I-15 Highway Patrol

[dic]

Does anyone have any information on the HP on I-15 from NV to UT.

I know that the District 1 frequency is 460.475 (100.0), but is that the same up there?
Do they have NV and/or UT radios?

Thanks
Dic

 

[Junior1970]

AZDPS/UHP interagency

460.475 is the Arizona DPS Frequency that the Arizona units use with their dispatch but they are also heard on the Utah Highway Patrol frequency on Virgin on 155.625 dispatched out of Cedar City. UHP backs up the AZDPS on many incidents in the Virgin River Gorge.
The AZ units usually are identified with something like "Arizona 151" where as the UHP are two and three digit callsigns between 11 and 899 based on senority. 155.745 is UHP Car to Car.

Other Helpful Freqs in the Gorge:
155.910 is Mohave County S.O. (usually help enforce speed in the Gorge during construction and on old highway 89/Beaver Dam/Littlefield
155.385 - Beaver Dam/Littlefield Fire District.

Hope this helps!

 

[dic]

Thanks Junior.
I will let you know what I hear.

Dic

 

[SCPD]

If a unit uses "Arizona 151" on the Utah Highway Patrol frequency then it is "151" on the AZ DPS radio system. This short stretch of I-15 is in DPS District 1 headquarted in Kingman and is dispatched by DPS Flagstaff. This unit would be the first unit in squad 5. Squads are normally assigned by area in most of Arizona.

An interesting side note to this stretch of I-15 is how Arizona lobbied very hard in the 60's when planning for the Interstate Highway System was being done. Arizona did not want to pay for the construction of the highway in this remote corner of the state and wanted the interstate to bypass Arizona entirely. Among other reasons they listed the expense of establishing and maintaining the infrastructure necessary to serve their highway patrol and highway maintenance presence for a limited number of miles.

As I remember the report I read in the early 70's when I attended Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, every foot of the route is either a cut (almost all of it in solid rock requiring blasting) or a bridge. At the time it was the most expensive highway ever built and the report put the cost in terms of how many tens of hundreds of thousands of dollars each inch (in terms of distance) of the road cost. A number of people I knew were very familiar with the gorge before the highway was built and considered it quite a gem as far as a place to visit on foot or in a kayak when water levels were sufficient.

The inertia at the time for routing interstate highways was to make them as straight or short as they could possibly be, with construction and environmental costs being much lower priorities. Nevada and Utah seconded that motion and Arizona lost.

I wonder if the AZ DPS vehicles have a third radio for the Nevada Shared Radio System, an 800 MHz EDACS system. That would be an interesting console!

 

[Junior1970]

NSRS and AZDPS

Interesting information. It's a great drive from Utah to Nevada through the Gorge in a hot rod. In regards to NSRS it's doubtful. Utah Hill is a strong site penetrating Virgin Valley on the NV side, St. George area and the Hurricane Valley east of there on the UT side but with 800 being line of sight and the narrow canyon walls of that area coverage would be limited at best. Besides all the times I driven through there and seen AZDPS I've never seen an 800 Mhz whip on their cruisers.

 

[SCPD]

That makes sense. I wonder if the NSRS has a talkgroup for patching to the AZ DPS system.

Now that I think about it I wonder what Mohave County, AZ's presence is in that corner of the state. Mohave County (I've never gotten used to spelling it with an "H") has one of the biggest topographical divides for accessing the entire county of any in the country. Littlefield is a little more than halfway on the long journey to access the northern end of the county by vehicle. I used to work on the Kaibab National Forest in the 70's and it was a long trip up to the North Kaibab Ranger District, with its district office up in Fredonia, from the Forest Supervisor's office in Williams. The trip to northern Mohave County is longer from Kingman.

If I were employed by Mohave County or the State of Arizona in that area, I would lobby to change the state boundary and give Utah that little corner, then let Coconino County have everything in Mohave County north of the Colorado River. They have to be up there anyway because of the Page and Fredonia areas and might as well go all the way west. Of course I would lobby to take Colorado City out of Arizona and give it to Utah. That subject could fill a book.

I'm going to have to poke around the FCC website and see what kind of links are used for the DPS, ADOT, and Mohave County systems. All that infastructure to serve what seems like the stepchild area of Arizona. Political boundaries set up in the 19th century are not very efficient on the ground when you have to live with topographical realities.

