Chad from Prescott will have a scanner set up in Flagstaff for the Kilbad and the Coconino National Forest Fire Crews and will have a scanner set up for Prescott and the Tonto Fire Crews sometime late next week or the week after that. Looks to be a very busy fire season. Thanks Chad
Northern National Forest Fire Feeds
- Thread starter thomasbillman1
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Usfs
Where did you fight fire at? Lets see I was in Oregon, NM, California, Nevada, and AZ. I was a sqaud boss, crew boss, engine boss, I fought fire for Mt Hood NF, Lincoln NF, El Dorado NF, Tyobe NF, then a fire lookout operator for Tonto NF and O yea I was and Asst engine forman for Crater lake NP, and a crew member for Elko BLM. I started fire in 1993 and retired in 2004. In the 80's I was a volunteer for NJ State Forest Fire.
Where did you fight fire at? Lets see I was in Oregon, NM, California, Nevada, and AZ. I was a sqaud boss, crew boss, engine boss, I fought fire for Mt Hood NF, Lincoln NF, El Dorado NF, Tyobe NF, then a fire lookout operator for Tonto NF and O yea I was and Asst engine forman for Crater lake NP, and a crew member for Elko BLM. I started fire in 1993 and retired in 2004. In the 80's I was a volunteer for NJ State Forest Fire.
I started on the Kaibab (old Chalendar RD now merged with the Williams RD) in 1974 as an FPT, then transferred to the Cibola (Magdalena RD) in New Mexico as a recreation and lands forester trainee, then transferred to the Toiyabe (Bridgeport RD) as Recreation and Lands Officer and then to the Inyo (Mammoth RD) as Frontcountry Recreation Supervisor. Although I only spent 4 years in fire management, I kept an interest in fire management, managing to retire with 108 fires on my fire log. The most memorable fire was the North Fork Fire at Yellowstone National Park in 1988 during that historic fire season. I supervised an Army fire crew for 5 weeks.
My fire qualifications did not start to grow until I left fire management. When I was on the Kaibab the district ranger always wanted me to stay on the district when everyone else left for large fires. I drove a Type VI engine on patrol and they would assign me a couple of blue card firefighters when an additional engine was needed on the district. I wanted more qualifications and off forest assignments but the ranger always said "we can always count on him (me) to hold down the fort when everyone else leaves." Crap!
I had the following positions on my red card at retirement: Crew Boss, Strike Team Leader - Crew, Resource Unit Leader, Situation Unit Leader, Fire Information Officer and Security. I told my FMO to drop Security from my card as I did not like the one and only assignment I had in that position - boring! Security is also the only time I worked in logistics, otherwise I worked in all the functions except finance and was darn near assigned to that on one fire because I knew a lot about time and attendance forms used prior to computers. I was qualified as a Claims Investigator but was never assigned to a large fire. Teams of claims investigators were sent to large fires when structural or other property damage occurred. I was also qualified as a Personnel Misconduct Investigator but was never sent to a fire for that, but completed two investigations for people in fire management.
I worked fires in Arizona, New Mexico, California, Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Those fires included National Forests, National Parks, BLM, Cal Fire, one on tribal lands (BIA) and a few on private land for initial attack to keep structure fires from spreading to wildland.
It sounds like you got around the three major wildland agencies, USFS, NPS and BLM. The only one I never worked with was the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They are very experienced with prescribed fire. I've never seen any of their engines or dozers on a fire I was assigned to. I've never worked on a NF with a National Wildlife Refuge nearby that had a fire workload to speak of. The Sevilleta and Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuges were fairly close to the Cibola, but neither had much of wildland fire workload as they were located in the desert.
Which lookout did you work on the Tonto? I've kicked around a bit on the Tonto, but never for work assignments.
Prescott is a good location for monitoring the Coconino, Kaibab, northern Tonto and Prescott National Forests. I'm very interested in listening to these Forests. If you can add the Arizona Game and Fish Department as well as the State Land Department it would be great. There is very little activity for the BLM in northern Arizona due to a lack of BLM land north of Cordes Junction, but the Aqua Fria National Monument is located south of there and programming the Phoenix BLM District's frequency may produce some activity.
I used to listen to the Coconino, Kaibab and Prescott National Forests when I lived in Flagstaff from 1972-1978. I had an old Regency crystal scanner that was not very sensitive and had to be tuned by a radio tech to cover the frequency range used by the Forest Service. It still had poor sensitivity but Mingus Mountain boomed in. I could not quite hear Grand Canyon National Park from Flagstaff. Our Kaibab radios only had two channels and one of them was for repeater use, of which we had none at the time. We didn't have an air to ground frequency, but what is now called Air Guard (168.625) was used for that and only the FMO had a radio with Air Guard in it. We had to have the dispatcher relay traffic from ground units to the aircraft. We didn't have any tactical frequencies either so we just used our one simplex forest net for that.
