High Park Fire

[aprswatcher]

High Park Fire air attack should be on 121.075 am.
Listen for freqs given out from air attack.
As always listen for National Flight Following of the airtankers on 168.65 nfm and 168.625 nfm for “Air Guard”
73, Rex

 

[natedawg1604]

High Park Fire air attack should be on 121.075 am.
Listen for freqs given out from air attack.
As always listen for National Flight Following of the airtankers on 168.65 nfm and 168.625 nfm for “Air Guard”
73, Rex

Who typically uses/monitors Air Guard on 168.625?

 

[KE0HIN]

Who typically uses/monitors Air Guard on 168.625?

I do or at least it's in the scanners, a great place to catch reassignments on occasion when tankers get pointed in multiple directions.
But you will hear like pueblo or fort Collins come up and do this also on larger fires sometimes the air Boss will "meet " tankers thereand give a SITREP before they switch to the A?A channels

 

[aprswatcher]

Sorry for the slow reply. I had to dig out some of my notes for the usage of the "Air Guard" frequency.
This is from NIFC guidelines.
Air Guard 168.625 nfm is defined as emergency communications for aviation.
Use of this frequency is limited to:
Emergency air to ground communications.
Emergency air to air communications
Initial call, recall, and re-direction of aircraft when no other contact frequency is available.

All aircraft assigned to an incident must have a radio configuration that includes the interagency Air Guard frequency.
Continuous monitoring of the Air Guard frequency is required by both aircraft and dispatch.

In all my years of monitoring "wildland fire frequencies" I have only heard it used a few times to "recall" aircraft.
Hope this helps out.
73, Rex

 

[ecps92]

Additionally to the other replies, the various ECC/ICC (Dispatch Centers) have remote access (some with multiple RX/TX sites) to monitor/Guard that frequency for operations.

Here are some examples/sites from Public Domain found documents
that I had worked into a Google Earth file

N38 46.7	W104 59.3	CO - Almagre	Pueblo IDC
N40 36.68	W105 19.40	CO - Buckhorn	Fort Colins IDC
N37 27.69	W108 30.94	CO - Delores	Durango IDC
N39 05.2	W108 13.3	CO - Lands End	Grand Junction IDC
N40 27 23.0	W106 44 23.0	CO - Mount Werner	Craig IDC
N38 50.8	W105 2.63	CO - Pikes Peak	Pueblo IDC
N37 15.72	W107 54.36	CO - Smelter	Durango IDC
N39 40.82	W105 29.66	CO - Squaw Mtn	Fort Colins IDC
N38 20.0	W107 38.00	CO - Storm King	Montrose IDC
N39 25.6	W107 22.5	CO - Sunlight	Grand Junction IDC
N37 29.58	W106 48.07	CO - Wolf Creek	Durango IDC
N37 33	W108 44	CO - Yellow Jacket	Durango IDC

Who typically uses/monitors Air Guard on 168.625?

 

[es93546]

Additionally to the other replies, the various ECC/ICC (Dispatch Centers) have remote access (some with multiple RX/TX sites) to monitor/Guard that frequency for operations.

Here are some examples/sites from Public Domain found documents
that I had worked into a Google Earth file

N38 46.7	W104 59.3	CO - Almagre	Pueblo IDC
N40 36.68	W105 19.40	CO - Buckhorn	Fort Colins IDC
N37 27.69	W108 30.94	CO - Delores	Durango IDC
N39 05.2	W108 13.3	CO - Lands End	Grand Junction IDC
N40 27 23.0	W106 44 23.0	CO - Mount Werner	Craig IDC
N38 50.8	W105 2.63	CO - Pikes Peak	Pueblo IDC
N37 15.72	W107 54.36	CO - Smelter	Durango IDC
N39 40.82	W105 29.66	CO - Squaw Mtn	Fort Colins IDC
N38 20.0	W107 38.00	CO - Storm King	Montrose IDC
N39 25.6	W107 22.5	CO - Sunlight	Grand Junction IDC
N37 29.58	W106 48.07	CO - Wolf Creek	Durango IDC
N37 33	W108 44	CO - Yellow Jacket	Durango IDC

Every wildland fire/natural resource management dispatch center monitors both Air Guard and National Flight Following at all times whenever it is in service. I have a document that shows 80-90% of the locations that remote bases for Air Guard and National flight Following are at. Maybe someday I can get all of this on some Wiki pages. By the way it is Fort Collins not Fort Colins. As for those 10-20% of dispatch centers without a location shown, those have the note "no location information submitted." I'm not sure why some don't provide NIFC with these locations.

Do you have more than the Colorado Air Guard remote bases on Google Earth? I would love to have that file if you care to share it.

 

[natedawg1604]

Every wildland fire/natural resource management dispatch center monitors both Air Guard and National Flight Following at all times whenever it is in service. I have a document that shows 80-90% of the locations that remote bases for Air Guard and National flight Following are at. Maybe someday I can get all of this on some Wiki pages. By the way it is Fort Collins not Fort Colins. As for those 10-20% of dispatch centers without a location shown, those have the note "no location information submitted." I'm not sure why some don't provide NIFC with these locations.

