Wondering About Federal Freq Book Availibility

[bobmich52]

Came Across A Old Federal Frequency Book Today.

From 1994 I Think.

It Is Titled"Top Secret" Registry Of US Government Radio Frequencys. 6th Edition

25-470 Mhz

By Tom Kneitel, K2AES Of CRB Research Commack New York.

It Has Everything In It.

Googled It To No Avail.

Obviously I Would Like To Get A More Updated Book. Might Anyone Be Aware Of This Company & How To Contact Them?

If Not, Where Can I Find A Book Etc Of Us Gov Freqs?

TIA

 

[ka3jjz]

Boy is that ever out of date. Last I heard, at the Winterfest, Tom's health is rather poor and is likely not doing much of anything these days insofar as publishing. With all the changes that have gone on in the federal realm - everything from the use of P25 (which at that time didn't exist) and LTR systems that cannot be tracked, to the new frequency allocations, a book - even the Grove Master Frequency directory on CD - will be, to one extent or another a bit dated. However, that's probably as close as you're going to get. There are also several mailing lists out there devoted to the subject (is Fedcom still around on qth.net- haven't looked in a while?) along with the Fedcom blog on MT. Those are likely to be, along with anything passed along here, the best sources of information.

73s Mike

 

[bobmich52]

Thanks Mike.

Yes, It Is Out Of Date, But I Have It In Front Of Me Now & By what Little I Have found Surfing The Net, It looks To Me That The FBI, SS, DEA, USMS Etc, Look To Somewhat Be Good Still, Gonna Plug In A Few In The Empty Bank Of My 796D & See What Flies.

Sorry To Hear About Tom.

The Book He wrote Is A Gem For Reference On Federal Freqs, 192 Pages, Very Good & Thorough, I Got It Out Of Scanner world Years Ago.

Am Catching Some Federal Talk In The 417 Band, 70/30 Encrypted.

Have Heard AF 1 & 2 When They are In My area, Nothing Special Though.

Thanks Again For The Help

 

[SCANdal]

Gentlemen,

1) The "latest" edition of Tom Kneitel's Registry of U.S. Governement Radio Frequencies would be the 8th, published by CRB Research Books in 1993. Best wishes in finding a copy.

b) Yes, FedCom is still an active Email List. Visit http://www.qth.net/ Click on "Directory of Email Lists" in the left column. Scroll down to and click on "FedCom" to review it's archives and join the list.

C) The direct link to the Monitoring Times sponsored fedfiles is http://mt-fedfiles.blogspot.com/

SCANdal

 

[bobmich52]

Thanks Scandal, Will Give it a look

 

[SCPD]

It hasn't been mentioned, and maybe you know already, that the unavailability of information about Federal government frequencies results from the decision made by President Reagan in 1981 that all frequencies used by the Federal government are classified. Those of us in the radio hobby could not believe that this was happening and could agree that perhaps the military, the FBI, and DEA should be classified but other agencies should not be. Many agencies published their frequency information, especially on the Internet, where much of it was in operating plans and similar. Post 9/11 has changed the situation and now you might find the same documents, but with the frequency information not being available to the public.

Grove published a book in 1980 that showed the location and agency of every federal frequency in use. It was somewhat difficult to use as the locations were abbreviated in a way that sometimes caused your head to spin when trying to figure it out. I still drag my copy out every once in a while when I don't have any other informed method of beginning an investigation of how a system is configured. It is being dragged out less and less as so many changes have occurred.

While the hunt has become more difficult, the ability to share the information among hobbyists is better so the situation has actually improved. In 1980, armed with Grove's book, we discovered things, but only had some magazines, and a few club newsletters to share information in. The delays and misinterpretations by editors of submitted data were problematic.

 

[bobmich52]

Yes, I Came across The Book Yesterday, Very detailed To Say The Least.

Programmed In Some FBI, DEA, USMS Etc In My Car.

Caught Some FBI Data Channel In The 163 Band This AM.

