Department of Homeland Security flight

[EJB]

Hullo. Last night I came across an interesting plane. It was listed as Department of Homeland Security, a smallish plane that flew along the Canada/US border on the American side only. It was also a small plane, it flew low and slow, around 1500 feet.

It took off from Detroit and flew along the border to Lake Erie and then flew in circles.
I should say I saw this on ABS as well as flight radar. Com


I'm guessing it was your border police and looking for smugglers and criminal activity on Lake Erie. I was surprised because when I think of DHS they would be in larger planes.

I found some info about these planes and it makes sense to watch your borders but I was wondering if this plane, would it use 118-135 or the more military air frequencies 200 mgh and up.

I've heard planes when they leave Toronto airspace switch to Cleveland, should just run the scanners thru the normal air frequencies and hope to hear them when they are out here?

Im located in Hamilton and I am up high here in the lower city with a bunch of good antennas for Air frequencies.

Ty

E

 

[RaleighGuy]

@EJB these planes are very common not just for DHS but also DEA FBI and all the alphabet agencies. Often times the aircraft are registered to shell companies so you hopefully wouldn't know who they belonged too.

The freqs they use vary, but if they are talking to airports or ATC the they are usually on the VHF air band, if they are talking to other LE agencies it could be the statewide trunked system, or the agency channels (either civilian or gov't) .

 

[Saint]

I the past I have pick them up on
136.37500 CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION (CBP) AIR-TO-AIR/AIR-TO-BASE
168.83750 CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION AIR -1 HELICOPTER/MOHAWK P25 some time ENCRYPTED

 

[EJB]

@EJB these planes are very common not just for DHS but also DEA FBI and all the alphabet agencies. Often times the aircraft are registered to shell companies so you hopefully wouldn't know who they belonged too.

The freqs they use vary, but if they are talking to airports or ATC the they are usually on the VHF air band, if they are talking to other LE agencies it could be the statewide trunked system, or the agency channels (either civilian or gov't) .

Thank you for the info.