2020 Arizona Wildfires

[Paysonscanner]

do you have a stream going for the forest service up there?

No, but I'm thinking about it. We don't have a computer to dedicate to a scanner. We are thinking about getting an SDS-200. We could then hook up our PSR-600 for streaming. We are talking about several thousand dollars and we are all on retirement incomes. There are very few online scanners, if any, that have the USFS, NPS and BLM in them.

 

[Paysonscanner]

the coc averages about 120 non staff camp fires burning a year, am shock that they dont get more fires.

The Coconino and Kaibab NF's get a lot of man caused fires when compared with the number of visitors they get. The ratio of man caused per visitor is much lower on most NF's in California that get a lot more visitation than the AZ forests.

 

[Paysonscanner]

yes non stat, I have been a wildland fire fighter from 1981 to 2016!

Dad here again. How about being a fire fighter from 1941 to 1987? We used HF radio when I started. We would tie a rock to the end of a copper antenna and threw over a high tree branch. Then we turned a dial to get the frequency. We were also maintaining phone lines to the lookouts. You would try to get a horse that let you stand on the saddle to reach some of the lines. My daughter and her brothers weren't even the sparkle in my eyes then!

 

[N9JIG]

All: Upon request from a couple members I have merged the several Wildfire threads and Stickied it so it appears at the top of the thread. This way we can all coordinate our discussions.

Thanks to all participants!

 

[KD7JVRinAZ]

No, but I'm thinking about it. We don't have a computer to dedicate to a scanner. We are thinking about getting an SDS-200. We could then hook up our PSR-600 for streaming. We are talking about several thousand dollars and we are all on retirement incomes. There are very few online scanners, if any, that have the USFS, NPS and BLM in them.

I have an extra computer, thought about providing a feed for all the Natural Resource Fire agencies around Scottsdale including TNF

 

[Paysonscanner]

All: Upon request from a couple members I have merged the several Wildfire threads and Stickied it so it appears at the top of the thread. This way we can all coordinate our discussions.

Thanks to all participants!

Thank you, it makes sense. Everybody is listening to the same thing with all having common characteristics.

If you are listening to the Tonto NF, Daddy has been tracking resources assigned from California, specifically prevention patrols. These are units with a utility bed and a small pump unit and tank, generally about 75-100 gallons. The R5 units can be distinguished by the emergency light bar on the top of the cab. So far the Tonto has several patrol units from the these national forests, the Sierra, Angeles and San Bernardino. The Sequoia has sent a patrol to the Coconino and they just filled a resource order for the Prescott, it isn't clear what that order was for. The Los Padres and one other forest Daddy can't remember has sent patrols to the San Juan and the Pike-San Isabel National Forests in Colorado. These units patrol and contact visitors for fire prevention and any other regulations that need enforcing. This use of R5 patrols in May and June has occurred for decades. They are very helpful as they come from forests with a ton of visitation, are permanent year long employees and are very experienced. You might hear them, as we have, using identifiers such as "ANF Patrol 15" or "SNF Patrol 53." Sometimes they will pronounce the full forest name and say "Angeles Patrol 15.'

 

[KD7JVRinAZ]

Thank you, it makes sense. Everybody is listening to the same thing with all having common characteristics.

If you are listening to the Tonto NF, Daddy has been tracking resources assigned from California, specifically prevention patrols. These are units with a utility bed and a small pump unit and tank, generally about 75-100 gallons. The R5 units can be distinguished by the emergency light bar on the top of the cab. So far the Tonto has several patrol units from the these national forests, the Sierra, Angeles and San Bernardino. The Sequoia has sent a patrol to the Coconino and they just filled a resource order for the Prescott, it isn't clear what that order was for. The Los Padres and one other forest Daddy can't remember has sent patrols to the San Juan and the Pike-San Isabel National Forests in Colorado. These units patrol and contact visitors for fire prevention and any other regulations that need enforcing. This use of R5 patrols in May and June has occurred for decades. They are very helpful as they come from forests with a ton of visitation, are permanent year long employees and are very experienced. You might hear them, as we have, using identifiers such as "ANF Patrol 15" or "SNF Patrol 53." Sometimes they will pronounce the full forest name and say "Angeles Patrol 15.'

