Inyo National Forest Service Net

Status
Not open for further replies.

SCPD

QRT
Joined
Feb 24, 2001
Messages
0
Location
Virginia
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.
 

SCPD

QRT
Joined
Feb 24, 2001
Messages
0
Location
Virginia
Is the BLM Bishop Field Office net the same as what our Fire Radios have labeled BLM OVY net?

The BLM OVD or OVY net and the topic of this thread, the Inyo NF Service net, are different. The Inyo National Forest and the BLM Bishop Field Office (FO) use each other's nets. The fire management function of each agency is merged so there is only one fire management officer in charge of this combined organization. This reflects in the use of the radio nets. The Inyo NF Forest Net is used by both agencies for day to day fire and administrative comms. The BLM net is used mainly for command functions on large incidents. The Inyo NF Service net can be used in a similar manner, or as intended, used for ordering and tracking resources and for other logistical type needs.

The BLM Bishop FO net frequency is 169.7125. Repeaters are located on Sweetwater Peak near the junction of U.S. 395/State 108, Potato Peak east of Bridgeport, Silver Peak northeast of Bishop and Cerro Gordo Peak southeast of Lone Pine. With this number of repeaters it covers quite a bit of the Inyo National Forest as well as most of the Bishop FO area.

The BLM net and the Inyo NF's Service Net are very infrequently used giving the interagency comm center in Bishop two options to move incidents or admin traffic to another net for the duration of an incident. When I worked on the Inyo NF I would move recreation traffic over to service net for some purposes for a limited amount of time. Sometimes we would have long detailed conversations about visitor management or the details of repairing a facility where we would not want to tie up the forest net. Sometimes the forest net was busy with multiple fire starts during lightning storms and we needed a clear net for our use. As field supervisor I was in the only position in recreation management on the Mammoth Ranger District authorized for a cell phone and it was to be used for communications in management above me.

What agency do you work for that has radios with the Bishop FO net in it?
 
Last edited:

ecps92

Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2002
Messages
14,358
Location
Taxachusetts
ExSmokey, what about Potato Peak ? for Bishop.

I had a list, sometime ago [found on the net] that showed 4 Repeaters
the 3 already listed and then Potato [or is that a duplicate of one of the other 3]

The BLM OVD or OVY net and the topic of this thread, the Inyo NF Service net, are different. The Inyo National Forest and the BLM Bishop Field Office (FO) use each other's nets. The fire management function of each agency is merged so there is only one fire management officer in charge of this combined organization. This reflects in the use of the radio nets. The Inyo NF Forest Net is used by both agencies for day to day fire and administrative comms. The BLM net is used mainly for command functions on large incidents. The Inyo NF Service net can be used in a similar manner, or as intended, used for ordering and tracking resources and for other logistical type needs.

The BLM Bishop FO net frequency is 169.7125. Repeaters are located on Sweetwater Peak near the junction of U.S. 395/State 108, Potato Peak east of Bridgeport, Silver Peak northeast of Bishop and Cerro Gordo Peak southeast of Lone Pine. With this number of repeaters it covers quite a bit of the Inyo National Forest as well as most of the Bishop FO area.

The BLM net and the Inyo NF's Service Net are very infrequently used giving the interagency comm center in Bishop two options to move incidents or admin traffic to another net for the duration of an incident. When I worked on the Inyo NF I would move recreation traffic over to service net for some purposes for a limited amount of time. Sometimes we would have long detailed conversations about visitor management or the details of repairing a facility where we would not want to tie up the forest net. Sometimes the forest net was busy with multiple fire starts during lightning storms and we needed a clear net for our use. As field supervisor I was in the only position in recreation management on the Mammoth Ranger District authorized for a cell phone and it was to be used for communications in management above me.

What agency do you work for that has radios with the Bishop FO net in it?
 

SCPD

QRT
Joined
Feb 24, 2001
Messages
0
Location
Virginia
ExSmokey, what about Potato Peak ? for Bishop.

I had a list, sometime ago [found on the net] that showed 4 Repeaters
the 3 already listed and then Potato [or is that a duplicate of one of the other 3]

Bill, my post did list 4 repeaters on the Bishop FO net, including Potato. See the second sentence in the second paragraph in my post.
 

SCPD

QRT
Joined
Feb 24, 2001
Messages
0
Location
Virginia
https://docs.google.com/open?id=1Tsi6vo4I2seJkPyfzSlMgMkOV1mvFssUW41hxf00NQ8NUQUsLFmpmENSJaAW

This is the 2011 coop agreement with the Paradise FD. It shows 166.875 - 169.7125 for BLM. I just looked at the Radio Reference database and could only find "166.875 - BLM Carson City NV 2ndary air to ground". ???????

You are correct. I either did not submit my information to the database or it was somehow deleted. You are correct that there was a conflict with the Sierra Front Air to Ground used in 2010. That frequency has since been changed to 166.6875. I've had a very challenging 2 1/2 years and have not been able to keep up with database submissions when I come across information. It may be another couple of months or until winter before I can.

169.7125 is the repeater output. I don't have my information with me that would show the input frequency. The coop agreement you link to shows information from 2010 and the BLM repeater system for the Bishop Field Office, Central California District had extensive work performed on it last year.

I may be able to find the input frequency later today.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top