When I worked for the Feds, agents were not assigned portable radios. The GS and above were, but they usually just occupied space in their offices. We didn't get into our government cars and clear on the radio that we were in service and take radio calls. A simple majority of our government cars didn't have two way radios. If you needed a portable radio, you went to tech services and checked one out. We used landlines a lot and cell phones somewhat.
The great majority of our work came from other agency [city, county, state, and other Fed referrals] requests for research, intelligence, personnel, technical support, or to reach into places that they could not. One such search warrant took many months of office work, research, intelligence gathering/analysis/dissemination, etc. before we got into vehicles and drove across the state to do the op.
The only time we keyed up the repeaters was during search warrants, some surveillances [encrypted], or during other prior notice special actions.
CBP freqs near the ports of entry and along the southern border with Mexico are always busy. BLM LE are busy here too. I've never heard the Fish & Wildlife Service [they have an office here], or the USAFOSI [they used to have a detachment here]. The VA police are almost never heard here. The big three are all encrypted, but their repeaters do make telephone dialing/switching or other noises occasionally. A lot depends where you live and listen.
