Waller/Grimes/Montgomery County Fire

[scanfan03]

I searched and couldn't find a thread for what channels to listen to the Riley Rd Fire. Can anyone tell me what channels they are using and which ones I might be able to hear from College Station? Since they took the West Walker County Tower down on the analog STAR-Net system I can't listen to it anymore. All I have up here is a VHF handheld, a UHF handheld and a STAR-Net handheld. I don't have my GRE-500 so I can't listen to P25 stuff either.

Thanks

 

[loner556]

Montgomery County TAC West at 154.740

 

[mfn002]

You won't be able to hear much about the fire up here (except for stuff related to it popping up occassionaly on Grimes County's fire channel). They are currently using the TxWARN P25 system (TGID 3624, which is Harris County Mutual Aid Ch. 7), so you're out of luck (even if you could listen to it, I've only heard it pop up once, very briefly on the local sites).

 

[nd5y]

You should probably be able to hear some TFS aircraft from that far away.
Check 121.675, 122.925, 135.675 (AM moode)
and 159.300, 151.385, 168.650, and the TFS repeaters in your area. If you aren't near a repeater listen on the inputs. You will still be able to hear aircraft.

See
Texas Forest Service Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference and
http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Texas Forest Service (TX)

 

[scanfan03]

Is there anything on the STAR-Net analog system? I've had some firefighters tell me that they were on Texas Forest Service 1, Texas Fire Mutual Aid 1 (Which I'm pretty sure is 154.28) and Texas Fire Mutual Aid 2. What frequency is the Texas Forest Service 1?

 

[nd5y]

The other day I heard a couple pilots getting 154.280 and 159.300 confused.
They were calling 154.280 and 159.300 both "Texas Forest Service 1" and finally figured out
154.280 was "Texas Forest Service Fire 1" and 159.300 was "Texas Forest Service Air 1".

I would recommend scanning all the TFS channel on the TFS database and wiki pages I linked to in my the post above, all the state and national interop channels, the NIRSC and federal interop channels linked on the wiki page and also searching the 162-174 federal band and the VHF air band.

They could have moved air-to-ground primay and secondary to new federal channels that nobody knows about. During the PK fire back in April the federal IMT came in and started using two new federal frequencies (166.9375 & 168.0125) that are not listed anywhere. They also set up 800 MHz interop repeaters and had the CAP flying a wide area repeater on 168.100.

There have also been out of area and out of state fire depts using their own home frequencies and bootleg frequencies in between valid part 90 allocations up here.

 

[loumaag]

I have been listening to this fire for the last 3 days. Just set up the MA channels from the TxWARN system, either or both, and listen away. Also, federal US Marshal Ch 1 (see Harris Co.) it is being used to coordinate Homeland Security resources. This is addition to the TFS and other channels listed by others above.

 

[mfn002]

You should probably be able to hear some TFS aircraft from that far away.
Check 121.675, 122.925, 135.675 (AM moode)
and 159.300, 151.385, 168.650, and the TFS repeaters in your area. If you aren't near a repeater listen on the inputs. You will still be able to hear aircraft.

See
Texas Forest Service Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference and
http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Texas Forest Service (TX)

I've had those channels in my 996XT since the Dyer Mill Fire back in June. Haven't heard a peep from them. So far, I haven't heard much related to the Magnolia fire (which is the official name of it) over here. I know that Harris County Mutual Aid Ch. 7 (on the TxWARN P25 system) is very active over in Huntsville. I think the traffic from Montgomery County Fire TAC WEST is being patched to that channel. For a while, they were also simulcasting on Harris County Mutual Aid Ch. 6 on the TxWARN analog system. However, when I was in Huntsville on Thursday, that channel was quiet.

Again, I only heard Harris County Mutual Aid 7 once around here.

EDIT: Spoke too soon. Montgomery County SO OPS 2 just came up. It appears that it's being used for law enforcement operations related to the fire.