Something I thought intresting, I just heard what I would assume is a fire patrol get on the AZ Game and Fish channel needing info on turkey season. Apparently TNF ran into some hunters w/o licenses

 

[Paysonscanner]

I have an extra computer, thought about providing a feed for all the Natural Resource Fire agencies around Scottsdale including TNF

That would be helpful. You should be able to hear some southern Prescott and possibly the Coronado when they are using their repeater located on top of the Mt. Lemmon. That all depends on location as well as the antenna and coax used. You would also hear BLM traffic for their Phoenix District, dispatched by Prescott. The Arizona Dept. of Game and Fish transmits statewide traffic on a number of repeaters, I find them interesting to listen to. Daddy and I can't figure out which repeaters they multicast from. I need to take a hike to a place that two of these repeaters cover and hear two repeaters battling each other. The Arizona Dept. of Forestry and Fire Management has been beefing up the agency since the Yarnell Hill tragedy. Listening to them is interesting, although I became accustomed to Cal Fire for 40 years in California and they are super active.

 

[KD7JVRinAZ]

That would be helpful. You should be able to hear some southern Prescott and possibly the Coronado when they are using their repeater located on top of the Mt. Lemmon. That all depends on location as well as the antenna and coax used. You would also hear BLM traffic for their Phoenix District, dispatched by Prescott. The Arizona Dept. of Game and Fish transmits statewide traffic on a number of repeaters, I find them interesting to listen to. Daddy and I can't figure out which repeaters they multicast from. I need to take a hike to a place that two of these repeaters cover and hear two repeaters battling each other. The Arizona Dept. of Forestry and Fire Management has been beefing up the agency since the Yarnell Hill tragedy. Listening to them is interesting, although I became accustomed to Cal Fire for 40 years in California and they are super active.

When I lived over and every time I visit I love listening to CalFire

 

[cellphone]

Tucson Zone 3 Primary Air to Air 135.625 and Air to Ground 166.9625 are active today. Something going on around the Tucson area today?

 

[KB7MIB]

I could have sworn that several years ago (many years ago?), I could listen to US Fish and Wildlife units on 164.6250 I think it was from other areas of the state (Colorado River?) here in Phoenix. But if they were linking repeaters back then, they seemed to have stopped the practice for some reason.

I seem to recall once the USFWS patrolling a waterway and coming upon either a brush fire along the shoreline, or a boat fire close to shore. It was too many years ago to recall exactly.

John
Peoria

 

[KD7JVRinAZ]

I also have some pretty active A2G traffic on Ag32 166.9625 & common air tanker base 123.975,out of Flag

From what I gather the TUS Traffic might be a range fire on state land somewhere south of Florence. ADFFM 2 151.475. Sound like Hotshots from Goldfield are enroute. I believe they're calling this "Range Fire"

 

[Foresigt]

It's a fire on the National Guard shooting range north of Florence.

 

[Paysonscanner]

Tucson Zone 3 Primary Air to Air 135.625 and Air to Ground 166.9625 are active today. Something going on around the Tucson area today?

That confirms our listings, great.

 

[Paysonscanner]

It's a fire on the National Guard shooting range north of Florence.

The Tuscon Interagency Dispatch Center shows an entry that they handed the fire over to the Arizona (state) IDC. That dispatch center shows a fire of 750 acres with a location of "General Tose Machine Gun Range." The name is correct, "Range."

 

[Paysonscanner]

I could have sworn that several years ago (many years ago?), I could listen to US Fish and Wildlife units on 164.6250 I think it was from other areas of the state (Colorado River?) here in Phoenix. But if they were linking repeaters back then, they seemed to have stopped the practice for some reason.

