DEA and FBI Questions ????

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Tracker44

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Hello , I was wondering if any one knew if there is any good frequencies for either DEA or FBI in the Birmingham or Jefferson County area ????
I put together a rather long list of each over a long period of time from off the RR website .
But I never hear any thing on them and I really cant remember ever hearing anthing on them.
So I have been thinging about just deleating them from my scanner and radios.
I just thought I would check first befor I did..
TNX
 

LeSueurC

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Sometimes there's not activity for a while, then all of a sudden it picks back up. You just have to keep monitoring, if you want more FBI and DEA frequencies go to The Fed Files Blog: FBI Frequency Updates or go through every state that has a big metro area say Chicago or Houston Texas and put those frequencies in your scanner
 

bailly2

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search 166 to 174. i wouldn't even worry about it, its really rare to hear those agencies in the clear now. every frequency is encrypted now. just last year you could hear some frequencies in the clear full time .. try aircraft frequencies like 132.275, 120.425
 

LeSueurC

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search 166 to 174. i wouldn't even worry about it, its really rare to hear those agencies in the clear now. every frequency is encrypted now. just last year you could hear some frequencies in the clear full time .. try aircraft frequencies like 132.275, 120.425

I've gotten clear transmissions on frequencies that were supposed to be encrypted, FBI, DEA, USMS, and ICE
 

Tracker44

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TNX for the information. I believe I will hang on them a while longer and maybe try and focus a little closer on any activity that may be there.
TNX again.
 

ecps92

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Not all frequencies in a Region are Nationwide. So taking Chicago or Houston FBI channels, won't necessarily work for other regions.

ie:
168.9875 which is FBI in IL is USFS in CA
170.3500 which is FBI in IL is CBP in AZ


Sometimes there's not activity for a while, then all of a sudden it picks back up. You just have to keep monitoring, if you want more FBI and DEA frequencies go to The Fed Files Blog: FBI Frequency Updates or go through every state that has a big metro area say Chicago or Houston Texas and put those frequencies in your scanner
 

ecps92

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Your best bet is to spend a substantial time (weeks to Months) searching
162-174 Mhz (and don't skip the freqs below the NWS) as well as the 400-420 Mhz bands

Also, Federal Monitoring is not like listening to your Local PD/FD/EMS where you should hear daily traffic, Federal Agency traffic wil vary by Location, Target, Surv or take-down etc

As will the use or lack of Encryption.

Spend a month and post back what your have heard then.
And... remember, it is frowned upon to post Active Surv Ops :cool:

Hello , I was wondering if any one knew if there is any good frequencies for either DEA or FBI in the Birmingham or Jefferson County area ????
I put together a rather long list of each over a long period of time from off the RR website .
But I never hear any thing on them and I really cant remember ever hearing anthing on them.
So I have been thinging about just deleating them from my scanner and radios.
I just thought I would check first befor I did..
TNX
 

Tracker44

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TNX ecps92, now that you mentioned it , I can see the difference between that type of operation and maybe local PD or Fire. I mainly was going through my scanner and radio programs looking to do a little house cleaning I just remembered how little if any I have ever herd on those frequencies. I have a rather large list of frequencies programed in the rigs for those two agencies.
I really dont put any more weight on those agencies than I do any other, just looking for something to listen to.
In my area most every thing is going to systems that i cant pick up any way with my scanner, which its the last scanner I will ever buy . At my age chaseing down and buying high dollar scanners to listen to isnt something that will more than likely change again isnt exactly on the top of my list.
But if I can just do a little up dateing to what I have and it works , thats great.
Take Care
 

dave911

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I hate to say it, but most of the communication around here these days is over cellphone.
 

ecps92

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As I continue to say, especially about ENC is that YMMV

However, based on my Travels as well as others well versed in monitoring the Federal Bands, they are out there, they are in use and have long moved back Two-Way Radios from Cellphones/Nextel, after sadly relying on the commercial infrastructure for critical communications.

ICE, BP and others continue to build-out Wide Area VoteScan networks.

I hate to say it, but most of the communication around here these days is over cellphone.
 

