish & Wildlife Service in North Dakota. The USFS is in the Agriculture department who are assigned a different set of freqs. so it's unlikely theirs. We don't have an answer for the OP. I guess we will watch that area and see if 172.6125 shows up on some list in the next couple of years. This could be a new net being built, like a fire or admin net for BLM or the BIA and not listed yet.

rBuxton, keep listening and post again if you can figure out who is talking on this freq. Sometimes you can figure out who it is based on the content of the traffic. Listen for locations and for any accents. It's been my experience to hear a different accent from Native Americans, especially those raised speaking their native language. One of my classmates in college was a Navajo and she had an accent even though her English was superior.