Do you have more than the Colorado Air Guard remote bases on Google Earth? I would love to have that file if you care to share it.

This is very interesting info. I've recently been monitoring several fires in Southern Colorado, I always monitor National and it's been very busy lately. A few weeks ago I programmed this Air Guard frequency in my radios, so far I've heard nothing on it. But given it's apparently monitored by a lot of centers I'll keep it permanently.

Does anyone know if Wildland aircraft have a separate radio that monitors 121.5, like a lot of regular aircraft do?

 

[es93546]

This is very interesting info. I've recently been monitoring several fires in Southern Colorado, I always monitor National and it's been very busy lately. A few weeks ago I programmed this Air Guard frequency in my radios, so far I've heard nothing on it. But given it's apparently monitored by a lot of centers I'll keep it permanently.

Does anyone know if Wildland aircraft have a separate radio that monitors 121.5, like a lot of regular aircraft do?

Air Guard has little radio traffic as it is a aircraft and ground crew emergency contact frequency. If an aircraft or a dispatch center cannot establish comm's on other frequencies, then Air Guard can be used by either. Once comm's have been established then both units can agree to continue on another frequency. That is why you don't hear much on it, especially since the installation of National Flight Following, where a lot of traffic that used to be on Air Guard is now carried.

I would imagine that separate 121.5 radios are in firefighting aircraft as well. Most firefighting aircraft are used for regular (non fire) assignments during the non fire season period and must have whatever is required for such. The only aircraft I'm not sure of is the air tankers. I don't think they get a lot of use other than for fire fighting. Someone who has worked for an air tanker contractor would know better than I. 121.5 is universal in its use, while National Air Guard is only used for firefighting/natural resource management purposes. I would imagine that firefighting aircraft turn off 121.5 if they pick up an emergency locator signal. Aircraft on fires have an unbelievable amount of radio traffic to deal with. The Air Tactical Group Supervisor (ATGS) or "Air Attack" keeps track of a unreal amount of radio traffic on many frequencies at once. I don't think they have any interest in 121.5 over a fire unless a crashed aircraft caused the fire or downed aircraft are near the fire.

 

[ArkTex]

As far as starting to listen to fires on Air Guard and the other groups of frequencies, how far do those signals usually reach on a normal day? I'm trying to find out if it would be worth it to program them into my scanner up here in Aurora.

 

[es93546]

As far as starting to listen to fires on Air Guard and the other groups of frequencies, how far do those signals usually reach on a normal day? I'm trying to find out if it would be worth it to program them into my scanner up here in Aurora.

It's all about location, both yours and the mountaintop that Air Guard and National Flight Following is being transmitted from. It's also about your antenna. If its inside you won't hear much. If it is on top of a building with good coax, LMR400 for example, you can make up for distance and topography. If you have ridges and mountains between you and the transmit site then you might not get anything. A good antenna, one that is built for the VHF-High band with that LMR400 coax will surprise you. I pick up traffic on 800 MHz 60 miles away with two passes in between using a VHF-High antenna. I pick up some repeaters to my west that I didn't thing would carry over the topography, but they boom in.

As far as location, are you in Aurora, Texas or Aurora, Colorado? If you are in Texas, you aren't going to pick up much as the dispatch center for the whole state, I believe, is dispatched from Lufkin. Since this is a Colorado thread, I guess you could be in Aurora, Colorado. You should be able to pick up the remote bases on the Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest out of Fort Collins. There are remote bases on Squaw Mtn. and Buckhorn Mtn. I don't recall where those are, but you might have reception from one of them.

VHF High is pretty stable, you don't usually get skip on them, but some occasional ducting might occur in the summer and I get some where I'm at as snowstorms reach the crest of the Sierra Nevada of California. Day in and day out though, what I gave you above will govern 98% of the time.

 

[ArkTex]

It's all about location, both yours and the mountaintop that Air Guard and National Flight Following is being transmitted from. It's also about your antenna. If its inside you won't hear much. If it is on top of a building with good coax, LMR400 for example, you can make up for distance and topography. If you have ridges and mountains between you and the transmit site then you might not get anything. A good antenna, one that is built for the VHF-High band with that LMR400 coax will surprise you. I pick up traffic on 800 MHz 60 miles away with two passes in between using a VHF-High antenna. I pick up some repeaters to my west that I didn't thing would carry over the topography, but they boom in.

As far as location, are you in Aurora, Texas or Aurora, Colorado? If you are in Texas, you aren't going to pick up much as the dispatch center for the whole state, I believe, is dispatched from Lufkin. Since this is a Colorado thread, I guess you could be in Aurora, Colorado. You should be able to pick up the remote bases on the Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest out of Fort Collins. There are remote bases on Squaw Mtn. and Buckhorn Mtn. I don't recall where those are, but you might have reception from one of them.

VHF High is pretty stable, you don't usually get skip on them, but some occasional ducting might occur in the summer and I get some where I'm at as snowstorms reach the crest of the Sierra Nevada of California. Day in and day out though, what I gave you above will govern 98% of the time.

I'm a dispatcher for the US Forest Service who works in Grand Junction. My start date is the 10th, and I'm in Aurora for the next couple days visiting family.