Military Low VHF Comms are active!

[ra7850]

Where is mancow, he needs to read what others are doing with their COM201Bs. Otherwise I will be checking VHF lowband from Texas tomorrow. I think I have three COM201s left, a new show unit not to be used, a pretty user unit not to get dirty and one on my roof getting rained on right now. I don’t have the vehicular version. Yet.

On my roof mounted unit I replaced the top eye bolt with a short whip and it shifted the freq range down slightly to cover CB.

Any chance you'd sell one of them?

 

[prcguy]

Any chance you'd sell one of them?

Maybe, would have to think about it.

 

[merlin]

I'm a bit disappointed with my XG-100M low band. I have it stuffed with lots of mil channels and only one has what looks to be ALE. And it is weak.
Sucks being stuck between 33 and 48 Mhz.
Maybe time to dig out the old WJ9026 and get it working again. I know it will work well.

 

[prcguy]

I'm a bit disappointed with my XG-100M low band. I have it stuffed with lots of mil channels and only one has what looks to be ALE. And it is weak.
Sucks being stuck between 33 and 48 Mhz.
Maybe time to dig out the old WJ9026 and get it working again. I know it will work well.

I’m time to sell that piece of junk to me.

 

[ra7850]

Maybe, would have to think about it.

Let me know.

 

[spacellamaman]

I didn't see a recent thread for just this topic so here goes. I have a dedicated IC-R7100 scanner and a mil surplus low VHF antenna. I'm sure you've heard of the good skip in the Ham 10 Meter band and the CB 11 meter band. It's also a good time for Mil Low VHF skip too!

Almost every day I hear Range Control at Fort Bragg, North Carolina on 38.90 MHz FM and almost as often hear Fort Hood ,Texas on 30.45 FM
Locally you can catch Camp Pendleton on 30.350 FM and Los Alamitos on 41.50 FM talking to helos.


Here is the list I use to help to ID some transmissions.
30.100 Army National Guard at ALB. UH-60's, Albany, New York
30.300 Los Alamitos ARNG ground units Calif
30.350 Camp Pendleton Range Control Calif (active)
30.450 Ft. Hood Texas, range operations (active)
31.200 heard by Iden in NorCal 2/24/23
32.050 Yuma range control, Texas, RAPTOR Net
32.150 66RQS HH-60, Nellis
32.350 34WPS HH-60, Nellis
32.450 66WPS A-10, Nellis
32.650 66WPS A-10, Nellis
32.675 Unknown
32.700 BYS Range Control, Nellis & Fort Irwin North Range Control Calif
32.750 Medic Net, Texas
32.850 66WPS A-10, Nellis
34.050 66RQS HH-60, Nellis
34.100 R-2501 FAC-JTAC-TACP, Nellis and Sacramento Mather airfield C/1-168th base ops Calif
34.200 Range Control, Camp Bullis TX
34.850 Los Alamitos helo base ops Calif (active)
36.525 NTC Desert South (Old?)
36.600 Unknown
36.700 NTC Command Post (Old?)
36.775 Los Alamitos 1-140th tac Calif
36.800 NTC ROZ 1 (Old?) and Army Helos, Texas
36.900 Martindale Army Heliport Ops, San Antonio, Texas
38.200 Camp San Luis Obispo range control Calif
38.475 NTC Dustoff (Old?)
38.500 Bearmat, Ft Irwin Rng Sfty bckup, 29 Palms rng cntrl, Ft Chaffee Rng Cntrl, R-2501 Grnd Scndry
38.600 NTC Coyote Metro (Old?)
38.675 Unknown (active)
38.900 Ft. Bragg (verified 2/2023) Ft Irwin Bicycle Lake Medevac/Rnge Cntrl, Cmp Roberts range control, BYS Desert Radio, Nellis
40.150 422TES A-10, Nellis
40.350 Camp Pendleton, LongRifle Ground Safety Net, Calif
40.500 Mil Common | SAR
40.600 Helos, Texas
40.800 Red Flag CRWO, Nellis
40.825 Yuma range control, Arizona
41.000 NTC Desert South
41.050 Fort Hunter Liggett range control Calif
41.450 422TES A-10, Nellis
41.500 Army Aviation and NTC ROZ 1, possibly Los Alamitos (active with helos)
41.650 NTC Desert North
41.700 NXP Ground, Nellis
41.950 Bearmat, Ft Irwin Rng Sfty, 29 Palms rnge cntrl, 422TES A-10, Nellis/R-2501 Grnd Pri, Nellis
46.700 B/2916th AVN UH-60A, Nellis
46.750 Fort Bragg, range operations, verified 2/2023
46.775 549CTS Green Flag West, Nellis
46.800 29 Palms range safety Calif
46.850 549CTS Green Flag West, Nellis
47.000 NTC Crash/Rescue (Old?)
48.450 BYS Fire Control, Nellis
49.000 Stockton airport B/1-126th base ops Calif
60.300 BYS Metro, Nellis
61.200 NTC Desert Radio
62.300 BYS Metro, Nellis
62.850 Army Aviation
65.050 National Guard Helos Calif
66.100 R-2502 AIC 'Desert Radio', Nellis
66.300 NTC Desert Radio
71.300 NTC Helipad

My USMC surplus COM-120B antenna, painted gray.
View attachment 138249


Jim
Orange County, Calif.

