2020 Arizona Wildfires

[Paysonscanner]

The map of the BLM Arizona radio system shows Horsethief, Williams Mesa or White Tanks on the Phoenix District's north end and Smith on the CRD's Lake Havasu Field Office. I'm curious about the officer's radio identifier, did you catch that?

 

[radioprescott]

Great! The info I have doesn't show a "Horsethief" repeater on any of the BLM Colorado River District nets. Did you catch the name of the dispatch? I would assume Prescott as that center is shown for both the Colorado River District and Phoenix District. By the way, I've been back in Arizona for more than a year and a half, my pronunciation of "Prescott" has evolved from "Press Cot" back to "Pres cut."

Horsethief is in the PHD (near the Aqua Fria Monument), although they might be simulcasting. Its not likely I'll hear the CRD from here...White Tanks is my limit and its noisy.

I read somewhere there is a Regional Federal Dispatch Center....(similar to the San Bernardino center) that covers AZ and NM. I think the Prescott Fire Center just dispatches the local forest LE.

<edit> I didn't hear the ID as it was kinda a surprise to hear it at all ... just caught the tail end of the citation message and dispatch acknowledging same.

And its actually 'Preskit' like biskit

 

[p19997]

my pronunciation of "Prescott" has evolved from "Press Cot" back to "Pres cut."

Some natives even say "press kit."

 

[KB7MIB]

William Hickling Prescott, the man the town was named after, pronounced his name "Press Kit", so that is the proper pronunciation of the town name as well.

John
Peoria

 

[scullen223]

Here are all the active freqs I am hearing- fire is now pretty much outside my windows... I won't list the names of the Tacs/Intercrews, they are all listed elsewhere.
170.975- NIFC CMD-1 primary (but is being referred to as C10 or C11, I am getting a weaker repeater on 171.0875 repeating the same traffic, have not found this freq listed anywhere).
408.400- Logistics 1
166.6125 A/G-1 171.550 A/G-2
119.675, 127.775 AA
122.925 some AA but not much
TACS- 168.050, 168.200, 168.600,163.7125, 167.1375, 168.6125, 173.625, 168.250, 166.725
Flight Following 168.650
Hope that helps y'all around Tucson If you have anything else, let me know, also if this NIFC Command repeater on 171.0875 has been used elsewhere, and what site it is at here??

Just found a UHF link for the Bighorn Command freq 170.975- 411.400. I'm actually hearing the traffic better on UHF.

 

[radioprescott]

PHD-1111 CORDES FIRE 2020
120 Acres

Command 173.525 (PFD)
168.275 (BLM TAC 1)
AG 167.175 (AG34)
AA 134.175
TAC 168.5375 (BLM TAC 2)
TAC 168.275 (BLM TAC 1)
Structure 154.280 (AZFIRE28)
Crews chatting 166.6125

 

[waynedc]

John, can you check your command frequency and confirm?

Thank you, Wayne

PHD-1111 CORDES FIRE 2020
120 Acres

Command 173.525 (PFD)
168.275 (BLM TAC 1)
AG 167.175 (AG34)
AA 134.175
TAC 168.5375 (BLM TAC 2)
TAC 168.275 (BLM TAC 1)
Structure 154.280 (AZFIRE28)
Crews chatting 166.6125

 

[radioprescott]

OOPS Command is PNF on 173.925 (as their BLM repeater (172.525) is bad copy here.)

Ground ops are being run on BLM Tac 1 and 2.

Helitak crew comms setting up their bucket on 168.35; more crews on 173.6250 and 169.6875.

I'll let the recorder run overnight and see what else I can find.

 

[scullen223]

Yesterday I found a UHF link where I could hear the Command traffic from 170.975 on 411.400. I don't think I'm hearing all traffic on it, but when they give the morning report at 0630 I hear all contributors with a better signal than the VHF 170.975. Now I just found another link on 411.500 that is repeating all of the rotor vic traffic from 119.675. I've never seen this all the time I lived in SoCal, a UHF freq repeating AM Victor air to air traffic. This is pretty good for me, because now that the fire has moved to the east I can't hear the Helo's on the 119.675, but they are 5 bars on 411.500. Has this been heard elsewhere? Is this so someone far away in USFS can hear it or what is the reason?

