CA Dept of Fish & Wildlife Oat Mtn Site not there?

[Progline]

I've been getting bad interference on the DFW So Cal frequency (151.43) in my car (which I programmed with carrier squelch), and now that scanners have more channels available than needed, I want to program each DFW site to its own channel with the appropriate CTCSS tone. Since they encode CTCSS on the output, this should work. In doing some listening to confirm the sites in my area, it seems the listing for "Oat Mtn - 167.9 PL tone" is referred to over the air by the wardens as "TORREY". Torrey is listed in the DB as tone 162.2 however. In checking RR's "FCC Listings" page, there isnt a mention of an Oat Mtn site or license. So I'm guessing the Oat Mtn listing should be removed from the DB and Torrey's CTCSS tone switched to 167.9. Can anyone confirm this? I didn't want to submit a correction to the DB without some sort of confirmation as I'm not sure why Oat was included in the DB.

FWIW, I think Oat *should* be part of the system, as I've seen DFW trucks all over LA, including Downtown at the courthouses. Not sure what channel they would be using, I'd guess Blackjack or Santiago.

 

[LAflyer]

I'll do some more research in the coming days, but per a 2016 LA County document the frequency is listed as "Fish and Game KD3640" KD3640 is a Statewide license.
Another LA County document shows 151.43 as Fish & Game Dispatch Ch.2 with MPL (Ch 2G is shown as Oat PL167.9)

 

[Progline]

Thank you! Back in the day I used to hear them frequently on Blackjack (Catalina Isl) in the LA Basin, but have not recently. So far, here I've logged Hauser, Torrey, Santiago, Santa Ynez, and Sisar. (last 2 are pretty weak here, but PLs decode correctly).

KD3640, per the DB and FCC ULS website, is for mobiles only, on common state channels (DFW, CLEMARS, etc), not for repeaters or base stations, so this would be for simplex/talkaround use, I'd guess FCC Callsign KD3640 (CALIFORNIA, STATE OF)

 

[AM909]

It looks like West Torrey Hill is about 10 miles WNW of Oat, and might fill in the Fillmore/Piru/SR-126 valley a little better than Oat. Might it have been moved from Oat (i.e., was Torrey added to the DB later than Oat)?

 

[iscanvnc2]

At 1230 am this morning I heard SURCOM attempt a radio check with DFW 5210 over a 5 minute period with no response. Each time dispatch gave the site name and I noted the PL tones as follows.
Torrey 167.9
Black Jack 162.2
Santiago 156.7
These are per my monitoring over the past 30+ years here in Ventura. I have never heard reference to an “Oat” site though I’ve seen it listed in numerous sources.
If an Oat site existed I’m sure SURCOM would have tried to reach 5210 over it.
The DB lists Torrey as 162.2 which listening shows isn’t so. Also it makes no sense to have Black Jack and Torrey with the same 162.2 PL.

I agree with Progline.
To match the real world modify the DB as follows.
1. DELET the Oat Mountain site.
2. CHANGE the Torrey PL to 167.9

I also agree with AM909's analysis.

 

[AM909]

Yeah – I didn't think the co-toning of BlackJack with Torrey made sense either. There are plenty of tones available, and even shared tones with less likelihood of overlap.

In researching this, I checked the licensing for Santa Barbara/Inyo/Kern counties and the other seven counties south of them. This led me to a couple of county corrections, which I submitted. I also looked at the 8 office location licenses, which include 151.* FB bases and 159.* FX1 control stations. They all have the 151.43/159.42 pair, while 6 additionally have 151.415/159.435. I also see a third pair on 4 of them, suggesting there are repeaters out there on 151.4225/159.4275. Those bases/controls are:

Call	City	County
WQQB538	Bermuda Dunes	Riverside
WQQC748	Victorville	San Bernardino
WQTS781	Delano	Kern
WQYN699	Los Alamitos	Orange

However, search of 151.4225 in Kern, San Bdo, Riverside counties didn't turn up anything but those first three base/control licenses (i.e. no FB2s).

[P.S.] I looked at all the terminated/expired/cancelled licenses. Nothing was on Oat.

 

[AM909]

Found KMF909, which is for 15 temporary controls (FX1T), bases (FBT), and repeaters (FB2T), on all three pairs.

Found only one more, WQQD429, but I think this was a mistake, as it looks just like the other 3-pair ground-level FX1/FB office licenses with the exception of having FB2 instead of FB on 151.4225 (I'll report it to the state).

 

[iscanvnc2]

I went through all the FCC licences for 151.4225 for CA and found only one with FB2.

WQQD429 FB2/FX1 on 151.4225 /159.4275. FB/FX1 on other 2 pair.
The address is 17372 Brooktrout Drive, Friant, Fresno County which Googles to the San Joaquin Hatchery.

 

[AM909]

@iscanvnc2: See my post above yours.

 

[Progline]

Thank you for confirming AM909 & Iscan. Shall I go ahead and submit the correction for Oat Mtn & PL change for Torrey, or did you already do that AM909? I don't think I've ever submitted a correction before to the DB.

 

[AM909]

Might wait a bit. I might get some more info in a day or two.

 

[Progline]

I can also hear what is listed as TORO (107.2 tone), but very weak here. It's unusual that unlike the other repeaters, it has a VERY short, if non-existent squelch tail, so it almost sounds like simplex traffic. Has anyone else noticed this?

 

[Progline]

Thank you IscanVC & AM909. My research for this is done, and I've programmed my radios for the Correct CTCSS tones and alpha tags. Seems to be working OK.