Forest
I worked in the humboldtfire lookout on the Tonto. My forst season I had 42 fires mostly from lightning. Chad Black from Flagstaff is the person that is setting up the feeds. The feeds cover all of Norhter AZ. This yr he is breaking the feeds up on several different scanners. Will know very shortly on the feeds.
I worked in the humboldtfire lookout on the Tonto. My forst season I had 42 fires mostly from lightning. Chad Black from Flagstaff is the person that is setting up the feeds. The feeds cover all of Norhter AZ. This yr he is breaking the feeds up on several different scanners. Will know very shortly on the feeds.
APSN556
Member
The scanner feed for Coconino and Kaibab is up and running. Bear with me the next few weeks as I remove frequencies that are not needed, and lockout those that break squelch with no voice. If you know of any active frequencies that are not being scanned, please send them to me. I have attached my WIN500 file that shows what is being scanned. Bank 20 is what you will need to open. Pay no attention to the other banks. Feedback encouraged, and sincerely welcome.The feed location is at Flagscanner.com and also here, on RR under Coconino County.
The second feed featuring Prescott, and Tonto will be up shortly.
The second feed featuring Prescott, and Tonto will be up shortly.
Thank you for providing this scanner feed! I can now listen to my old stomping grounds. The Forest Service's Southwestern Region is doing a great job with prescribed burn projects and letting some natural fires burn under prescriptions. The Kaibab and Gila NF's are some of the best forests in the country accomplishing these goals.
I have a few observations and suggestions. First, thank you for programming each frequency with audio boost. There is enough audio to set up a laptop in a room and have enough volume to hear it some distance away.
Thank you for sending out the file so the actual frequencies being scanned can be viewed.
I've looked it over quickly and might have additional comments later, but these are the ones that were obvious.
00166 Should be labeled as "CNF 1/3 South"
00169 Should be labeled as "CNF 2/4 North"
00170 Should be labeled as "KNF South"
00171 Should be labeled as "KNF North"
00173 Delete. This is an old Grand Canyon National Park frequency that is no longer used since the park is in the process of installing a digital simulcast system that includes law enforcement, fire, EMS, admin and tactical nets. The system is not quite complete as additional repeater sites have not been constructed yet, but are in the works. The new system will allow hearing the entire park from each repeater site, enhancing the scanner listener's experience.
I've noticed that the Coconino dispatcher has good volume at times and very low at other times. This may be that the south net is being received at a low volume and the north net is being received at full volume. I just listened to the morning report, which I assume is multicast on both nets and the scanner stopped on the north net at times and the south net at other times. That is just a guess as I can't tell what frequencies are being received.
I have a few observations and suggestions. First, thank you for programming each frequency with audio boost. There is enough audio to set up a laptop in a room and have enough volume to hear it some distance away.
Thank you for sending out the file so the actual frequencies being scanned can be viewed.
I've looked it over quickly and might have additional comments later, but these are the ones that were obvious.
00166 Should be labeled as "CNF 1/3 South"
00169 Should be labeled as "CNF 2/4 North"
00170 Should be labeled as "KNF South"
00171 Should be labeled as "KNF North"
00173 Delete. This is an old Grand Canyon National Park frequency that is no longer used since the park is in the process of installing a digital simulcast system that includes law enforcement, fire, EMS, admin and tactical nets. The system is not quite complete as additional repeater sites have not been constructed yet, but are in the works. The new system will allow hearing the entire park from each repeater site, enhancing the scanner listener's experience.
I've noticed that the Coconino dispatcher has good volume at times and very low at other times. This may be that the south net is being received at a low volume and the north net is being received at full volume. I just listened to the morning report, which I assume is multicast on both nets and the scanner stopped on the north net at times and the south net at other times. That is just a guess as I can't tell what frequencies are being received.
Tonto Feed
My Tonto feed is up and will be a temp feed for the summer. The feed should be up from 7 am to 7 pm. Chad will also be streaming the Tonto. He is at high elavation to where I am in the desert. I can pick up the Cave Creek and Mesa District very well to where Chad will pick up the northern half of the forest. Tonto is still has radio problems so comms can be scratchy at times, I will be playing around with frequencies over the next few days will try to get the state and BLM working out of Phoenix. I will be using the RR data base for my frequencies because I don't have the ability to open the radio comm plan from the Southwest Cordination Ctr. it is password protected.