Book May Be Old That I Have, But It's A Start

 

[sigint1]

Robert Kelty still has some good books if you are in the California area - Scanners Unlimited in San Carlos carried them at one time - were put out under the "Government Radio Systems" title with different editions such as Federal Frequencies or Golden Gate ect - don't know if they still do have them

 

[ScanDaBands]

Feds are mostly digital now aren't they ??

 

[trashman43]

depends on your location

 

[iMONITOR]

Feds are mostly digital now aren't they ??

There is a mix in S.E. Michigan.

 

[SkipSanders]

What was 'top secret' about those books, at least in ole' Tom's hopes, was how worthless they mostly were, to anyone who didn't already KNOW a good deal about how the feds of that time operated, so they could unscramble the junk information from the occasional useful bits in those books.

None of them have very much use at all, now, as the Feds have gone through several rounds of 'refarming' of federal allocations since then, changing channel spacing and who is allocated for what frequencies so radically that little from those days can be used.

There are still bits, but again, mostly only handy if you've been through the intervening years and KNOW what things used to be like, and which agencies are still where they used to be, more or less.

If you happen across one, REAL cheap, sure, get it for interest, but don't figure on them being 'lists of accurate, or even semi-accurate, info' now.

 

[dave3825]

The "Top Secret" Registry of U.S. Government Radio Frequencies 8 th edition

Amazon,com says they have it new and used

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0939780208/strongsignalsres


This link has other books listed but they seem out of date

http://www.strongsignals.net/access/content/books.html

 

[kingpin]

I have the book. Bought it back in 1994 from Scanner World in NY. Was a great reference back then and some of the freguencies are still in use today here. Since it is out of print, I may end up PDF'ing some pages if anyone is interested in a few agencies out of it.

 

[bobmich52]

Yes Jason, It is The same one I Have, also From scannerworld.

A Gem For Federal Freq Reference Might you say?

Understandible Why The Gov Classified It To A Degree, Should Not Have Classified ALL OF THE GOV FREQS, But I Can Only Imagine If They Would EVER Publish Something Up To Date, Us Scanner Folks Would Be Drooling For Sure At listening To present/updated Freqs.

163mhz & Up Fbi around Here, 417/418 Mhz Gov, Do Not Get Near The City alot though, Heard some Traffic on Both

 

[P-3_Radio_Guy]

Kelty's Federal Frequencies

I think Bob Kelty still publishes his Federal Frequency Directory

You can contact Bob via snail mail, phone or FAX, he is not a believer in the internet.

Home: 408-269-5814
Fax: 408-269-5811

Address:
Mobile Radio Resources
1224 Madrona Avenue
San Jose, CA 95125-3547

Robert Kelty still has some good books if you are in the California area - Scanners Unlimited in San Carlos carried them at one time - were put out under the "Government Radio Systems" title with different editions such as Federal Frequencies or Golden Gate ect - don't know if they still do have them

 

[WayneH]

I think Bob Kelty still publishes his Federal Frequency Directory

He does. I just purchased the 2006 edition. Not a lot of P25 support. Seems like a lot of the info is out of date or has switched to digital. Still worth the price though.

 

[trentbob]

Crb Reasearch

...Greetings, sorry for the typo... it's CRB Research... I agree that 9/11 changed things with Fed. freqs. but as someone who bought everything Tom Kneitel put out from the late 60's on, his Fed. freq. books are worth owning if you can find one... he would publish "orange" 2 page listings from a small ad in science mags... anything he did regarding Fed. freqs has value.... I wish I still had stuff of his from the 60's and 70's.... Bob.

 

[scankid2591]

Robert Kelty still has some good books if you are in the California area - Scanners Unlimited in San Carlos carried them at one time - were put out under the "Government Radio Systems" title with different editions such as Federal Frequencies or Golden Gate ect - don't know if they still do have them

Yep, Scanners Unlimited still has them.

 

[trooperdude]

Yep, Scanners Unlimited still has them.

With federal narrowband re-farming they are less and less accurate unfortunately.