I seem to recall once the USFWS patrolling a waterway and coming upon either a brush fire along the shoreline, or a boat fire close to shore. It was too many years ago to recall exactly.

John
Peoria

That is interesting. My Dad's guess is the traffic was coming from a repeater on top of the Kofa Range on the north end of the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge. It's a great place for a repeater, not only for the Kofa NWR, but for the lower Colorado River too. Considering the mild topography between the Kofa Range and Phoenix Daddy and I are not surprised that repeater could be heard in Phoenix. 164.6250 was used at about 70-80% of the refuges at one time. Since the new NTIA band allocation for 1/1/19 I don't know the current frequency. It is really tough to get info for them as interagency frequency guides often don't list the USFWS.

The BLM's Colorado River District and the National Wildlife Refuges on the Colorado River in Arizona are dispatched by the Prescott Interagency Dispatch Center. That center shows two patrol/fire boats as USFWS resources, one assigned to the Imperial National Wildlife Refuge and one assigned to the Bill Williams National Wildlife Refuge. This puts one boat on each side of Parker Dam, so they can be used on the other NWR's along the river. Daddy has a collection of photos on his hard disk and found the picture below. I wonder what the pressure and gpm is of that monitor. The BLM also has two boats assigned on the Colorado River District that look similar.



The USFWS, in the past 5 years or so, has standardized their resource designators so that the first number is the USFWS region. Arizona is in Region 2. I will see if I can post a USFWS regional map.

Oh, before that I have a picture of one of the BLM's boats.



Now the regional map:



I hope this all helps! Oh, only two more days of May. The peak of the fire season in AZ/NM is June. Here is link to a map that will show the existing 1000 hour fuel moisture. These are fuels of 3"-6" diameter. These are the fuels that release the most energy, while also being quite "flashy" (quick to burn). It takes 41.7 days for these fuels to reach equilibrium with the moisture levels around them, so it takes a lot of moisture and time to get these fuels wet. For reference 12%, depending on the wood species, is the moisture level of kiln dried lumber from a mill. So anything below that is very dry fuel.

National 1000 Hour Fuel Moisture as of 5/30/20

 

[Paysonscanner]

Oops, I just checked the Prescott Dispatch resource status page that shows the 2 USFWS boats at Imperial NWR. It shows 3 BLM boats, 2 in Yuma and 1 for the Kingman Field Office. Usually, each agency has a boat on Lake Havasu as the visitation there on the water is, let's just say it, intense.

 

[clover509]

Have MCSO 'Fox-2' (N977MS) talking with N95LF on 123.025 MHZ orbiting over the NE corner of Cave Creek Regional Park.

N95LF passed that "all air will be on 126.325" (AZ 06 Air-to-Air Tertiary), then had 'Fox-2' and 95LF continue brief comms there.

Now have unknown assets calling air attack on A/G 61, 169.2875 MHz.

 

[KD7JVRinAZ]

Have MCSO 'Fox-2' (N977MS) talking with N95LF on 123.025 MHZ orbiting over the NE corner of Cave Creek Regional Park.

N95LF passed that "all air will be on 126.325" (AZ 06 Air-to-Air Tertiary), then had 'Fox-2' and 95LF continue brief comms there.

Now have unknown assets calling air attack on A/G 61, 169.2875 MHz.

I'm hearing A2G in that area on 169.2875 (AG61) like you said And A2A on 126.325

 

[clover509]

AZ Department of Forestry and Fire Management on 'Command' (154.9650 MHz, PL 103.5) just passed a "second rotor victor" to air attack of 123.850 (AZ 06 Air-to-Air Secondary).

Multiple air assets working the fire to include the VLAT, SEATs and at least one helo at this time.

AZ DFFM also passed the incident name as the 'Ocotillo Fire'.