SkipSanders
Silent Key
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2002
- Messages
- 1,059
While it varies by area of the country, federal law enforcement, for the most part, is encrypted now, and unmonitorable. That doesn't mean you can't get a sense of what's up, but you may find yourself infering actions by listening to other agencies, picking up stuff relayed to them, etc.
San Diego, for instance, is very heavily encrypted for all agencies. Has been since the Olympics came here, and the feds could use the excuse of that to spend tax dollars like water to encrypt everything.
'Frequencies' are also changing radically right now, so what was, a year ago, may not be, now. And may be different again, in a year. The feds are working on creating a nationwide VHF (mostly) trunking system for most all federal law enforcement to share. It'll be on whatever channels they come up with, in each area, in no way expect it to have 'standard' frequencies.
How do you find the Feds? You use search. You search from 162 to 174 MHz, on 12.5 KHz steps. You lock out (the BCD396T is EXCELLENT for this) anything not-a-fed that's also present. (birdies, foreign stations, whatever - Mexican stations SWARM in this area here in San Diego). You list what you hear. Most of it is probably encrypted. Every so often, a station will have a broken, or just 'didn't realize I had it off' system, and will be sending in clear. From those 'leaks', you work out who uses what. It takes time, and effort, and you're never 'done', because it's changing all the time. You do the same for 406-420 MHz. If you find trunking controllers, you use the available software to 'read' the data, and work out the systems.
Say you have the DEA UHF channels list. I do, and it's still officially 'in use'... but in fact, it's rarely used anymore. Why? Because routine fed comms these days are mostly on Nextel or equivilent phones. The feds love them. There is no easy 'list of frequencies to listen to', at least for now.
San Diego, for instance, is very heavily encrypted for all agencies. Has been since the Olympics came here, and the feds could use the excuse of that to spend tax dollars like water to encrypt everything.
'Frequencies' are also changing radically right now, so what was, a year ago, may not be, now. And may be different again, in a year. The feds are working on creating a nationwide VHF (mostly) trunking system for most all federal law enforcement to share. It'll be on whatever channels they come up with, in each area, in no way expect it to have 'standard' frequencies.
How do you find the Feds? You use search. You search from 162 to 174 MHz, on 12.5 KHz steps. You lock out (the BCD396T is EXCELLENT for this) anything not-a-fed that's also present. (birdies, foreign stations, whatever - Mexican stations SWARM in this area here in San Diego). You list what you hear. Most of it is probably encrypted. Every so often, a station will have a broken, or just 'didn't realize I had it off' system, and will be sending in clear. From those 'leaks', you work out who uses what. It takes time, and effort, and you're never 'done', because it's changing all the time. You do the same for 406-420 MHz. If you find trunking controllers, you use the available software to 'read' the data, and work out the systems.
Say you have the DEA UHF channels list. I do, and it's still officially 'in use'... but in fact, it's rarely used anymore. Why? Because routine fed comms these days are mostly on Nextel or equivilent phones. The feds love them. There is no easy 'list of frequencies to listen to', at least for now.