My Tonto feed is up and will be a temp feed for the summer. The feed should be up from 7 am to 7 pm. Chad will also be streaming the Tonto. He is at high elavation to where I am in the desert. I can pick up the Cave Creek and Mesa District very well to where Chad will pick up the northern half of the forest. Tonto is still has radio problems so comms can be scratchy at times, I will be playing around with frequencies over the next few days will try to get the state and BLM working out of Phoenix. I will be using the RR data base for my frequencies because I don't have the ability to open the radio comm plan from the Southwest Cordination Ctr. it is password protected.
You put these feeds online just in time! There is a fire going on the Tonto and I think it is up on the north portion of the fire as they are referring to Sycamore Canyon and I remember a canyon with this name up near the Pine Mtn. Wilderness area near the boundary of the Prescott and the Tonto. The Southwest area is starting into their man caused fire season between spring and the monsoon.
EDIT: the incident has been named the Sunflower Fire. Here is a link to periodic reports:
http://www.wildlandfire.com/hotlist/showthread.php?p=110097#post110097
I'm also hearing traffic on VHF AM regarding the Maverick Fire.
ADDITION EDIT: the San Carlos Reservation has one called the Elwood Fire. No specifics on size, resources ordered or size.
EDIT: the incident has been named the Sunflower Fire. Here is a link to periodic reports:
http://www.wildlandfire.com/hotlist/showthread.php?p=110097#post110097
I'm also hearing traffic on VHF AM regarding the Maverick Fire.
ADDITION EDIT: the San Carlos Reservation has one called the Elwood Fire. No specifics on size, resources ordered or size.
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sunflower fire
I am streaming the fire the best I can.Air to air is a little scratchy at times. Air to ground in nice and clear as far as the plane talking to the IC , very little comms from fire ground. Phoenix is having radio problems as always. They keep calling on Mt Ord but it is showing up on the scanner as humboldt with a PL that is unknown. no wonder comms are screwed up.The pl should be 123.8 but showing up as 241.8, and it is bouncing off of Humboldt repeater.San Carlos comes in nice and clear.I took everything off of pl and put it on search this way any repeater being used will open the scanner. Fire size is about 300 plenty of room to grow with the hot temps .Its been a fight for air tankers, first they are getting them then thier not then they are , then thier, not then they are. Ok fire net 2 is showing up as pl 241.8 way off of what it should be.
I am streaming the fire the best I can.Air to air is a little scratchy at times. Air to ground in nice and clear as far as the plane talking to the IC , very little comms from fire ground. Phoenix is having radio problems as always. They keep calling on Mt Ord but it is showing up on the scanner as humboldt with a PL that is unknown. no wonder comms are screwed up.The pl should be 123.8 but showing up as 241.8, and it is bouncing off of Humboldt repeater.San Carlos comes in nice and clear.I took everything off of pl and put it on search this way any repeater being used will open the scanner. Fire size is about 300 plenty of room to grow with the hot temps .Its been a fight for air tankers, first they are getting them then thier not then they are , then thier, not then they are. Ok fire net 2 is showing up as pl 241.8 way off of what it should be.
For the last few months I have consistently seen 210.7 for Humboldt and 241.8 for Ord on all three freqs (164.8285/168.725/170.5)
Today on the Humboldt freqs the tech IDed the freqs as "Humboldt". During the Sunflower fire, the users calling Phoenix on the Ord freq IDed as "Ord" and it shows the CTCSS as listed above.
I believe they may have reworked the PL scheme when they did the narrow band update.I have not been able to verify the other sites to see if they have changed.
ecps92
Member
Sunflower fire
any update on frequencies please send me a text to 480-246-1229
any update on frequencies please send me a text to 480-246-1229
hpycmpr
Member
Exsmokey:
Steve
"00173 Delete. This is an old Grand Canyon National Park frequency that is no longer used since the park is in the process of installing a digital simulcast system that includes law enforcement, fire, EMS, admin and tactical nets. The system is not quite complete as additional repeater sites have not been constructed yet, but are in the works. The new system will allow hearing the entire park from each repeater site, enhancing the scanner listener's experience."
Actually it's one of the frequencies now used for the new GCNP systems, specifically fire net at Hopi Point. The new system is operational, with five nets multicast from three sites with more planned I believe. The downside is that law net is encrypted, but the others are in the clear. Great coverage of the park and beyond. I spent three nights there last month.
Steve
When the fire was listed on InciWeb I found that my estimate of location was way off. The fire is located near the old Beeline Highway in the vicinity of Sunflower. The name of the incident should have given me a clue but my knowledge of the landmarks has gotten a little fuzzy since I left Flagstaff 34 years ago.
