News flash: Florida bp throws the p25 switch.

Status
Not open for further replies.

Rbp1414

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Apr 19, 2012
Messages
67
170.3375 in tampa. Mostly enc but occasional clear. Any idea who this?
 

SOFA_KING

Member
Joined
Apr 25, 2004
Messages
1,581
Location
SE Florida
What a day of logging! I got tons of new freqs, NACs and info, Went the long way to St.Pete and an even longer way back via Punta Gorda to get some of the Ft. Myers region stuff on the north end. I took lots of notes on signal levels as I got hits. After I complie my notes, I'll post up the new stuff.

Stay tuned!
 

N1XDS

ÆS Ø
Joined
Nov 3, 2004
Messages
1,932
What a day of logging! I got tons of new freqs, NACs and info, Went the long way to St.Pete and an even longer way back via Punta Gorda to get some of the Ft. Myers region stuff on the north end. I took lots of notes on signal levels as I got hits. After I complie my notes, I'll post up the new stuff.

Stay tuned!

Phil by chance do you know if CBP has a repeater linked to 169.900 in the Tampa Bay surrounding area? All I heard today was the lady dispatcher using call 408 talking to 108 and 220 at different times in communications.

- Jamie
 

SOFA_KING

Member
Joined
Apr 25, 2004
Messages
1,581
Location
SE Florida
Having the NAC would help ID, but if this is the $F00 found during the RNC in 2012, it's still one to be ID'd If not what NAC

Yes, it does need to be ID'd with positive confirmation...not a guess. Activity dropped on that one. It was in use for a while after the nasty RNC clown show, but I have not heard it in a while.
 

SOFA_KING

Member
Joined
Apr 25, 2004
Messages
1,581
Location
SE Florida
Phil by chance do you know if CBP has a repeater linked to 169.900 in the Tampa Bay surrounding area? All I heard today was the lady dispatcher using call 408 talking to 108 and 220 at different times in communications.

- Jamie

Yes, it is. I posted this on post #1 and added more on post #13. Yesterday I logged signal from east and south of Tampa. It looks like it is on the north end of town.

I also posted 170.1000 on post #13 as part of this "cluster".

No need to repost this stuff again and again unless you can add a "ground zero" location (or real close) to help ID the site city or name.

Now let me post up some new freqs...and new location info.
 

SOFA_KING

Member
Joined
Apr 25, 2004
Messages
1,581
Location
SE Florida
New Ones

Raw data from the many hits I received yesterday going from my home to St. Pete on the north route, in the general Tampa area, and back via the south end from Punta Gorda (to get some of the Ft. Myers/Naples stuff), has been digested and is ready for publication. I plan on visiting Naples, and even the Keys, in the near future. These areas will yeild some good intel, as I have little to no data from those locations. But, for now, this has been a beneficial trip!

Some of these signal hits had to be during band enhancement...because they showed up strong across the state (west). I did my best to account for that, and I'm going to present worthy location updates after I post the "new ones". I received (for the first time) NAC 302 signals from what I believe to be the Naples/Ft. Myers SW FL area. It should be noted that this NAC is also used near Jacksonville, but this is typical for the old INS/BP system design. They rotated the same freqs and PL tones in different areas around the SOF on the old system, so that approach is still in use. Lighting up "Clusters" from the field units is somewhat new on this P25 system. And how these field units "vote" (if they do that) is unknown to me yet. I do hear field units reporting they are on different channels, but so far they all come out on my local "cluster". I have only picked up one input for my "cluster", and it has always been the same NAC. No new input freqs around my area, and no new input NACs. Maybe the GPS data going out in bursts has something to do with mobile voting. Heck, I do that on a wide area, multi repeater, DMR system I talk on with my XPR radios, so why not? But I would like to learn more about the new radios and what they can do. I wonder if the repeaters steer the voting on the mobiles. So many questions, but this is the fun about learning the system design. For me, this is more fun than listening! But the new P25 system really sounds good...especially on my /\/\ gear. ;)

Hats off to the field engineers who deployed this new system. And THANK YOU for not ENC everything. We understand the need to protect some coms, but a clear effort not to ENC everything has been noted. I appreciate you guys/gals and what you do. Thank you, and be safe. :)

NEW STUFF:

172.4125 NAC 302 (full scale around Bear Hollow US27 and SR70 hilltop)
170.7000 NAC 302 (4 bars near Bermont east of Punta Gorda)
171.5000 NAC 302 (not too strong, but believed to be south of Punta Gorda)
169.9375 NAC 302 (this was weak in Punta Gorda and heard heading east up to the hill. Not Green Cove Springs...too far)


NOW FOR SOME LOCATION UPDATES:

170.4375 NAC 301 (started getting 3 bar hits north of Indiantown, and got stronger hits on the SW side of the lake. Belle Glade or Pahokee? Would round out the west end of the West Palm Beach Cluster.)

170.6750 NAC 304 (confirmed Orlando site)
172.7125 NAC 303 (full scale in Bradenton)
171.3250 NAC 303 (4 bars well east of Bradenton...maybe Arcadia?)
169.6000 NAC 303 (location suspected north Tampa/Clearwater)
170.1000 NAC 303 (maybe north of Tampa)
170.9875 NAC 304 (hit on highest hill in S FL on US27...Ft. Drum site?)
170.6000 NAC 301 (confirmed Hillsboro near Deerfield Beach)

Areas I need to visit (and will eventually go through) are Arcadia, Naples, Ft Myers, Homestead, The Keys, Big Cypress and Everglades NP, Port Richie & Spring Hill, Crystal River, Cedar Key, Gainesville, Ocala and many others. I could use help in North Florida (JAX to Pensacola). But I'll take any help if you have NEW data on any VHF frequency with a NAC in the 2XX - 3XX range (not 293 though), or a positive location of a valid site (no guessing without several measurements from different areas). Please do not clutter up this thread with redundant info. And if you must report what you are hearing, please include a valid NAC, signal measurement, the equipment you are using and YOUR RX LOCATION. Without that, the data is almost useless.

