help/wsouthops Southzone USFS

[mtnmadman]

Tried some of the other freqs for South ops/ South zone, no luck... any ideas?

 

[SCPD]

They may have switched to the new allocation where the downlink is supposed to be in the 406 to 406.1125 and the uplink in the 411.9875 to 419.9875 range. You then would have to do a limit search in the 406 through 411 range to find the new frequencies being used. This will be difficult because the traffic on it is limited and is only transmitted occasionally. A good time to listen is when someone down there breaks a new fire that is escaping initial attack and resources are being ordered for it.

In addition they may not be following the above allocations. Recently I found a downlink installed in the last year that moved from 417.025 to 415.075. It doesn't follow the above allocation mandated by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the equivalent of the FCC for the federal government use of the frequency ranges set aside for federal agencies.

I would sure like to know if the system frequencies have been changed and what they are. I haven't picked up anything on the 415 frequencies in the limited time I have to scan on my trips down there.

 

[mtnmadman]

They may have switched to the new allocation where the downlink is supposed to be in the 406 to 406.1125 and the uplink in the 411.9875 to 419.9875 range. You then would have to do a limit search in the 406 through 411 range to find the new frequencies being used. This will be difficult because the traffic on it is limited and is only transmitted occasionally. A good time to listen is when someone down there breaks a new fire that is escaping initial attack and resources are being ordered for it.

In addition they may not be following the above allocations. Recently I found a downlink installed in the last year that moved from 417.025 to 415.075. It doesn't follow the above allocation mandated by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the equivalent of the FCC for the federal government use of the frequency ranges set aside for federal agencies.

I would sure like to know if the system frequencies have been changed and what they are. I haven't picked up anything on the 415 frequencies in the limited time I have to scan on my trips down there.

thanks! will give it a try! I miss the old VHF stuff!! Ex USFS FF!

 

[SCPD]

thanks! will give it a try! I miss the old VHF stuff!! Ex USFS FF!

The South Zone system used to have VHF links off Frazier, the hub of the system. The 2005 directive I cited called for the elimination of VHF links. I'm not sure if that has been accomplished.

I'm a retired USFS employee as well, if you could not surmise that from my moniker. I spent the majority of my career as a "recreation forester," but kept my hand in fire management after spending 4 years in it at the beginning of my career. Final career fire log totaled 108 fires. The only good money I made in my career came from those fires and a few other incidents of a different type.

One thing I do miss is that with the new 406 - 420 allocations is the discontinuation of the downlink repeating the uplink. If you are too far away to hear the ground level dispatch office on the uplink you only get the mobiles calling the dispatch office. The result is not hearing the direction given by dispatch and the initial dispatch for incidents. When the uplink repeated the downlink on Silver Peak 50 miles from me I could hear everything going on in spite of not being able to hear all the VHF repeaters. Now I only receive what the dispatch office is receiving.

Don't forget to report back here if you come up with anything. It will be a challenge to say the least with all the signals you have to deal with south of Kern County. I hope you have a newer scanner with the computer logging system allowing you to see what frequencies you receive. Then you have to program those into the scanner and hope one of them is actually is the south net downlink of Santiago Peak.

Good Luck!