WPXS472

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Heflin, AL
I don't know about the Birmingham area, but back in the day the FBI provided some interesting listening over here in East Alabama. I was amazed at the kind of information that was passed in the clear back then. In one instance, a man watching a house was questioned by an aerial unit whether or not he was watching the correct house. The man on the ground responded that he was right in front of the mail box and proceeded to read out over the radio the name and street number. There used to be moving surveillance of cars on I-20 that got interesting when the car would speed up and lose the FBI car for a while. There were tales of all kinds of strange, for that time, arrangements of radio systems. Things like cross band repeaters, multicasting, strange linking deals. I could never verify any of this. After a few years, they just went away. A person familiar with their local radio site told me the equipment was still there but had not been touched in years. I heard later that they had bought some sort of Motorola system that , for reasons that were never explained, was unusable. Later, I heard that they had gone to cellphones. I haven't even tried to listen for them in years. I sort of expected that they would use encryption full time by now.
 

marksroberson

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I was walking To my car the other day and what do I see? The DEA was arresting somebody,(it was in Birmingham so it was not too rare, but not too often) so I hurried over to my car and started scanning the federal agencies bank I put in my scanner, I heard them talking on 413.975 with P25: 156, didn't check if they were talking on a input frequency (+9.00 MHz) but they were not encrypted or anything, I heard them say something like they were on their way back to the courthouse as they drove away.
 

INDY72

Monitoring since 1982, using radios since 1991.
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As I continue to say, especially about ENC is that YMMV

However, based on my Travels as well as others well versed in monitoring the Federal Bands, they are out there, they are in use and have long moved back Two-Way Radios from Cellphones/Nextel, after sadly relying on the commercial infrastructure for critical communications.

ICE, BP and others continue to build-out Wide Area VoteScan networks.

Correct, FBI has moved steadily back to VHF Hi and P25 with heavy use of encryption. They also rely a lot on Local, and Statewide TRS nets and usually fully encrypted there too, but sometimes do go in the clear, and do still have a little analog VHF Hi. DEA operates in the clear a LOT more than you would think, and mainly on the same few UHF nets they have used forever but upgraded to P25 in lot of areas! USMS runs UHF analog, and P25, and VHF Hi in a few places, and on several Statewide TRS Nets, and surprisingly in the clear most of the time.
 

ecps92

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413 would be a Simplex channel, as going +9 moves them above 420 Mhz
Historically one would search 406-420, but after finding a white-whale onetime
,many of us go to the bands limit and do the 400-420 search now

I was walking To my car the other day and what do I see? The DEA was arresting somebody,(it was in Birmingham so it was not too rare, but not too often) so I hurried over to my car and started scanning the federal agencies bank I put in my scanner, I heard them talking on 413.975 with P25: 156, didn't check if they were talking on a input frequency (+9.00 MHz) but they were not encrypted or anything, I heard them say something like they were on their way back to the courthouse as they drove away.
 

ecps92

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Great explaination of the differences in the regions.

New England is
FBI VHF and have never left, with a robust Network
CBP VHF and regular users of DNET-01, DNET-02 and DNET-25
BP went from Stand-Alone VHF Repeaters to a robust Vote-Scan Network for each of the "Stations in the Sector"
ICE has (mid 2000's) gone from Chirp-Chirp [Nextel] as a convenience to VHF on many of it's former channels. But is now expanding to a Nice VHF Vote-Scan Net
DEA has continued to maintain it's UHF P25 and Analog (Dual Mode) nets and no VHF for them has been found, Yet it is in the Radios (APX) for travel outside of New England
USMS - on the VHF FBI channels, with a few of their own still

Other than limited Reports from CT and ME, where the FEDS do have some Interop on the Trunks, those agencies generally work with an agency or two and are handed a radio for the event, but nothing Full-time

And finally, ENC, if you don't try to listen, you won't know if it's ENC or NOT
Use varies by Mission, Field Office, number of outside units/agencies, and Squad

and one more Finally, keep those NIFOG interops in the Scan List. You never know who/what might go down, as the FEDS do support the locals from time-time with technological and aeronautical assets and we will find them on the the interops :cool:

Correct, FBI has moved steadily back to VHF Hi and P25 with heavy use of encryption. They also rely a lot on Local, and Statewide TRS nets and usually fully encrypted there too, but sometimes do go in the clear, and do still have a little analog VHF Hi. DEA operates in the clear a LOT more than you would think, and mainly on the same few UHF nets they have used forever but upgraded to P25 in lot of areas! USMS runs UHF analog, and P25, and VHF Hi in a few places, and on several Statewide TRS Nets, and surprisingly in the clear most of the time.
 

INDY72

Monitoring since 1982, using radios since 1991.
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AR TN NC IN. USMS FBI USFS USFW USACOE all use state TRS. CO FBI does. SC USCG FBI do.

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