As for the Tonto's radio system, there are a few forests that transmit a different tone on the input than the input tone. They are in the minority, but you run across them from time to time. The primary reason for the output tone is to enable the dispatcher's screen to distinguish what repeater in the field is being used. I'm not aware of any forest loading each frequency/tone combination in each field radio so that the mobiles and handhelds have the same way of distinguishing the repeater transmitting. It would take up too many channels.
Funding for all government agencies has been drastically reduced and natural resource agencies have never been blessed with enough money to sustain many programs except when their is a special project that is badly needed and gets the attention of a lot of congressional members. The worst is when a long term, powerful member has a pet project that isn't needed and can actually cause more problems for the agencies.
So I've noticed that radio systems are not built or maintained like they used to be and "used to be" was always a little marginal. Even though the Forest Service radio techs were dedicated to the agency and had a great deal of pride in their work the Bush administration forced the USFS to privatize this function, with contractors that cheated, not dedicated and were incompetent as well. In the end in most locations the contractors were fired and now there are far fewer techs on the ground, with one tech trying to service 2 or more National Forests. They are making a valiant effort but if you are asked to do more with less the eventual outcome is that you are supposed to do everything with nothing. Other resources and functions are deteriorating with the agency only able to choose where to slow down the decline while letting everything else go. I talk with many of my younger co-workers about the current state of affairs and they paint the picture I just shared. Sign of the times unfortunately.
Because of the obvious need to restore fire to fire dependent ecosystems, i.e. manage fire instead of try to control it, the fire management function has been hit the least. Fire management and law enforcement are paying more of their share for radio systems and dispatch centers, which are also important for all the other functions such as recreation, timber management, trails and road maintenance to mention a few. The ability to train, mentor, grow and retain employees has been drastically reduced. On certain fatal fire incidents lack of experience has been a major factor. The 30 Mile Fire in Washington several years ago is the most dramatic example of this. Oh well, there really isn't much that can be done, every public agency is experiencing the same effect.
As for the Tonto's radio system, there are a few forests that transmit a different tone on the input than the input tone. They are in the minority, but you run across them from time to time. The primary reason for the output tone is to enable the dispatcher's screen to distinguish what repeater in the field is being used. I'm not aware of any forest loading each frequency/tone combination in each field radio so that the mobiles and handhelds have the same way of distinguishing the repeater transmitting. It would take up too many channels.
Funding for all government agencies has been drastically reduced and natural resource agencies have never been blessed with enough money to sustain many programs except when their is a special project that is badly needed and gets the attention of a lot of congressional members. The worst is when a long term, powerful member has a pet project that isn't needed and can actually cause more problems for the agencies.
So I've noticed that radio systems are not built or maintained like they used to be and "used to be" was always a little marginal. Even though the Forest Service radio techs were dedicated to the agency and had a great deal of pride in their work the Bush administration forced the USFS to privatize this function, with contractors that cheated, not dedicated and were incompetent as well. In the end in most locations the contractors were fired and now there are far fewer techs on the ground, with one tech trying to service 2 or more National Forests. They are making a valiant effort but if you are asked to do more with less the eventual outcome is that you are supposed to do everything with nothing. Other resources and functions are deteriorating with the agency only able to choose where to slow down the decline while letting everything else go. I talk with many of my younger co-workers about the current state of affairs and they paint the picture I just shared. Sign of the times unfortunately.
Because of the obvious need to restore fire to fire dependent ecosystems, i.e. manage fire instead of try to control it, the fire management function has been hit the least. Fire management and law enforcement are paying more of their share for radio systems and dispatch centers, which are also important for all the other functions such as recreation, timber management, trails and road maintenance to mention a few. The ability to train, mentor, grow and retain employees has been drastically reduced. On certain fatal fire incidents lack of experience has been a major factor. The 30 Mile Fire in Washington several years ago is the most dramatic example of this. Oh well, there really isn't much that can be done, every public agency is experiencing the same effect.
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I did not mean to rant and politicize in my last post. The point was to explain some of what natural resource agencies (mostly the federal agencies that manage wildland fire) are going through. This will affect what you hear on their radio systems. I've always had the goal of using what I hear to help me understand the agency or business I'm listening to. I love radio, but I am also very curious about how organizations are structured and the people who work for them.
Prescott and the Coconino,
My scanner feed is up 24/7 any scanner feeds for the forest service going up this fire season 2013?
My scanner feed is up 24/7 any scanner feeds for the forest service going up this fire season 2013?
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