 

[ecps92]

The UHF Links [you are hearing the Downlink] are used so a remote base Camp or Command Post running the operation can hear better and can also access other channels better.

ie: The UHF to the AirCraft AM, that remote site you are hearing is likely a SOLAR site on a mountain top, so they can hear/talk to both sides of the Mtn, where if they only talked from the Base Camp, the Aircraft might not hear them as well and they would not hear the A/C

Nice report, confirming which UHF is pair to the VHF or VHF-AM
Most of those UHF Links can be found at

National Incident Radio Support Cache - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

Yesterday I found a UHF link where I could hear the Command traffic from 170.975 on 411.400. I don't think I'm hearing all traffic on it, but when they give the morning report at 0630 I hear all contributors with a better signal than the VHF 170.975. Now I just found another link on 411.500 that is repeating all of the rotor vic traffic from 119.675. I've never seen this all the time I lived in SoCal, a UHF freq repeating AM Victor air to air traffic. This is pretty good for me, because now that the fire has moved to the east I can't hear the Helo's on the 119.675, but they are 5 bars on 411.500. Has this been heard elsewhere? Is this so someone far away in USFS can hear it or what is the reason?

 

[sanyoman]

I just looked through RR and I don't see any of these freqs. where is the source? Thanks I had no idea they had so many. Thx Scanner Jim KE7EEU

 

[cellphone]

I just looked through RR and I don't see any of these freqs. where is the source? Thanks I had no idea they had so many. Thx Scanner Jim KE7EEU

National NIFC Frequencies are here:

National Interagency Fire Center (United States) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference for National Interagency Fire Center (United States)

www.radioreference.com

Regional Frequencies are here (in NIFC section):

Arizona Federal (Arizona) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference for Arizona Federal (Arizona)

www.radioreference.com

 

[scullen223]

The UHF Links [you are hearing the Downlink] are used so a remote base Camp or Command Post running the operation can hear better and can also access other channels better.

ie: The UHF to the AirCraft AM, that remote site you are hearing is likely a SOLAR site on a mountain top, so they can hear/talk to both sides of the Mtn, where if they only talked from the Base Camp, the Aircraft might not hear them as well and they would not hear the A/C

Nice report, confirming which UHF is pair to the VHF or VHF-AM
Most of those UHF Links can be found at

National Incident Radio Support Cache - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

OK, Thanks, I figured that was the purpose, I have not seen that list before of the NIFC UHF links, I had no idea they had so many. More stuff to search for!

 

[sanyoman]

National NIFC Frequencies are here:

National Interagency Fire Center (United States) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference for National Interagency Fire Center (United States)

www.radioreference.com

Regional Frequencies are here (in NIFC section):

Arizona Federal (Arizona) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference for Arizona Federal (Arizona)

www.radioreference.com

Thank you!!

 

[ecps92]

They should also be in the RRDB under National

OK, Thanks, I figured that was the purpose, I have not seen that list before of the NIFC UHF links, I had no idea they had so many. More stuff to search for!

 

[radioprescott]

TNF-1830: Polles 2020

AG 166.825
AA 119.375

Look for freq changes if/when the Type 1 IMT comes in.