Thanks,

Phil :cool:

Quick PS - I did hear the old analog NET 1 repeater in the Tampa area several times. Only single MDC1200 bursts. No OTAR and no voice traffic.
 
Last edited:

SOFA_KING

Member
Joined
Apr 25, 2004
Messages
1,581
Location
SE Florida
This morning I looked at some patterns and trends. In many cases the old analog frequencies were reused up in the ouput section of the band. In three cases, they were not...at least I have not heard anything yet. Why move and vacate frequencies you were once on?

Has anyone heard anything on any of these? :confused:

170.7750
171.0500
171.0750

Phil :cool:
 

sflmonitor

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jan 10, 2003
Messages
753
Location
Sunny South Florida
This morning I looked at some patterns and trends. In many cases the old analog frequencies were reused up in the ouput section of the band. In three cases, they were not...at least I have not heard anything yet. Why move and vacate frequencies you were once on?

Has anyone heard anything on any of these? :confused:

170.7750
171.0500
171.0750

Phil :cool:

170.775 has gone silent in Miami. It was a Border Patrol assignment but was mostly used by CBP OFO at the seaport.

I know for a fact this was once a Justice Department allocation as it was licensed to INS and was carried over when DHS was created. Some DOJ and Treasury frequencies were permanently reallocated to DHS but others remained "on loan". Maybe these frequencies had to be given back after the narrow banding / P25 transition.
 

ecps92

Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2002
Messages
14,428
Location
Taxachusetts
Maybe other plans for them too. As they are still in-use elsewhere in the USA to ICE
A reminder (mostly for the NEW folks) as well that the band plan is changing and what we knew as input/outputs is likely to change too

Federal VHF/UHF Channel Plans - The RadioReference Wiki
162-174 MHz
NTIA Manual Chapter 4 Section 4.3.7
  • Government land mobile channels are normally on 12.5 kHz steps (162.05, 162.0625, 162.075 ...) in NFM, P25, or other digital voice modes.
  • No standard offset.
  • There are other unpaired single frequencies in other parts of the band that are not specified in the manual.
  • Use of the band 162-174 MHz by the military agencies is limited to non-tactical or intra-base radio operations.
162.0500-166.4875 Mobile/repeater input166.5000-169.5000 Unpaired single frequency systems169.5125-173.2000 Base/repeater output173.4000-173.9875 Base/repeater output
170.775 has gone silent in Miami. It was a Border Patrol assignment but was mostly used by CBP OFO at the seaport.

I know for a fact this was once a Justice Department allocation as it was licensed to INS and was carried over when DHS was created. Some DOJ and Treasury frequencies were permanently reallocated to DHS but others remained "on loan". Maybe these frequencies had to be given back after the narrow banding / P25 transition.
 

forums manager

Super Moderator
Staff member
Super Moderator
Joined
Nov 11, 2013
Messages
397
I've cleaned up all the OT. Please stick to CBP operations in Florida. No questions about other areas, how to find Federal freqs in general or DEA.

In the future rather than trying to control the thread just flag the post so it gets out attention. That way we don't have to read over every post after several pages. Thanks
 

TDR-94

Member
Joined
Mar 30, 2014
Messages
1,274
Hats off to the field engineers who deployed this new system. And THANK YOU for not ENC everything. We understand the need to protect some coms, but a clear effort not to ENC everything has been noted. I appreciate you guys/gals and what you do. Thank you, and be safe. :)

Just curious,what makes you think this will be the case going forward? If they are still in the radio testing phase then it's likely ENC will be more widely used after everything is ironed out.
 

signal500

K4DPS
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jul 9, 2004
Messages
565
Location
Florida
This morning I looked at some patterns and trends. In many cases the old analog frequencies were reused up in the ouput section of the band. In three cases, they were not...at least I have not heard anything yet. Why move and vacate frequencies you were once on?

Has anyone heard anything on any of these? :confused:

170.7750
171.0500
171.0750

Phil :cool:

Phil, the "gulf west" repeater cluster that covers southern Alabama on 170.4375 NAC 301 uses 171.075 NAC 325 for one of its input frequencies.
 

N1XDS

ÆS Ø
Joined
Nov 3, 2004
Messages
1,932
Picked up CBP Air Four 169.1625 NAC 293 with clear/encrypted communications in the Tampa Bay area.
 

BamaScan

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Nov 27, 2008
Messages
741
Location
15 miles from Florida Line in Alabama
Sorry to hear your leaving the RadioReference Group Phil (Aka Sofa King). Several of your post in the past have helped me find some new frequencies in my area. I hope you reconsider one day and comeback as another user name. So this post wont be deleted by ForumsManager or anyone else I need to post a frequency I hear a few coms on 170.4375 NAC 301. Mainly during daylight hours.
 
Last edited:

N1XDS

ÆS Ø
Joined
Nov 3, 2004
Messages
1,932
On the CBP 169.900 NAC 303 in the Tampa Bay area I noticed there is some encrypted, clear, also silent communications to where someone was keying up the microphone and nothing was heard and the dispatcher responded back. Yes, I do have all the programming settings right.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top