P.S. I made an error in my post about the expense of building I-15. The road cost tens OR hundreds of thousands of dollars per inch, not tens OF hundereds of thousands of dollars per inch. I don't remember the amount as it was 1972 when I read about it. It was printed on a large aerial photo of the Virgin River Gorge showing the construction of the highway that was hanging on the wall in the aerial photography interpretation lab in the School of Forestry building at Northern Arizona University. The picture sparked an interest in looking up the report at the library and reading it.

 

[Junior1970]

Moving the border

That nightmare is curently happening now. However it concerns Wendover, UT/ West Wendover, NV. Two cities, two police departments, two fire departments, two states. UT is on 800 Mhz, NV is VHF. There was/is talk of NV moving the border two miles east to absorb the Utah town but NV doesnt want to absorb the towns debt. Plus any change of states borders requires a literal act of congress to occur plus common consensus of both states. Lots of bureaucatic red tape for this to occur. Now I know that:
a) this has little to do with scanning and
b) has nothing to do with AZ but....
Exsmokey brings up a good point but realistically how many agencies around the country have this same problem. Border cities governed by two separate states using two totally incompatible systems. In this case AZ on UHF, NV on 800 and UT on VHF?
Something to think about!

 

[SCPD]

That nightmare is curently happening now. However it concerns Wendover, UT/ West Wendover, NV. Two cities, two police departments, two fire departments, two states. UT is on 800 Mhz, NV is VHF. There was/is talk of NV moving the border two miles east to absorb the Utah town but NV doesnt want to absorb the towns debt. Plus any change of states borders requires a literal act of congress to occur plus common consensus of both states. Lots of bureaucatic red tape for this to occur. Now I know that:
a) this has little to do with scanning and
b) has nothing to do with AZ but....
Exsmokey brings up a good point but realistically how many agencies around the country have this same problem. Border cities governed by two separate states using two totally incompatible systems. In this case AZ on UHF, NV on 800 and UT on VHF?
Something to think about!

I'm somewhat familiar with the Wendover situation as I watch KOLO, the ABC affiliate in Reno and they have done occassional stories on Wendover. Another situation similar is Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas. One of the best examples of this is Point Roberts, Washington, a small end point on a peninsula the majority of which is in British Columbia. There are some others but as they are in the east and "mid West" (for me everything east of Denver International is the east) I don't comment as I don't know them all that well. In the case of Littlefiled, AZ and Point Roberts, Washington terrain really cuts these areas off from the political jurisdiction they are in. But the point remains that many political jurisdictions have to maintain infastructure in an inefficient way for locations that, from a cultural and issue persceptive, are really in another jurisdiction.

What does this have to do with scanning? You have agencies we listen to on the radio affected by this issue. In the case of law enforcement you have officers whose daily duties have to face this issue. How close is backup for a Mohave County deputy sheriff and an AZ DPS officer. How do they communicate with their closest backup, which could be from either one of two other states? How do they communicate in these cases? Interoperability is largely an issue for disasters in many areas of the country, but for these officers it is an issue of importance during their entire shifts.

I just looked in the Southern Nevada Radio Scanner Book, 3rd edition, and did not see a patch talkgroup on the NSRS for the Arizona Highway Patrol or DPS as it is commonly called in Arizona. If DPS officers have VHF-High radios in their vehicles to communicate with the Utah Highway Patrol then perhaps they have Mohave County and Metro Las Vegas frequencies in them. With Utah migrating onto UCAN and Metro awarding a contract for a trunked system this won't be a solution much longer.

Without good communications with the closest backup an officer has to change the critieria for their officer safety red flags. I would think one would have to be extra cautious in those circumstances. I know I was when working remote wilderness locations.