 

[radioprescott]

TNF-1830: Polles 2020

FREQ UPDATE

CMD 170.4250
CMD 170.4125
AG Primary 169.925
AG Secondary 167.0625
AA Air Attack 119.375
AA Bucket 124.275

 

[Paysonscanner]

As Payson noted, PL is generally being used on the output
Anyone actually monitor/confirm ?>

This is from the earlier portion of this thread. Somewhere in late Hubby's notebooks is a memo he obtained that all national incidents using the NIFC cache are to designate one Pl tone for the output of all temporary repeaters on a fire, or maybe the GACC assign it. I know it is used on the output of all the portable command repeaters. I don't remember if this applies to the tacs also. They are to draw from the national standard 16 tone list, which was originally standardized by the USFS, Cal Fire and the state Office of Emergency Services (OES). They could not have everyone using all sorts of tones using varied labels. They recently expanded the list to 32, but programmable tones in almost every handheld used on wildland fires are limited to 16. Those crazy people from California have done it again, using "necessity is the mother of all invention" rationale. An issue raised in the Yarnell Hill Fire investigation was "disparate tones." You would think every wildland fire agency in the nation fed/state/local would have immediately adopted the national standard, but the old "it's from California, so we won't use it" attitude comes into play, even when it makes sense. One non-standard tone I've seen used in USFS Region 3 is 179.9. Some other regions have forests that use this tone also. Some regions label these 16 tones differently too, the national standard for 100.0 is tone 9 and some regions/forests/BLM state offices, etc. label it as "Tone 1" because in frequency order this is the lowest frequency tone, then 103.5 becomes Tone 2 and so forth, while the national standard shows 103.5 as "Tone 8." As the Yarnell Fire investigation shows not having the same tones and the same labels can cause all manner of confusion, especially at the initial attack phase, prior to everyone getting their handhelds cloned. My late Hubby was devastated by the Granite Mtn. Hotshot crew event. He got mad about the disparate tone issue and made a bunch of notes on the printed copy of the investigation, which forms the basis for this post, I really don't know this stuff that well. I can relate to becoming a widow, and all those in that situation in the families of the crew members really hits me.

 

[Ravenfalls]

There is set of CTCSS PL tones & NAC.

In California we state the Tone # ie Tone 1, 2 past 10. Sometimes say site name. Seemed carry over to other agencies. Other cool feature, most repeaters had standard RX PL say 110.9. Never had issue with intermod. The input PL always change per site. Same RX tone stayed the same across all repeater sites.

My Harris had Fed PL table. Easy to munipulate a channel. Most people are stuck to a certain programming scheme with no FPP ability. Or they are not familiar with a local scheme coming from another area.

 

[Paysonscanner]

For many years the national forests we listened to from our Sierra Nevada foothill location stated the name of the repeater. This was true during the years the FS and CDF used burst tones. Several years after the CTCSS tones started to be used, they dropped naming the site entirely. CDF did the same. All we heard was "Sierra Engine 32, Tone 9," which replaced "Sierra, Engine 32 on Mt Givens." We heard the Sierra, the Stanislaus, Sequoia and El Dorado from home, at least some of their repeaters. It is shorter and for crews coming on a fire from out of the area who don't have a frequency guide with them, they don't know the tone of a named repeater. By hearing "Tone 9" they just turn the dial on their CTCSS box to 9 and start talking. Other Forest Service regions have not adopted this, I can hear things similar to "Show Low, Engine 622 on Promontory." Sometimes I hear something like "Show Low, Engine 622, on Promontory, Tone 1." It can be clearer and shorter than that!

I believe the Southern California forests were the first to use a tone on the output, due to the interference from unlicensed radios and repeaters in Mexico. Late Hubby and I were driving down south one time late at night and heard taxi cabs in Mexico on the San Bernardino NF forest net. After that Hubby reprogrammed the scanners to use an output tone. They all adopted and still use 103.5, Tone 8 on the output. A lot of forests away from SOCAL have the input tone carried through on the output. The Sierra has different tones on the output for each repeater. Example, 123.0 in, 88.5 out. I'm not sure of the logic. I'm told that the individual output tone for each repeater allows their system to identify a repeater when the signal is first transmitted, which then lights up a flashing box on their computer screen with that repeater named in the box. I have a contact in California that tells me this now. He has sent pictures of a dispatch console screen to me from an R5 forest dispatch.