I hadn't heard the service net of the Inyo in two or three years and wasn't sure if it was going to be used at all. Two weeks ago on a trip to southern California I heard a radio tech testing the net on Mazourka Peak located northeast of Independence. I was close enough to Bishop to hear the up and downlinks for Silver Peak, which is the hub of the service net. Two days ago I heard a tech testing the repeater on Bald Mountain located on the east side of U.S. 395 between Mammoth and June Lake. Here are the frequencies:
171.5000/172.4000 Repeaters
409.3875 Silver Peak downlink
418.3875 Silver Peak uplink from dispatch in Bishop
The Service Net used to have repeaters on June Mountain, Bald Mountain, Silver, Mazourka Peak with one planned for Olancha Peak so that the Kern Plateau would have coverage. I can only confirm Mazourka Peak and Bald Mtn. are working now.
Along with this net the Inyo National Forest has the North and South Forest Nets and the BLM Bishop Field Office Net. Repeaters on the BLM net include from north to south, Sweetwater, Potato, Silver and Cerro Gordo. This gives the Forest and BLM the option of using the Service Net and BLM Net for large incidents and take them of the Forest Nets. Although these options are available it seems as though the dispatcher keeps many large incidents on the Forest Nets. When I was working on the Inyo and the Forest Net would be restricted to fire traffic only I still had to communicate with the ranger station and my people in the field. I told everyone to switch to Service Net during these situations. That left me with no communications in the Reds Meadow/Devils Postpile area as there isn't a Service Net repeater on Mammoth Mountain. I felt that the Service Net net was underutilized.
I don't have any idea of what the downlink and uplink frequencies for the BLM net remote base on Silver. This net is used so little that the opportunity for a search has not happened since I found out what the BLM net frequencies are.
I think the Inyo does not have a national flight following base station (168.6500). I haven't heard anything on the Air Guard downlink (415.5500) for a couple of years and same with the Silver Peak remote base on 168.6250. 415.5500 used to be used on many forests around California. As of 2005 the feds were supposed to change to the new allocation on the UHF band but I think there are a lot of forests, parks and BLM districts that haven't complied yet. There haven't been any large incidents on the Inyo and BLM field office this year and use of these frequencies has been minimal.
I'm finding the sweeper function on my PSR-600's and 500 very useful. I will be able to find the up and downlinks easier now.
171.5000/172.4000 Repeaters
409.3875 Silver Peak downlink
418.3875 Silver Peak uplink from dispatch in Bishop
The Service Net used to have repeaters on June Mountain, Bald Mountain, Silver, Mazourka Peak with one planned for Olancha Peak so that the Kern Plateau would have coverage. I can only confirm Mazourka Peak and Bald Mtn. are working now.
Along with this net the Inyo National Forest has the North and South Forest Nets and the BLM Bishop Field Office Net. Repeaters on the BLM net include from north to south, Sweetwater, Potato, Silver and Cerro Gordo. This gives the Forest and BLM the option of using the Service Net and BLM Net for large incidents and take them of the Forest Nets. Although these options are available it seems as though the dispatcher keeps many large incidents on the Forest Nets. When I was working on the Inyo and the Forest Net would be restricted to fire traffic only I still had to communicate with the ranger station and my people in the field. I told everyone to switch to Service Net during these situations. That left me with no communications in the Reds Meadow/Devils Postpile area as there isn't a Service Net repeater on Mammoth Mountain. I felt that the Service Net net was underutilized.
I don't have any idea of what the downlink and uplink frequencies for the BLM net remote base on Silver. This net is used so little that the opportunity for a search has not happened since I found out what the BLM net frequencies are.
I think the Inyo does not have a national flight following base station (168.6500). I haven't heard anything on the Air Guard downlink (415.5500) for a couple of years and same with the Silver Peak remote base on 168.6250. 415.5500 used to be used on many forests around California. As of 2005 the feds were supposed to change to the new allocation on the UHF band but I think there are a lot of forests, parks and BLM districts that haven't complied yet. There haven't been any large incidents on the Inyo and BLM field office this year and use of these frequencies has been minimal.
I'm finding the sweeper function on my PSR-600's and 500 very useful. I will be able to find the up and downlinks easier now.