 

[SCPD]

Locally in Mono County, CA we have a portion of Madera County that is not accessible from the west side of the Sierra but is a quick drive from Mammoth Lakes and Mono County. Mono County and the town of Mammoth Lakes ends up taking all the law enforcement activity for not only situations in progress but does all the cold call reporting such as car burglaries and sending a copy to the Madera S.O. Mono County does all the search and rescue as well as EMS in that portion of Madera County. When the Mono S.O. and Mammoth P.D. were tied up on other calls the Forest Service and National Park Service at Devils Postpile would try to fill in as best they could. I took some child molestation reports on a Forest Service incident report and took signed statements on our forms also, then sent them onto Madera County with no followup from them. Same with car burglaries. The calls from insurance companies in the east were always interesting in those cases. I was first on scene for three fatalities in that area and they were the worst or grossest body stories of my career. Two suicides and a drowning with second units in 1/2 to 1 hour away in a heavily used area and visitors trying to enter the investigation perimeter trying to get a peek. In a few cases the Forest Serviice law enforcement officers, who are POST certified state peace officers, were tied up or too far away so I did everything until a state or local unit could respond.

Mono County has gotten tired of sending helicopters in on SAR's and not being reimbursed. The Mammoth P.D. does not like being pulled so far away from their jurisdiction and worries about liability issues with no mutual aid agreement in place. Mono County attempted to bring this to the state legislature but as you say, both counties have to agree and the legislature has to pass a bill. Meanwhile Madera County does not want it to happen as there is a resort and a portion of the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area within their county. Revenue coming in and they don't have to provide services.

 

[kd6ecz]

On a side note, the current issue of 4 Wheel Drive & Sport Utility Magazine (I think it's April, 2006) has a pretty interesting article on exploring the Arizona strip area. Check it out if you get a chance. This is actually part two so if you see the March issue, check that out as well.

http://www.4wdandsportutility.com/toc/thismonth/

 

[emtjohn]

The AZ Strip

I am somewhat familiar with this area being a FF/Paramedic in Mesquite. On the fire side we preatty much provide auto aid to Beaver Dam/Littlefield on I-15 to mm 18 AZ for all calls especially auto accidents. They tend to mostly be high speed rollovers and Littlefield is BLS. The Gorge is 11 miles from the AZ/NV line. Mesquite is on the AZ/NV line so we are kinda close. We are also available for all other calls as requested. St George Fire and Dixie Ambulance will provide mutual aid from mm18 AZ to the UT/AZ stateline. Only about 35 miles or so of I-15 is in AZ. As for police, NHP does not have a big presence in our area with 2-3 troopers covering from mm64 to mm122 (NV/AZ line). Plus about 50 miles of US93 from I-15 to Lincoln County line. So they can be preatty spread out. Mesquite PD will also auto aid with us on MVA's that are relatively close to the border (less than 5 miles usually) and I think will go on anything requested either by Mojave County or AZ DPS. But I am not completely sure cause PD scrambles their channels so I can only relay what I actually see. It is very common to see DPS and Mojave County Sheriff in Mesquite and I think they also use our jail for minor offenses as it is like a 4-6 hour round trip if they have to go to their jail in Kingman. Mojave County also comes up on the Mesquite Fire channel sometimes to talk with Mesquite dispatch since the PD is scrambled. Usually only if the call is Nevada related in some way. There is also an agreement in place that anyone can do traffic stops etc no matter what side of the border they are on and I have seen DPS with people pulled over in Mesquite. I unfortunately can't add anything to what has been listed for frequency info.

 

[SCPD]

Thanks for the interesting information. In Arizona they have "anglosized" the spelling of Mojave to "Mohave". I could never get used to it when I lived in Arizona.

Interesting that the town of Mesquite scrambles their PD communications. A small town often has more scanners than people, cows, and horses, so small town PD's often have more of a need to scramble than large cities. At least they think so.

It would be interesting to hear some local stories about the decision to put the Interstate in the gorge. If you run across some, share them with us.

 

[emtjohn]

I'm kinda new to the Virgin Valley/Mesquite area so I don't know of any of the reasons of the highway placement. Judging by topography...I'd say to the south was out due to mountains and a really large canyon! Not sure about to the north....but it doesn't look real promising either with mountains but I don't know if it flattens out North of Mesquite. Also....its probably not a bad idea for the scrambling since everyone seems to know everyone here. Although it does make it difficult for us nosy types!

 

[Junior1970]

Mesquite PD scrambled their PD channel about four years ago and even before that it was just the usual stuff, no car to car or juicy stuff. A security officer at the Oasis Casino told me a while back that any of that stuff is handled by cell phone or the Nextel two-way.