I see you are logging 60's and 70's, what is your search range topping out at? like 30-76? or 30-88?

 

[W4KRR]

With regard to the frequency list in post #1: Do these frequencies use the common military PL tone of 150.0Hz?

I have read in the low band skip forum that a scanner programmed with the PL tone 151.4 will open for military comms that use the non standard PL of 150.0Hz. Most scanners will not permit entering non standard tones.

 

[prcguy]

With regard to the frequency list in post #1: Do these frequencies use the common military PL tone of 150.0Hz?

I have read in the low band skip forum that a scanner programmed with the PL tone 151.4 will open for military comms that use the non standard PL of 150.0Hz. Most scanners will not permit entering non standard tones.

If its US military it will have 150Hz tone and in my experience a receiver set to 151.4Hz will not reliably decode.

 

[ra7850]

Maybe, would have to think about it.

Let me know. Thanks,

Robert

 

[Teotwaki]

I see you are logging 60's and 70's, what is your search range topping out at? like 30-76? or 30-88?

The list is what has been identified/received at least somewhere by somebody. Sometimes I hear other freqs given out but so far nothing higher than what's listed. When I search I use the spectrum display on the 8600 to watch for activity.

 

[Teotwaki]

With regard to the frequency list in post #1: Do these frequencies use the common military PL tone of 150.0Hz?

I have read in the low band skip forum that a scanner programmed with the PL tone 151.4 will open for military comms that use the non standard PL of 150.0Hz. Most scanners will not permit entering non standard tones.

Even if PL decode for 150 Hz was available I wouldn't use it when I am looking for new frequencies.

 

[W4KRR]

Even if PL decode for 150 Hz was available I wouldn't use it when I am looking for new frequencies.

I agree that this is not the best way to look for new frequencies. Except when I attempt to scan a large group of VHF low band frequencies without tones, I constantly have to lock out frequencies that have noise or other interference which stops the scanning. And no matter how many I lock out, it always seems that there are more and more.

 

[prcguy]

I agree that this is not the best way to look for new frequencies. Except when I attempt to scan a large group of VHF low band frequencies without tones, I constantly have to lock out frequencies that have noise or other interference which stops the scanning. And no matter how many I lock out, it always seems that there are more and more.

I think you will miss a lot of mil traffic with 151.4Hz tone squelch on. Older mil radios had higher deviation like 15KHz voice and 3KHz tone where the tone would come through distorted and probably had more of a chance to fool a 151.4 decoder. Newer mil radios are closer to 5KHz voice and about 1.5KHz tone deviation and less able to false a 151.4Hz decoder.

 

[vagrant]

I often use an SDR with a 10 MHz waterfall spread, but it is easier at 5 MHz. At times it is like playing Whack-A-Mole when pouncing on a frequency.

There is a thread on RR showing where an SDR was used along with a plug-in for a program that scanned significant mil air bandwidth in just a few seconds. I cannot remember if it used a tone squelch as well as adjusting the step.

 

[mancow]

I often use an SDR with a 10 MHz waterfall spread, but it is easier at 5 MHz. At times it is like playing Whack-A-Mole when pouncing on a frequency.

There is a thread on RR showing where an SDR was used along with a plug-in for a program that scanned significant mil air bandwidth in just a few seconds. I cannot remember if it used a tone squelch as well as adjusting the step.

That sounds like my thread and no it didn't use a tone.

 

[spacellamaman]

The list is what has been identified/received at least somewhere by somebody. Sometimes I hear other freqs given out but so far nothing higher than what's listed. When I search I use the spectrum display on the 8600 to watch for activity.

Ok so just for clarification, that list isn't a result of an incremental step search then, just a guide that you use. As you are tracking down activity via the display, you haven't been receiving or noting activity above 71.3 then?

Sorry just wanting to make sure I am following. Thanks.

 

[MacX1993M]

I agree that this is not the best way to look for new frequencies. Except when I attempt to scan a large group of VHF low band frequencies without tones, I constantly have to lock out frequencies that have noise or other interference which stops the scanning. And no matter how many I lock out, it always seems that there are more and more.

Oh man that’s so frustrating. I’ve been leaving my scanner in my car when I work all day. Sometimes I come back to gold other times its hours of noise - hangs on a Noisy channel the entire day when I don’t have time to check.

 

[W4KRR]

Oh man that’s so frustrating. I’ve been leaving my scanner in my car when I work all day. Sometimes I come back to gold other times its hours of noise - hangs on a Noisy channel the entire day when I don’t have time to check.

Exactly. I use ProScan to search and log hits. I leave it running sometimes for over a day; it's frustrating to check it only to find out it was stuck on a single frequency for hours with only noise.

 

[mancow]

If you expand the SC box at the top right of the screen there are tools to help prevent this. You can set timers that bump the the radio to the next frequency and lock it out of you like.

 

[W4KRR]

If you expand the SC box at the top right of the screen there are tools to help prevent this. You can set timers that bump the the radio to the next frequency and lock it out of you like.

Thanks; I'll check that out.